Thanks for reminding us about the article, bluespiral. the article also had links to other sites for further reading. I first learned about juglone on Dave's garden! Before that, I blamed the shade for my dead backyard planting efforts.
Seed Swap and Chat #47 Waiting for seeds
Regarding drainage materials in the bottom of pots and containers...
The old idea that putting a layer of rocks, gravel, pot shards, etc in the bottom of pots will increase drainage has been proven false and actually has the opposite effect. In a pot filled with one soil mix, the perched water table (soggy area of the soil) will be in the area at the bottom of the pot. If you put a layer of gravel in the bottom, then the water has trouble moving from the small particle layer to the large particle layer and it ends up moving the perched water table to above the level of the gravel and higher into the container. This leaves less area in the soil that will be well drained and hospitable for roots.
It seems like this has been known for some time, but I've just heard about it the last few years. I've heard the "rocks in the bottom helps drainage" myth most of my life though. I guess the myth spreads better than the truth! :)
Check out this link:
http://www.sustainable-gardening.com/tips/containerdrain.html
wind, I'm so sorry about your kitties. That's just awful to lose two fur-babies at about the same time.
Mechelle, sending prayers for you and your son. I hope his condition improves soon!
Thank you Danita, I hadn't heard that before. Lots of other good tips on that link, also.
In this case, I was filling the bumpy parts of the 2 liter bottles for wintersown seeds to make my potting soil last for more bottles. It seemed like "wasted space" although plant roots could grow into there. Sorry to take up so much space on this thread with my soda bottles and nuts. Hope the info was helpful to other newbies.
If you don't use drainage materials in your pots (wintersown or otherwise) any tips for containing the soil? I have used cut and folded pieces of plastic onion bags over large holed pot bottoms to keep soil/pebbles from escaping.
I've used pieces of landscape fabric in large pots with large holes. In smaller pots with smaller holes I don't usually use anything. I've tried to use a cut open piece of old pantyhose before, but it kept rolling up!
I've not done winter sowing yet so I can't comment on that. I wonder if a coffee filter would last for a few months? It would fit nicely in a soda bottle.
This message was edited Jan 6, 2010 2:47 AM
Coffee filters are a good idea. I have tried cut muslin in pots, but it caused the water to drain too slowly. I have been using pieces of bath puff lately. I am a loofa girl - hate the feeling of synthetics.
Got another one of those puff things in a gift basket, a sparkly one with lurex and silver stars. Bella the cat thinks it is the best toy ever! Even more fun than my shiny Sulky machine embroidery thread (which hides in a locked drawer...the late Liquorice cat would open drawers to get my metal sewing bobbins to play with - at 3 am, tangling the thread around the furniture then rolling the bobbin in the bathtub until the racket woke me up, hence the cabinet with locked drawers for sewing stuff...keeps the scissors from the bf too)
Burlap works well to contain soil, but not as drain stopping as muslin. I'll have to read that link on the stones though! I've been going through an elaborate system of clay pot piece over hole, stones in bottom, and burlap over that, then soil in all my pots for years!
GQ -- how big of holes are you 'drilling' in you 2ltr containers?
granted, i've only Ws'ed 3 yrs [this is my 4th] but i've never had soil fall thru the bottom holes.
I will admit, when i use those 'nursery' pot, with the huge round holes... i've put newspaper in the bottoms... i figure, that will biodegrade in time. Last year was the first time i used old nursery pots.... the larger ones had much bigger drain holes in the bottom... so i put paper down there. but never for any recycled WS containers where i had to punch holes.
I use papertowels in the bottom of mine to keep the soil in. I haven't ws anything yet, so this is my first year.
When is the best time?? The end of Feb.?
in your zone, i would think earlier... but hopefully other "southerners" will chime in... I know some Texans are sowing madly.
You can pop on over to the WS forum... theres a current thread where peeps are posting what they are up to.... lemme get the direct link.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1065142/
I wanted to get a look at the jugs.They are cut around the center
and leave a piece by the handle to open to plant seeds and water? Right?
So I got a couple of days to get the jugs ready and filled with soil.
flowers are going to be first....yipeee!
here is how i normally do my milk jugs.
Thank YOU. That is what I was trying to figure out.
Got it now. Root crops 7-11, seed beds 9-11, flowers 7,8, 28,29.
Transplant 9-11 are my almanac dates to plant.
For those with questions about winter sowing... you can check here... browse the threads and the sticky... LOADS of information http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/coldsow/all/
I'll be starting a new thread... gimme a min or two.
New thread....
come on over .... waddle this way ---- > http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1067409/
I am not worried about losing dirt in my winter sowing containers -mostly 2 liter bottles. I thought I should use something in the bottom part. I guess I don't have to. I use mesh or muslin for flower pots to keep things tidier. I couldn't find burlap here, so I used things I had on hand.
klstuart, your system sounds like it is working. Why change?
True, I'm wondering if maybe water retention is a good thing in my case. Sure does get awful hot here in the summer. Pots have to be watered twice a day.
Awe Wind, I'm so sorry to hear about your kittys :-( I have a bunch of animals... Every one of them has been a part of our family for a long time now...
I hope that Mechelle's boy makes a fast recovery and that she knows we are all pulling for her and her son. I couldn't imagine being in that position. It must be completely heartbreaking. Sending my thoughts and strength...
Critter... My daughter will turn 3 in a couple of months. Last year was the most fun she had with my plants. I would plant them and as soon as I turned around, she yanked them out of the ground one by one.... pop, pop, pop, pop... plants flying over her sholder as she went down the row. She'd give me a smirk and then giggle and turn and run. I'd hurry over to my poor little plants and plop them back in for fear of them drying out or something... prop their little necks up with a little extra dirt because they were just catapulted by a giggling toddler and patted them back into place... Then I would hear it again... The sound of that same angelic looking baby ripping out another row :) And we played that game for the WHOLE summer, lol! I'm hoping for a good planting season next year... FINALLY ;)
How many plants survived?? That is cute.
I can just see her running and popping and laughing.
K, sounds like your pots need slower drainage so that you get a break! I got two self watering windowboxes and planted them without drainage materials. They were good for leaf lettuce. I started them in the front yard, and moved them in the shady back yard when it got hotter. Self watering pots might make your life a little easier.
I do have one large self watering. It's wonderful! But, I've got a drip system set up for the rest, or most of them anyway. That's when I really started getting into gardening after I set up my system, and realized that that's all I really needed to keep plants alive was consistent watering... which I wasn't managing on my own apparently! All my neighbors swear they have 'black thumbs'. Don't believe me when I say all it takes is water! (of course, it's even better with knowledge, good suppliers, fertilizer, a few enablers and tlc, but water was definitely the main ingredient) Oh, and I read Critter's article on watersorb crystals last year. Put them in all of my pots which is a big help too!
Yep. Everybody asks what I do to make my plants grow so well. I say, "I water them." They give me disbelieving looks -- "I water mine! and it's nowhere near as big as yours." I say, "Well, how often do you water them?" "At least twice a week!" (for a plant sitting on a sunny patio) ummm...
my neighbor... who has a bizzillion pots all over the place... when i first got the "Crystals" i printed out the information and told her they would be prefect for her.... she literally waters twice daily... and she wonders why she has a HUGE water bill in the summer. BUT -- I've finally got her interested in WS'ing... so she will save her DH cash that way... lets see if she actually does it this year. I told her to have me come over to show her.
Ha! I had a drip irrigation system, for all the pots on the deck, but the new dog tore it to bits (twice) last summer. Does she like dog toys? Nope, just pvc, and siding, and the odd wooden rocking chair.
Dont forget to move on to the next thread.... http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1067409/
Guys, a couple months ago I got a virus so bad I had to take it to a repair shop. $150 later I am still trying to straighten out my files.
Yup, I had AVG, Ad-aware, and Spybot, Firefox browser and Windows XP, and still got it so bad. I tried restoring and everything. He told me to get Norton, but after hearing what you all had to say about them I don't think I want them.
I had spent a couple hours with mi tech support too. My daughter told me not to get Norton. She is coming over later this month and she thinks she can fix it for me. Will be interesting to see what she puts on it for viruses. I am taking a chance right now with nothing.
I got a laptop before Christmas and am not very pleased with it. She is going to put the new Windows 7 on it, hoping it will clear up some of my problems.
Good grief, what we go thru.
Jeanette
Jnette. You may want to look into eset NOD (not free but sometimes has free trial). Google "virus software review" or and check sites like cnet and zdnet. I am running XP on older hardware. From what the bf says, computer guys prefer windows 7 to windows vista. If you know what the name of your virus is, search it on google. Sometimes there are special removers or manual things to do. Sometimes reinstalling the operating system helps. Hope your daughter gets your machine working better. It is so frustrating when they don't work.
If your laptop is that new, try to exchange/return it. There could be something wrong with the memory (a free program memtest checks that ) or the processor. That would save you a lot of hassle. When/if you get the new one, IMMEDIATELY back up the entire setup (it should have instructions) that way, you could start over "as new" if this happens again.
Thanks GQ. I don't remember the name of the virus. It was last summer. And, if I did remember it I would be afraid to even type it in 'cause I might get it again. It was a really bad one world wide. Even Snopes said that. Surprised I haven't heard of more people getting it. But then I am sure people just do what I did, either fix it yourself or have someone else wipe your hard drive. So frustrating.
My laptop and the desk computer do not talk to each other. So, I can't even use my printer with the laptop. `When I was on with tech support he told me to call the router people and have them check it. Guess I should do that. Maybe that is a big part of my problem.
I used to be able to figure out a lot of my problems with electrical etc. because most are common sense. However since the inception of computers I am finding my common sense doesn't have anything to do with anything any more. LOL
Maybe it is my age. Getting too old and my common sense is out to lunch. ALL the time.
I live in southeast Texas and tickseedand daisies can reseed themselves. Take some of the dry seeds and sow were you want them for next year. Now is the time to sow them on top of the ground.
I even had 3 Doubleheaded Tickseed. Pictured on identifying weeds.
I do tend to do that with a lot different 'heavy reseeders'.
some I dont even collect the seeds anymore... just sprinkle them.