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Ozark Lady
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1862
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:28 pm
Location: NW Arkansas, USA zone 7A elevation 1561 feet

Gallon jugs, have many uses!

I shared this photo on another forum, and it occurred to me that I had not shared this idea with you all.

I reuse plastic gallon jugs constantly. I don't care for sodas, and when in town and need a drink, I go buy a gallon jug of water. It costs about the same as a small bottle, and is normally fairly cool to drink. Anyhow, I have a use for those jugs, and not the bottles, so I am buying garden products along with my drink.

In this photo you will see my water jugs, I have removed the bottoms of these, and used the bottoms to be drip trays under other plants.

If you notice, one is still upside down over a plant, as a cloche, that plant got damaged during transplant, so I was trying to save it. The others had already gotten out of their cloches.

As I removed the cloches, I sat and looked at them. I decided, hmmm, bottles to feed my 'babies'. So, without the lids, I turned them upside down, filled them with manure/bedding that hadn't aged past the weed phase, but I needed it already, so I figured the jugs would allow feeding and yet control the weed seeds.

Good idea! Good theory! I kept the jugs a good 6" away from the plants to not burn roots, or drown plants etc. I buried them to the handle, to conserve water! I mulched to suppress weeds, this bed had been weedcity about 2 weeks earlier.

It worked, and it worked really well. I watered the entire bed, and then I filled the jugs, they would slowly feed the plants, and since the plant roots were not thirsty, no burning! Then, I started having wilting issues. If I didn't water the garden they wilted, only the ones with feeders wilted!
Spoiled brats! So, after a good rain, I am still having to water? Odd!

I decided to remove the feeders, the plants were large enough, and I could simply side dress them. Nope, the roots had grown into the containers! That is why the wilt! The roots only had the bit of soil in the containers! Okay, fine, I was far away, so there had to be other roots, I then and there put the plants on a diet. I decreased the amount of water in the jugs on schedule, and started side dressing. It worked, the wilt stopped. But, I never could remove the jugs, they stayed with the plants all season, covered over by leaves. This year, I will put caps on those jugs, or maybe even line the jugs with something the roots can't get through, any ideas?
[img]https://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww281/Ozark_Lady/Tobacco/100_1468.jpg[/img]


The cages are just chicken wire and pvc woven through it, totally movable, to where ever I have fresh plants that need the chickens to leave them in peace!

Yep, the feeders were definitely good at growing grass, which I mowed with my trusty scissors, until the plants shaded them and stopped the grass from growing.
[img]https://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww281/Ozark_Lady/Tobacco/100_1773.jpg[/img]

Joyfirst
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Posts: 361
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2010 6:45 pm
Location: Southern California

I used bottles too, but just for a few days to give gentler transition to my transplants.

The Helpful Gardener
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Posts: 7491
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
Location: Colchester, CT

Nice reuse, OL!

Funny about the rooting issue. Makes me think tough love might be the better approach. Put 'em in and let 'em tough it out...

HG



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