Specialty Gardening: determining range of container size, 1 by michaelangelo

michaelangelo wrote:
Again, thanks to all of you for so much good advice and I hope it keeps coming (and that there are others out there who are benefiting from it too).

Below are a couple of ideas that seem to be working well for me so I thought I’d share them (instead of always being the one asking for help); please forgive if these are things that everyone already knows to do (or maybe knows better than to). They're just a couple of things I've recently discovered and hope someone of you might find them helpful.

MIXING CONTAINER MEDIA: The past couple of years I've mixed ingredients in a large tub or used a lidded 5 gallon container which I turned and rolled, but I don't think the mixing was all that good and with the open tub there was always so much peat and perlite dust to breathe. This year I tried using a tightly closed "tall size" plastic kitchen trash bag (about 1/2 full), rolling and kneading it on a large work table. I think the mixing was actually very good because of the way the perlite was so well distributed, and there was virtually no dust to breathe.

AN INEXPENSIVE WAY TO MAKE TEMPORARY SPACE FOR TOO MANY YOUNG PLANTS WAITING FOR THE WEATHER TO WARM:

Pic #1 (in case you aren't familiar with what PVC looks like)
Pic #2 inside
Pic #3 Covered with plastic sheeting
Pic #4 With heat lamps on

With the weather still too cold, I needed some expanded indoor storage space after potting up seedlings, so I made my own double-decker shelf very easily and cheaply. I went to Home Depot and picked up a few 10 foot lengths of 5/8” PVC (plastic plumbing pipe) and some elbow and “T” connectors -- I think the whole frame cost me under five dollars. (I already had the lights, of course.) Then I used three sheets of corrugated cardboard for each shelf (putting the cardboard’s fluting in alternating directions) and set my plastic trays on the the cardboard shelves. One could also use (lightweight) 1/4" plywood — or whatever will safely span the horizontal pipes without sagging too badly or collapsing. Then I suspended four florescent light fixtures, two for each self, from the horizontal pipes.

This might be particularly useful for someone without a workshop, tools, or much workbench experience because all you really need is a hacksaw with a blade for cutting plastic. The cuts don't have to be perfect and if you use a little lubricant you can get them all the way in and turn them more easily to adjust the angles. (If you fit the pieces together tightly (pounding them in) you don't need to glue them and can then take the frame apart for easier storage when you're done with it for the season.

It's not real pretty to look at but I only had it in the house for about a month, then easily moved it to the garage (it only weighs about 5 pounds) where I’m now using it at night when the temperature forecast is too low to risk leaving the plants in the portable greenhouse outside.

Once I moved it to the garage, along with the fluorescent lights (I removed the upper deck because didn’t need it anymore) I covered the frame with plastic sheeting. I move them to the greenhouse on warmer days but they get an extra boost of florescent light in the evening, once they're back in the garage for the night.

And last, on the nights when even the garage is risky, I got two inexpensive halogen worklights from the local nox store ($7.00 each) which get VERY hot. I CAREFULLY suspended them inside the sheeted frame and found that leaving them on for only about 30 minutes will bring the temperature into the high 70's when the garage temp is in fact only 50. I've used hot water jugs in the past but this is a LOT easier and you can just turn them back on if you want to give them more of a boost without having to refill jugs and such. BUT...

While none of the material is exactly flammable (more like meltable) I NEVER LEAVW THE LGHTS ON unless I’m are right there in the garage. I just find other things in the garage to putz with while I'm waiting to warm up the plants.

Sorry this post is so long, but I'll assume if you weren't finding it interesting or useful, you stopped reading paragraphs ago.