Stacker pots, pole system and part pictures.

This is my first time doing this. I was a little harder than I thought. But solid as a rock when its done.
There are probably others who have tried many ways and now use the best way.

This is what I did...

I was going to use the conduit pipe in the electrical aisle, but the outside of the pipe diameter was 1".
The opening in the stackers are 1 5/16ths.
I thought that the 1" might be too thin.

An ouside diameter of 1 1/4 would be perfect to use!

So I went to the Fence post aisle.
I bought a pipe the exact diameter of the opening.

Image is of my first struggle. There is a slight ridge left in the plastic from when they made the hole.
I put the pipe into 1 stacker and banged it on the ground so the pipe would clean out the hole.
Repeat with each stacker level.

This message was edited Apr 10, 2009 4:21 PM

These are the parts that I bought at home Depot.

10' 6" galvanized fence rail. 1 5/16ths in diameter. $8.97
rail end cap - $1.39 You dont need this. The pipe is galvanized. I just wanted it.
pole clamp - $1.94 (I dont know what these are really called.)

If you can find a pipe with the ouside diameter of 1 1/4" would be perfect to use!

This message was edited Apr 10, 2009 4:22 PM

Next step is to cut the pipe.
I cut mine at 7' long. If you have loose soil, you may want it longer so you can put it into the ground deeper.
My thought was 18" in ground.
18" under the bottom pot.
and 4' for the 6 levels of stackers.
On my next ones, I will cut it a few inches longer to the rail cap sticks out the top more.

Markings on pipe at 18", then at 17" because the clamp is the final 1".

This message was edited Apr 10, 2009 1:26 PM

attach clamp on and tighten.


You would put the pipe in the ground now.

I didnt, because I wanted to see the whole thing come together.
I will post the rest of the pics, but just pretend that I filled each layer with soil first then added each one to the pole.
Hint, Hint. I used vaseline, inside the hole of each level, to help them slide onto the pole.

They are all done.
Here is where I put them.

I am fortunate enough that have all this Georgia red clay cement (came free with the house).
So when I put this in the ground 18", I would probably need a truck to pull it out.
If you have looser or sandy soil, you may have cut the pipe longer so you can sink more into the ground.

1

Very nice, Chris. I just picked up my boxes from the PO yesterday. I am now waiting for my coir to get here so I can get them planted. Thank you again for the co op!

Thanks, I am so tired now, the thought of taking them apart is killing me. LOL
I think thats going to be tomorrows project. Take apart, fill, plant and put back together.

Question for anybody: How much coir would I have to order to fill the whole stack?

what do you do if you have rock instead of clay?? LOL

BobaBob has said that it takes 1 1/4 blocks (5 kg) of coir to fill the 6 levels.

Uhhmmm, dig up the rocks and send them to me. I love rocks!


Seriously, I would flatten the end of the pipe that is going into the ground so that it goes past the rock. If you hit one dead on top, pull the pipe and move over a little.
Might work, I dont know how much rock your talking about.

Chris, what a great demonstration! Yeah, wait til tomorrow. You've done enough today.

a lot. chuckle, I'll figure something out. I appreciate this thread it really helps.

Thanks Chris, for the answer on the coir and your demo photos. The photos will help hubby who doesn't know it yet, but he's going to help me put these together (grin). I'm off to BocaBob's to get my coir!
KRae

Great job, Chris. I'm looking forward to the many ingeneous ways people will devise to stack their stackers.

Here is a pic of one of my first rigs........a movable platform. The platform holds a 1/2 inch electrical conduit 24 inches long. 3/4 inch conduit cut to the proper length slides down over the 1/2 inch conduit stob and the pots slide down on that. My EZgro pots fit perfectly on 3/4 inch conduit. My pots are 161/2 inches wide and 7 inches deep, just a little smaller than the agrostackers.

One variation of your system that would make it semi-mobile would be to find the size pipe that just fits inside of your 1 and 5/16 pipe. Drive that into the ground to mount your stack on it. Lots of different ways and variables. I saw a picture of someone who sat agrostackers on an old car tire and another stack was set on a metal drum like electrical wire comes on. Lots of ways to skin this cat. :-)

Ahhh, a movable unit. Thanks Jay for the idea. Great option.

There are going to be alot of creative thoughts going into these.

Yay, my stackers are here! I took advantage of the coop that Chris organized (thanks, Chris!) & got 2 stacks (6 each) of the black agro-towers (somewhere I wrote earlier that I was getting EZGro, I mispoke). I am so excited! I just need to pick up pvc pipe or electrical conduit (& clamps) to slide over the 4' pieces of rebar I'm using as the bottom anchor.

What sort of fertilizer will work for these, can I use the 13-13-13 slow release Dynamite I picked up? Should I mix it in w/ the coir or put a teabag in the diffuser pot on top?

I ended up getting the black, just to blend in w/ all my black nursery pots (although the Earthboxes are evergreen), I don't think it will be a problem w/ heating up too much, since I'll really need to keep up w/ watering-these don't have a self-watering reservoir. I may try some of the larger terra-cotta stackers, w/ self-watering later, but for right now, I have my hands full!

I work at a garden center, w/ the recent unusual heatwave, in the 90s, we are watering constantly to maintain all our plants...

Thistle.........I have tried the different methods of fertilization you mentioned with my stackers. The simplest and I think the most effective is to use a soluable fertilizer applied along with your water. Boca Bob's type of fertilizer applied exactly like he does is probably ideal. But MG in one of their hose end applicators has worked fine for me too. I run straight water for about 7 days and then hit all the stackers with the MG. Observing your plants will tell you if every 7 days is often enough. Im thinking larger leafy plants may require more frequent hits with the MG. I have been fortunate that I have not over-fertilized things because I have also put controlled release fertilize in the top pot of the stack and then used soluable fertilizer on top of that. It is probably better to stick with water soluable fertilize applied as frequently as your plants need it.

You can also use a weak fertilizer solution on a daily basis, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 strength.

It is best to flush water or water/ferts completely thru the stacks at each watering to disperse the fertilizer equally and also to flush accumulated fertilizer salts out of the stacks. If you are using a weakened solution on a daily basis, it is best to flush the stack thoroughly at least once a week with straight water.

I would recommend 3 stacks of 4 pots each rather than two 6 pot stacks. The bottom pots will require longer to dry out between waterings and the higher the stacks, the more this might become a problem. I havent had any serious problems with this except maybe with strawberries but you should be aware of it. Once the real hot summer weather gets here and your plants get some growth on them, you can easily water more frequently. My spring weather has been really erratic, a few sunshiny hours but mostly overcast, drizzles and some rain. I have been making good use of a moisture meter to determine when to water.

Thanks, Jaywhacker, I'm definitely going to go w/ 3 stacks of 4 agro-towers, over a larger nursery pot. Trust me, after nonstop watering around the nursery for the last few days, I'm beginning to understand the watering needs of containerized plants (& I've worked there for awhile). Between the unexpected heat, this early in the year, & the wind, we are watering constantly. It's supposed to rain tomorrow (please!).

The reason I was thinking about putting the time-release fertilizer in the mix or the top, is because I'm not real organized, I can usually water, but I don't remember to regularly fertilize, it's just whenever I think about it.

I operate on that "not real organized" system myself. :-) It is a good thing plants wont to grow real bad and are real forgiving and survive what I do (or dont do) for them. One nother thing......on the slow release fertilizer. Temperatures have to be up around 70 degrees for it to break down enough to act as fertilizer. I put some in the diffuser pots on top of my stacks about a month ago and due to cooler and wetter and overcast sky's, it doesn't look like it has melted any at all. On the other hand, with the weather you have been having, it would probably become effective immediately. Something to keep in mind.

What can you use to cut the fence post &/or electrical conduit? They won't cut either for me at HD. I got 1.25" PVC, but that turns out to be the inside diameter, so it's too large (at least it was cheap, so no great loss). I want to get these mounted, but keep getting stymied-I may just stack 3 on an overturned nursery pot, w/ 4' rebar in the middle, just so I can get them started...

Thistle5,

Use a hacksaw.

Thanks, Qinx-what a rainy spring we're having! After 4 hours out in the drizzle at work this morning, I asked if I could go home-surely only true plant nuts shop in the rain & they can usually find what they're looking for...

Ah. Rain. Yes. I spent all day Sunday in the drizzle setting up my stacker and working in the garden. Even made a trip to Lowes in the rain! Now I'm stuck inside at work for the week.

Here's what I've been working on. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/983993/

Qinx, what a beautiful settup and garden you have! I've been to Fredricksburg often. You live in a wonderful are. Devota

Your garden looks great & thanks for the explanation of how you built the conduit trellis, that's very helpful. 24 asstd squash plants?! I love squash, too, & if you pick them while they're small, you might manage to keep up w/ them. Or just invite us all over for a garden picnic midsummer...

Wow, Qinx your gardens look wonderful! I have gotten alot of ideas. Thanks!

P.S. I used a regular copper pipe cutter to cut the conduit pipes. Although, Hubby is going to have to change the blade when he wants to use it for copper again. Oops. ^_^

I'm glad I spurred some ideas! I'd say the blade will need replacing! LOL Steel conduit is a lot stronger than copper and the blade probably is dull now. I had to cut 30 pipes total as I have 15 trellis' up for vining plants. Plus the copper trellis I built for peas and cucumbers.

Bumping up this thread to ask how your stacker setups have worked for you. I checked and saw that most of you are still subscribed.

I participated in the 2009 co-op, but believe it or not my stackers have sat in a pile unused since then. The stumbling block has been the pvc pipe. I don't have a hacksaw, and even if we borrowed one my husband has arthritic hands and I am prone to carpal tunnel problems. My husband is on a mission today to find someone who would cut 10' pipes in half for us. Even the local electrical supply house doesn't do it. They said "have your contractor cut it with his hacksaw."

Anyway, do you have any updates about how your stacker systems have worked/held up over these three summers? Does the pipe clamp hold up the weight of the stackers with the wet potting mix?

Thanks in advance.

Edited to add that apparently Mr. Blevins no longer markets the Agro Towers and has invented a new version of his stackers:

http://www.growpots.com/index.html


(The Agro Towers are still sold on another site, however.)


This message was edited Jul 20, 2011 8:14 AM

I never managed to cut my PVC either, ended up w/ 3 stacks of 4 pots, on top of an upended 5-gallon black pot, w/ a piece of rebar in the middle. They are filled w/ coir, need frequent watering, but are sturdy. I now have 2 black lab puppies, & they have destroyed almost everything else in the yard, but the towers stand.
Right now, they hold mostly herbs-Thai basil, cilantro, chives(overwintered), parsley, fennel, pineapple sage-also ipomea & squash. I am still on the fence on coir as a planting medium, despite the fact I use it in my EBs (tomatoes & peppers), & stackers, but I am happy w/ the stackers. Still thinking about hooking up the auto watering....

I have my stacker on the ground, I filled up a huge hole with rocks put the pvc pipe in the middle with rebar through the center of it and then slid the stackers one on top of the other. It's held up pretty well, even though if you push it it leans a little because of the rebar. I had it filled with coir like thiste5 above but had to water it so much that I added potting mix to it. I tried strawberries that didn't ever take off, then beans which also didn't do too well. at the moment it has a bit of everything in it, swiss chard in the top and a couple of beans on the sides. I think if I would have set up the auto watering it would have worked out better.

Note: I do have a smaller stacker planter with 3 high (another brand) and I tried stickless wonder long beans this year which did very well. I think next year I will certainly be doing this in my huge stacker with the same beans.

Here's a pic of the large stacker with odds and ends awaiting a replant

Here's the smaller one with the Stickless Wonder beans in it. Very tasty if I may say so myself.

I never got mine fixed either and have thought about just selling them. I put them out on my deck for the first time and planted herbs in them, but they just don't fit in my space. The terracotta does look pretty, though.
~Susan

I had trouble getting mine stackers set up. Last year they went unused. This year I used them unstacked to grow herbs and vegetables. They are durable that's for sure. I might try the new version. Looks interesting.

I bought some of the stackers in that coop, also. The first year, I used coir only, and planted beans, peas, garlic, etc. I had trouble keeping them watered, so it was a big bust. Last year, I used some of them for wintersowing, and had fair success. I wrapped them with bubble wrap and/or big plastic bags with holes in them.
This year, I moved some of them to other places in the garden, stacked them 3 high, without the pvc pipe, and planted flowers in them. I also mixed the coir with MG potting mix and water crystals. They are getting prettier every day. Even my hubby likes them.
Here are some pictures of them soon after planting. I do not have a current photo.

Here's another stack, just planted last week. I actually planted 4 stacks last week,

Another one planted last week

LynnPhillips, is that a pvc pipe in the center of your stackers? How did you cut it?

Thank you for all your responses. It looks like several of you are putting them to good use.

The reason I ordered these stacks in the first place was that I wanted to grow strawberries out of the reach of slugs (ugh!!!!). I gave up growing them in the ground and definitely wanted to elevate the stackers. I didn't want to put them on an inverted terra cotta pot (after I got a nasty surprise when I once lifted the lid off my birdbath and looked down inside the ceramic base). I am afraid that building them directly on the ground would still provide easy access to the slimy critters. (I have even seen them inside the feeder tube of my EBs.) So "elevated" is my goal. But I don't know how I could even fit a ten foot length of pipe in my car to bring it home for cutting.

I think I read somewhere online that they could be elevated by letting them rest on a length of large diameter (8") flexible pipe, which is easily cut with a saw. You slide the wider pipe over rebar and it acts as a spacer. I would think that several stackers filled with wet mix would be so HEAVY.

Hi Nisi,

I love my stackers and so do the many clients that I have bought them for. They add a great look to different areas of the yard. I have 3 stacks for flowers and 1 for strawberries. I agree that the coir was too hard for me to keep watered, so I use a mix of good garden soil and moisture crystals.

I use a 10 foot length of metal pipe (fencing aisle of home depot). It is about $12.00. I have them cut it to 8 foot. That length is still a little hard for me to get down far enough in my rock hard red clay.

If you stack 6 pots high it ends up being a total of 4 foot high of pots. You could use as little as a 6 foot pipe (so you have 2 foot to bang into the ground), but that would leave it almost sitting on the ground. I think you would be safer using a 7 foot piece of pipe. Home depot will cut it for free and it will be easier to transport home.

Yes, the clamp that holds up the pots holds it even when it is full of wet soil.

Hope that helps,
chris