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Old 28-05-2017, 04:18 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
T[_4_] T[_4_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jan 2015
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Default pot depth question

On 05/27/2017 04:14 PM, wg_2002 wrote:
On Sat, 27 May 2017 12:49:47 -0700, T wrote:

Hi All,

Last year I HACKED a bunch of ground pots into my so called dirt. I
tried to make them about 10 to 12" deep. The idea was that they would
not blow over and would have some slow drainage (takes over a day to
drain when I fill them with water). I then mix dirt, organic
fertilizer, and peat moss back into the hole, sans the rocks. I worked.

This year I relocated the holes under the weeds and I found that the old
growth that was there last year had not developed root more than about 3
to 4" deep, but width covered the hole.
I placed vegi scraps on the bottom of the holes, filled them back in and
added some organic fertilizer

This year I came across and six or so holes that I could only shovel,
hack, swear past about 6 to 7" deep. I hit rocks of biblical
proportion.

Question, should I give up on these holes as they are too shallow? Or
since the plant's root did not go that deep, use them anyway?


Many thanks,
-T


What type of plants were in these ground pots and how wide were the holes
at the top? Most plants don't send very many roots deep into the soil.
They send tap roots deep into the soil too help anchor them but about 75%
of a plants roots grow across the soil surface to gather moisture.


Eggplant, zucchini, tomatillo

They are about 12 to 15" in diameter.

I did notice that the plants did not care for the surrounding
dirt. (I would not call it soil as it has all the nutritional
content of the moon.) It was like a 12" wide by 4" deep plug
of tiny roots.

Which bring up the question, am I placing the vegi scraps
too deep to be effective?