Container gardening
 

I used to be big into gardening and houseplants, but several years ago
I lost interest and got rid of everything garden-related. This year, I
decided I'd like to do some tomatos and maybe some peppers in
containers on the deck. Made a stop at Big Lots yesterday and picked
up a few pots, tomato frames, etc. $130 just for starters and I don;t
even have the soil, tools, or plants yet.

I coulda bought a bunch of tomatos for that kind of money.

Container gardening
 

On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 06:31:54 -0400 in Richard Evans wrote:
I used to be big into gardening and houseplants, but several years ago
I lost interest and got rid of everything garden-related. This year, I
decided I'd like to do some tomatos and maybe some peppers in
containers on the deck. Made a stop at Big Lots yesterday and picked
up a few pots, tomato frames, etc. $130 just for starters and I don;t
even have the soil, tools, or plants yet.

I coulda bought a bunch of tomatos for that kind of money.

Ah... the expensive approach. Ive done that too :-).

You'd probably be better off heading to Sam's club or Harris teeter
and begging some empty 5 gallon buckets off the bakery.
Drill several large holes in the side of the pot near the bottom.

Drop by Lowe's and find their best volume/$ bags of moisture control
potting mix. Usually it's the stagreen 3cuft bags. In theory Home
Depot carries something similar, but I've never actually seen it in stock,
only soggy shredded bags of Miracle Grow potting soil.
Walmart has cheap potting mix, but it looks more like what I use to
mulch my front yard.
Get a potting mix instead of soil.
About 1.5 cuft/5gallon bucket.

If you want to go cheaper, look through the landscaping supply places
to see who has a good price on compost. I'd suggest checking quality before
purchasing. Dirt Cheap in south raleigh sells a wonderful black eggshell
compost that tomatoes really like, but you'll need to add a lot of
perlite to turn it into a container mix. Triangle Landscaping supply
has a pretty good product that's a bit lighter, but it'll still need
a fair amount of perlite, but will require more watering than you'd like
unless you add some of the water trapping polymer that's in maxipads,
diapers, and moisture control potting mix. And you may need to add some
calcium to it to prevent blossom end rot. Mulch masters sells this
light high organic fiber content compost. The trouble with it is
if moisture is just wrong on it, it turns into a big blob of
mycelium and roots get starved of oxygen.

Oh, and put your pipe down and wash your hands like you are
preparing for surgery before handling tomato plants.
Odds are there is tobacco mosaic virus infected material in your
pipe tobacco and it has absolutely no problem infecting tomatoes.
(As well as several other things.).

--
Chris Dukes
davej eskimos have hundreds of words for snow. I have two. Bullshit.

Container gardening
 

Container gardening
 

On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:01:15 -0400 in Richard Evans wrote:
wrote:


You'd probably be better off heading to Sam's club or Harris teeter
and begging some empty 5 gallon buckets off the bakery.
Drill several large holes in the side of the pot near the bottom.

Having six cats, I have a virtually endless supply of 40-pound litter
buckets. Never thought of it before, but each one would hold a tomato
plant.

Those work too :-).


Oh, and put your pipe down and wash your hands like you are
preparing for surgery before handling tomato plants.

I didn't recognize your email address, so my first reaction was "Who
the hell here knows I smoke a pipe?" Then I saw your signature.

Well, you *DID* post on tri.gen about donating pipes to the
military.


Odds are there is tobacco mosaic virus infected material in your
pipe tobacco and it has absolutely no problem infecting tomatoes.
(As well as several other things.).

I did not know that.

TMV is amusing stuff. Years and years ago a popular houseplant
had a variegated sport variety. It wasn't until it was in widespread
cultivation that someone noticed that it wasn't a variegated variety
but that it was infected with tobacco mosaic virus.
After that many years were spent eradicating the disease from those
commercial greenhouses.



--
Chris Dukes
davej eskimos have hundreds of words for snow. I have two. Bullshit.

Container gardening
 

Container gardening
 

On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:50:44 -0400 in Richard Evans wrote:
wrote:

How about a source for the cheap black plastic nursery pots? Logan
Trading web site doesn't show any. I can order them online from
Mellinger's but the minimum order is 60.

I've found that a lot of retailers don't actually list items like that.

The next time the folks from Brickman landscaping are on site, I was
going to ask if they had any left over from installations.

There are certain times of the year that Lowes and Home depot end up with
piles of empty containers, but I've never asked for any.

You can also try calling Witherspoon rose culture in Durham/Chapel Hill.

And I suspect that I'll be asking the folks at Homewood Nursery the next time
I'm there (albeit for smaller pots. SWMBO has given the go ahead for starting
hostas under the pecan tree).

If you're going to use used pots, remember you want to thoroughly clean them
and soak them in a solution of ~1 cup of bleach/gallon of water for
15 minutes to kill off plant pathogens.
(Or is it 1/4 cup of bleach/gallon, I forget).




--
Chris Dukes
davej eskimos have hundreds of words for snow. I have two. Bullshit.

Container gardening
 

Richard Evans wrote:
wrote:

On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 06:31:54 -0400 in Richard Evans wrote:
I used to be big into gardening and houseplants, but several years ago
I lost interest and got rid of everything garden-related. This year, I
decided I'd like to do some tomatos and maybe some peppers in
containers on the deck. Made a stop at Big Lots yesterday and picked
up a few pots, tomato frames, etc. $130 just for starters and I don;t
even have the soil, tools, or plants yet.

I coulda bought a bunch of tomatos for that kind of money.
Ah... the expensive approach. Ive done that too :-).

You'd probably be better off heading to Sam's club or Harris teeter
and begging some empty 5 gallon buckets off the bakery.
Drill several large holes in the side of the pot near the bottom.

How about a source for the cheap black plastic nursery pots? Logan
Trading web site doesn't show any. I can order them online from
Mellinger's but the minimum order is 60.


Broadwells Nursery in Angier has themlast year for around $1.50

Judy in Fuquay Varina

Container gardening
 

Container gardening
 

On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:13:14 -0400 in Richard Evans wrote:
wrote:

On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:50:44 -0400 in Richard Evans wrote:
wrote:

How about a source for the cheap black plastic nursery pots? Logan
Trading web site doesn't show any. I can order them online from
Mellinger's but the minimum order is 60.

I've found that a lot of retailers don't actually list items like that.

Turns out Logan's has them, varied sizes. Man, I wish that place was
easier for me to get to. I could stimulate a lot of the economy there.

Homewood might be easier for you to get to.
It's on honeycutt rd which sits more or less halfway
between six forks and falls of neuse along durant.

http://homewoodnursery.com/page/o4gj...s_Parking.html

--
Chris Dukes
davej eskimos have hundreds of words for snow. I have two. Bullshit.

Container gardening
 

wrote:

Homewood might be easier for you to get to.
It's on honeycutt rd which sits more or less halfway
between six forks and falls of neuse along durant.

http://homewoodnursery.com/page/o4gj...s_Parking.html

Went to Homewood today.

It is easier to get to than Logan Trading, and it has a HUGE
greenhouse, but as far as supplies go it's geared more towards
landscaping and interior decorating than simple gardening and utility
materials. They carry no nursery pots, flats, trays, etc. The first
person I talked to didn't even know what they were.

I did buy a couple of well-established tomato plants and some onion
sets, but that was all they had. On the way out the door, I did
discover a small table of lettuce seedlings. The clerk said they would
have more seedlings soon, but by now I've got pretty much everything I
need.

Container gardening
 

On Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:19:33 -0400 in Richard Evans wrote:
wrote:

Homewood might be easier for you to get to.
It's on honeycutt rd which sits more or less halfway
between six forks and falls of neuse along durant.

http://homewoodnursery.com/page/o4gj...s_Parking.html

Went to Homewood today.

It is easier to get to than Logan Trading, and it has a HUGE
greenhouse, but as far as supplies go it's geared more towards
landscaping and interior decorating than simple gardening and utility
materials. They carry no nursery pots, flats, trays, etc. The first
person I talked to didn't even know what they were.

well, as I said, i'd probably first beg food grade 5 gallon buckets
off of the bakery at sam's club, harris teeter, and BJ's.

And I'd probably pester the landscaping company with offices there
asking about pots left over from jobs for planting vegetables in
containers.

As for asking people. Yeah, unless I actually see them
in the non-customer area moving plants from flats to larger pots,
I wouldn't ask them about flats unless I wanted an answer concerning
shoes or apartments...

As for actually buying flats... Unless I wanted to purchase
a thousand of them, and enough vermiculite and perlite to make
my own seedling mix... I just can't hit a better price point than
the jiffy 72 greenhouse trays at walmart.
I can sometimes hit a slightly better price point for the ferry morse
(morris?) branded ones, but they aren't as well made.

I did buy a couple of well-established tomato plants and some onion
sets, but that was all they had. On the way out the door, I did
discover a small table of lettuce seedlings. The clerk said they would
have more seedlings soon, but by now I've got pretty much everything I
need.

I'm trying to remember which weekend before April 10th I was there.
Pickings were pretty slim at the time.




--
Chris Dukes
davej eskimos have hundreds of words for snow. I have two. Bullshit.

I don't think so that the gardening is such a hobby that you can get bored
from it. It increases your interests and refreshing the mind. I am wondering that
why the problem is with you.
regards