big containers

[Uncle Doss]

I live in the middle of farm country where almost every farmer grows the big 3 (corn, soy beans, and wheat) and they almost all keep cattle.

All of the cattle keepers end up having stacks of empty mineral tubs laying around, and I have finally been able to convince a couple of them to turn loose of their empty tubs, or at least a few of them.

For those of you not familiar with them, they look like blow molded nursery pots, but are about a foot and a half deep and from 18 to 30 inches across. So, a pretty good sized growing pot.
My plan is to use some of them to overwinter some tomatoes and peppers in my house, or greenhouse if I can keep it warm enough. though I have also been toying with the idea of using a couple right now to plant some early green beans in my dining room in front of my sliding glass doors.

my question to y'all: since these had a mineral/salt block substance in them, what would be the best method to clean them? Dawn and warm water? Vinegar? Bleach?

[Patihum]

Being plastic they shouldn't have absorbed much in the way of minerals/salt. If you're worried about it I would fill with water and let soak overnight. Always a good idea to sterilize any container before you plant so you could add a small amount of bleach to the water too.

[Uncle Doss]

that's pretty much what I was guessing.
thanks

[Uncle Doss]

well, I cleaned one tub out. Scrubbed with hot soapy water, then rinsed with bleach water. I let that sit for a couple hours then rinsed with clean water.
The tub is now inside my house. to fill it to within a couple of inches from the top, I dumped in 4, 5 gallon buckets of topsoil, then about 5 pounds of fresh bunny berries (rabbit poo), then topped it off with an 8 quart bag of Burpees Organic seed starting soil.

then I planted several top crop green beans in it. Once they germinate and start to grow, I will thin them down to 5 plant.

The tub sits at the west end of my dining room in front of my sliding glass doors. I hope to see some beans growing in a week or so.

[rhines81]

Congrats on scoring some of those big containers! You will be able to grow just about anything you want in those.
As far as the location and your soil mix, I am not sure I would care for the smell of 5 pounds of bunny berries in my dining room. I'd certainly welcome that fragrant smell outdoors, but not in my house

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by rhines81

Congrats on scoring some of those big containers! You will be able to grow just about anything you want in those.
As far as the location and your soil mix, I am not sure I would care for the smell of 5 pounds of bunny berries in my dining room. I'd certainly welcome that fragrant smell outdoors, but not in my house

If my place didn't smell like a farm I wouldn't be happy.
Gotta go now I have a sow hog rooting around in one of my cabinets.

Sally get out of there shame on you.


Worth

[rhines81]

Oh believe me, my garden does have the full blown organic manure type mix going on, but indoors ..... I'd think I'd be constantly yelling at the dogs to stop eating from the planter (and then licking my face)

[Uncle Doss]

rabbit poop doesn't smell. Their urine does, badly, but the poo doesn't at all. Once we dump our dropping pans, we let the poop sit outside to dry out, and get rained on and dry some more before it ever gets used to wash the urine out.
I assure you, there is no manure smell in my house

[Worth1]

If I am not mistaking rabbit urine is highly concentrated somewhat like a camels.
Many animals are like this because they process water so well.
Worth

[Uncle Doss]

as of this morning, I had about a dozen radish almost an inch tall and about 7 or 8 green beans just breaking through the soil.
Once I get the hoop house finished and give it a few days to build up temperature, I will probably move this container out there.
Plan on putting a few more of those containers out there full of water, but nutrient rich water with a foam board on top full of net pots and lettuce seedlings

[Labradors2]

Well done on scoring the containers .

There's nothing wrong with using fresh bunny poo on the garden, but I'm not sure that putting either that or the top soil in a container was such a great idea.

We are always told not to use soil in containers because it compacts too much and the roots can drown. Soil-less potting mix is much lighter and more fluffy so it drains much better. Hopefully, your beans might not care too much, but I don't think I would do that for tomatoes.

Just my 0.2 cents (Canadian).

Linda

[Uncle Doss]

I guess we will see how it works. I am hoping for the best (obviously), but as this is just an experiment to see how well it will work before planting several like that, I will monitor the results.

[Labradors2]

I hope it will turn out well for you. I've had bad luck growing things in pure soil in buckets, but it could be that my native soil is clay - probably the worst thing I could have used, but I didn't know any better at the time!

Linda

[Cole_Robbie]

My grandpa has cattle and a lot of yellow bins laying around. I tried to go pick one up, and it fell apart in my hands. The plastic, at least in what he bought, didn't have UV stabilizers.

[Uncle Doss]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

My grandpa has cattle and a lot of yellow bins laying around. I tried to go pick one up, and it fell apart in my hands. The plastic, at least in what he bought, didn't have UV stabilizers.

I noticed that in a couple of the containers that I received, that were red. they were quite brittle and cracking.
the containers that I am keeping are black, and look pretty much identical to the black nursery pots that you buy trees and shrubs in.

Oh, and one of my friends brought me 3 more today. these are not as wide, but taller than most of the previous containers. I didn't measure them, but estimating them to be 18 inches wide and 24 to 26 inches deep.