Remember this?
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/mike_brennan/PotatoBarrel532x418.jpg)
Well I built one twice the size.
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/mike_brennan/PB6600x449.jpg)
Time to open up.
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/mike_brennan/PB7600x449.jpg)
Some pots showing.
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/mike_brennan/PB8600x449.jpg)
more like 18lbs, >:( next year! :)
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/mike_brennan/PB9600x449.jpg)
I could make a Hot Box out of it, ::)
nice :-)
And it gets around all the pesky problem of putting a fork though your spuds!
now you can tell me what a hot box is as i only know it as a composter :-)
Hot beds were very popular in Victorian times. Once set up, they can be used to grow salad crops in winter, get a head-start on seed sowing in the spring (by up to a month), and for growing melons and any of the cucurbitaceae family in the summer. A hot bed provides bottom heat, using manure rather than electricity as the heat source, thus speeding up plant growth of seedlings and tender plants.
The heat source: Fresh strawy manure â€" in a layer 60-90cm deep (after treading). As the manure breaks down, it generates heat. Tread it down well to compact it, ensuring a more even release of heat.
The growing medium: A mixture of top soil and garden compost (ratio of 1:1) â€" this is placed on top of the manure in a layer 20cm-30cm thick.
The hot bed can be as deep and as wide as you want, as long as the ratio of manure to growing medium is 3:1. If you do decide to make the hot bed deeper, temperatures may rise above the optimum (24C) and plants may be scorched. It can be cooled down by adding water or leaves and garden debris to the mixture. Check temperatures regularly with a thermometer.
A hot bed can be made in a greenhouse or outdoors. Provide insulation in the form of wooden sides (4 pallets) and a cover if outside.
Leave the hot bed for a week to warm up.
There are several methods of making a hot bed.
In a cold frame (the lid is useful for conserving the heat).
In a pit, 60cm (24in) deep.
Stakes and 4 pallets on the ground to keep the materials and heat in.
In a greenhouse.
Sorry for laughing, Mike ::) - IS THAT ALL?! ;D ;D ;D
but it's a jolly fine box 8) and the excitement must have been keeping you going all through the summer...so worth it for that (and the entertainment value for us, of course)..
;D ;D ;D Lishka
Great IDEA i have a raised bed for my pumpkins and salads which i have made but not filled yet i will Leave it and make the hot box mid jan and see if i can get early salad crops in :-)
I EVEN HAVE THE HORSE MUCK AND STRAW :-)
Yes it is a nice box isn't it?
Cam~7, the horse muck needs to be fresh and renewed every 2 months, the old muck when it's removed can be used straight on the plot.
Make a lid for it and you`ll have a perfect compost bin.
Or then again you could threaten to sue the manufacturers under the Trades Descriptions Act.
look at it this way. it kept you out of mishchief for a while lmao
oops!
dont you just hate it when that happens!!!!
Seemed to be a bad year last year tho...my container pots were v.v.few per plant and ones in the open ground not much better. Still, I'll be buying more seed potatoes towards the end of this month. Here's hoping for a bumper 2007 crop, eh?
Are you gonna use it again for the same purpose ;D ;D ;D
You got me all excited for a minute there ::) I was scrolling down the post, thinking about getting hold of some wood to build one of these miracle growers.
Maybe I 'll just go for the traditional way of growing pots, as at least I wont have to embarrass myself by using my VERY limited carpentry skills. I am still trying to figure out a good excuse as to why my raised beds are as square as a triangle :(
cj :)
Oh dear...
How many lbs did you have in the end?
Thanks for a good chuckle this morning Mike ;)
Get out that parsnip planter and overplant your spuds with giant 'snips?
Quote from: MikeB on September 19, 2006, 13:13:29
There are several methods of making a hot bed.
In a cold frame (the lid is useful for conserving the heat).
In a pit, 60cm (24in) deep.
Stakes and 4 pallets on the ground to keep the materials and heat in.
In a greenhouse.
or STRAW BALES ;D ;D ;D
Does it have to be horse muck? Only asking because I heard somewhere that pigs muck is cold ???
hi here a picture of a hot house for propagating seeds
(http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/6497/lastscanja2.th.jpg) (http://img169.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lastscanja2.jpg)
hope some body uses this, tell us how you get on with it
windy
Apparently horse poo heats up a lot better than anything else. I'm not sure why.
I'd have another go, Mike. Last year wasn't a 'tatti' year at all. The method should work. In fact now I've stopped with my lottie, I might try it myself.
Question for Mike...
It mentions that potatoes should be planted 4" deep, but how close together are the tubers?
Having given up my lottie, but wanting to grow stuff in the garden, I might try this.
Debs :D
Hi
One of my compost bins is just about full.
I was going to pop a tick layer of horse manure on it and then straw and then some soil and cover the whole thing with some carpet and plant in one of my pumpkin seedlings.
Do you think that it would be 2 rich...
Cambourne7
There does seem to be a lot of 'planting in the compost bin' going on these days. Personally I see it as a waste of compost, Camby'. If you want to make good use of your compost to grow extra's, then I would say in late March (earliest) empty your bin, fill up another smaller tub with well rotted compost from it on top of a layer of rotted manure and plant your seedlings in that. The rest of the compost is either turned and put back in the bin or used on the garden.
If you put plants into a compost heap you're a bit stuck when you want to dig into it. Maybe you have enough compost to make more than one pumpkin garden. The way I did it last year for squash and melons was to half bury a cut off middle section from a wheely bin, turn over the soil at the bottom, put in 6 shovels of horse manure followed by a mix of soil and good compost from the heap. I fed twice weekly a home-made manure liquid feed when the fruits started.
Let me know how you go. (Don't like pumpkin's acually...well, not to eat although I had some very nice soup last Sunday.)
Quote from: Debs on January 18, 2007, 18:14:19
Question for Mike...
It mentions that potatoes should be planted 4" deep, but how close together are the tubers?
Having given up my lottie, but wanting to grow stuff in the garden, I might try this.
Debs :D
Hi Debs,
There was no information given on planting distances or type. I planted 8 potatoes (4 kestrel and 4 Picasso) equi distance in the container. I kill two of the Picasso's by over earthing them. Kestrel is a 2nd early and Picasso 2nd early/early main crop, I thought this would give me reasonable size potatoes, hence greater weight. On further research on the internet it appears that you should use first earlies planted 6" in each direction. Apparently 'Swift' potato type is bred for container growing. The only knowledge on this that I have is from the internet and 1 years growing experience/failure, I intend trying again this year with 22 'Swift' tubers in the box shown above. I'll report later in the year on my success/failure.
Regards
Mike
I LOVE PUMPKIN AND SQUASH
but i want to enter the soham pumpkin comp this year and i have some Atlantic Giant i want to try growing really really big!
I Have 2 compost bins one was full but its not mixed well and will take a while to rot down, i think that it would have gone down a little by now but certainly not more than half.
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/cambourne7/P1010002.jpg
( the one that does not have the wheelbarrow in front. Its about 4-5 foot wide.
We only get horse manure delivered fresh to the site and have to pop it on our plots to rot down.
So the plan would be to compact down whats there add another wooden board to the front.
Add a layer of shreaded paper and leaf mould over the compost followed by manure, straw and some soil.
I was going to use it with a plastic over to start as a place to start seeds until i can repair my greenhouse ( plastic cover ripped to shreads in the wind and blew off ) and then when i move the seeds into other beds then i replant it with 2 pumpkin plants.
This is just in case one dies or is damaged.
That still gives me a large compost bin on the side which will see me though mose of the summer ( and i have a darlek one i want to move to the plot from home as well.
When the pumpkin is finished i should be able to use this to fill my fruit beds as it should be quite well rotted by then.
I was thinking that i can plant the pumpkins though the plastic which will help direct water though to the plant?
Cambourne7
If you're looking at competition growning then that's something else. By all means listen to the experts on that matter. You're mention of plastic frightens me a bit. I'd use the stuff that's used for weed suppression, plastic will encourage rot at the point where your fruits touch it...even then, pack straw between.
good thinking ken :-)
will still use the plastic to cover to make the seed bed as it will let light in.
Cambourne7
I'd be tempted to start your seeds off under cover and transplant the strongest ones to their final place and do away with the plastic altogether. Plastic's OK for cloche use and keeping the rain off heavy soils, but using it as a long term bed cover has quite a few draw-backs.
yep i only wanted to use it while this first set of seeds took then i would convert to the pumpkin bed and remove the plastic...
Hi all, :)
I used my pallet-boxed leafmould piles with horse muck added to grow pumpkins in after I realised how hot a leaf mould pile can get. (I stuck my hand in to see how it was progressing). So if you have leaf mould hanging around for a year its a way to use the space it takes up. The pumpkins did fine btw.
Col
cool i was going to make something traditional for leaf mould with wire.
(it just so happens that the pack of our car park is where the landscapers put the leaf mould for a 10 acre site so when i am feeling better i plan on picking up some to take to the plot but in the mean time the local bunnies play in it. Got 2 blue Ikea bags for carrying mucky stuff and thanks to freecycle got 2 large baskets to help bring stuff down to the plot)
I was wondering if a conical compost bin upside down would do the same job as the wooden structure for spuds?
Mine would be a bit floppy for that. Dont think it would handle the weight of the compost as it gets wider either. Then again, dont take my word for it.
cj :)
many thanks i think i am going to have to have a bit of a think about this :-)
what about this cambourne?
http://www.organicgardening.org.uk/organicgardening/nd_spuds.php
SSx