tube gardening

[7th trump]

48884889

Trying a new type of gardening this year.
A coworker said a friend of his did something similar to this last year.
He said he got over 700lbs of Bell peppers alone last year and sold them to a local store. He said this guy had about 10 times amount of tubes as you see here in the pictures......700lbs of bell peppers...damn that's a lot of peppers.

I modified the tubes by inserting 1/2 inch pvc into the 4 inch pvc and drilled one hole next to the 3 inch holes that are drilled into the 4 inch tubes so not to damage any root system and displacing seeds.
It only takes about 10 seconds to water each tube with minimal wasting of water.
And the best thing is "weeding"....hardly anything to weed. And no more chicken fencing to keep the critter out. They cant reach up that high.

Next is the rain water barrels adapted for manure tea and pumped by a sump pump in the barrels.

What's also nice about this setup is I can take the tubes into the garage in February and start the seeds and when the last frost is past I can just take the tubes outside and secure them in their respective posts.

[osoab]

http://gold-silver.us/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4888&d=1368407796

[Half Sense]

Looks interesting. Can't wait to see the results. We are experimenting in our garden, too. I just opened up some black yard bags that have been cooking for 2 years in the Florida sun. Every bag an adventure...snakes, huge carpenter ants, big red beetles, and giant earthworks. I swear some of the bags contained 30 pounds of pure worm castings.

With about 40 bags worth I created a long, high contour in an area where the ground was impossible to dig due to severe ligustrum roots. I'll cover it with paper, manure, straw, finished compost, potting mix, and pine straw, then start planting there. We are using some permaculture techniques in our conventional garden and having great success. Best thing about permaculture is it's overt promotion of laziness...30 hours of observation for every 1 hour of work. Let Mother nature do the work while you observe and optimize the process. If you do nothing to your yard, a forest will grow there. With a little encouragement and knowledge, it can be a food and medicine forest.

[vacuum]

So those are 4x4 posts sticking out of the ground about 3 feet then. Are the PVC tubes filled with dirt?

[Serpo]

1 Advantages (http://encyclomundi.org/wiki/Blog:Encyclomundi/Tube_Gardening:_Making_it_easy_to_grow_your_own#Ad vantages)
2 Materials (http://encyclomundi.org/wiki/Blog:Encyclomundi/Tube_Gardening:_Making_it_easy_to_grow_your_own#Ma terials)
3 Process (http://encyclomundi.org/wiki/Blog:Encyclomundi/Tube_Gardening:_Making_it_easy_to_grow_your_own#Pr ocess)
4 Further reading (http://encyclomundi.org/wiki/Blog:Encyclomundi/Tube_Gardening:_Making_it_easy_to_grow_your_own#Fu rther_reading)

Advantages

Use less water than traditional gardening
No weeding
Vegetables protected from pests
Saves space
Used with driplines = automatic irrigation, basically maintenance free
Tubes can be hung outside balconies or decks when space is a premium
Tubes can be used vertically to add more "real estate" to traditional gardens

http://encyclomundi.org/images/thumb/0/00/Tubegarden2.jpg/180px-Tubegarden2.jpg (http://encyclomundi.org/wiki/File:Tubegarden2.jpg) http://encyclomundi.org/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png (http://encyclomundi.org/wiki/File:Tubegarden2.jpg)



Materials

PVC tubes (or bamboo?)
Caps for the ends of the tubes
Tape/Duct tape
Drill
Doorknob drill bit

http://encyclomundi.org/images/5/5c/Tubegarden3.jpg (http://encyclomundi.org/wiki/File:Tubegarden3.jpg)
Process

Cut off the belled end of the tubes
Cut the remaining amount of the 10' tube in half
Measure evenly spaced spots for the holes
Drill holes
Cover holes with tape
Cap one end of tube
Fill with soil/compost
Cap other end of tube
Slice open tape and insert plant when needed

I tire easily. Using this technique would allow me to grow many more vegetables because watering/weeding would be significantly reduced. People living in a highrise/apartment or town house could hang the tubes outside their windows or use the tubes vertically. People in wheelchairs could grow the plants at a height that was comfortable for them. The design significantly reduces the need for water and fertilizer as well.anks


http://encyclomundi.org/wiki/Blog:Encyclomundi/Tube_Gardening:_Making_it_easy_to_grow_your_own#Ma terials

[7th trump]

So those are 4x4 posts sticking out of the ground about 3 feet then. Are the PVC tubes filled with dirt?

Yes, those are 4x4x8 posts with roughly 3 feet in the ground, 5 feet above ground. I can add another 4in 10ft tube to make three tubes per set up.....and I might just do that yet.
Yes, I filled dirt/compost in the tubes. Each hole drilled into the tube is 3 inches.
I spaced the hole saw according to what the specific seed package called for.
Each set up is 4 feet apart. I could have made that 3ft apart but I wanted to walk around easily without any damage to the plants.
I didn't paint the tubes because roots need to be cool and in the sun at 74 degree's the other day there's hardly any difference in temp from the shaded side to the sunny side.
This set up has made it so I can plant more plants in the same area. I'd say roughly about 1/3 plus more. Instead of 13 foot rows traditionally. I now have 20 foot rows if two tubes are used for one vegetable.
That middle row is two tubes of green beans. Before I would have 13ft traditionally in the ground, now its two 10ft tubes with room for one tomato plant behind that before the grass line.
I'm going to add one more set up for herbs and more leafy plants. Next to that is a row of zucchini. Where you see the cut grass in rows is two rows of potatoes that are in between three rows of asparagus. The back grass line was grapes vines but I jerked them out and going to replace them with Concord grapes on new tussles.

[7th trump]

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Roughly 1 month since planting.

Its one hell of a conversation starter with the surrounding neighbors when they take their daily walks. People slow down and just look.
Had two cars stop and ask what I was doing.....they all think its amazing to use 4 in pvc tubes to grow vegies in.
Adding two more tubes to each set up to double everything.
Before I had about 13 to 15 foot rows and now I can have 40 foot rows of green beans in a 10 foot space and no critters to snack on the plants when I'm not home.
Half the garden is now asparagus which I didn't have any place to plant a bed....now I do. Didn't have any place for snow peas either....and now I have 10 foot row of them.
60 foot of Concord grapes and a 13 foot patch of ever bearing red raspberries....and even some room to plant a Granny Smith apple tree for the lady.
Watering only takes about 10 minutes in the morning and in the evening. Most of that time is spent getting the hose out and putting it back.
Weeding takes under 3 minutes.