First time growing in a kiddie pool outdoors. Tips would be appreciated.

[Jennin Prennison]

Hey guys. So I decided to grow outdoors again here in the SF Bay Area and chose to grow out of 3ft. diameter kiddie pools. I cut out the bottoms and tilled/broke down the soil underneath. I amended the soil as well to make it fluffier. I was wondering if using the pools as a raised bed was a good idea. I also started my clones in coco pots, and was wondering if you guys have had success with transplanting them straight into the ground. Any info or tips would be pluggg

On a side note are 30 gallon smart pots a good idea?

 

[k00ms]

Lolololol...cute chihuahua. I would just scratch the pool and dig a 4 foot hole in the ground, fill it with FFOF and let nature work.

 

[k00ms]

I'm from the bay too, I heard planting June 1st is best for outdoors in our area.

 

[caherbgrower]

Are you putting soil in the pool or just using it as a water ring?

 

[mr sunshine]

You should build raised beds..

 

[707humboldt]

Kiddy pool will probably be fine not ideal though. Just fill it with some soil. If your going to use pots outside, any thing smaller than 100g is too small imo. I prefer at least 200s now in the odds and end spots where I can't fit beds. A 4x4' bed thats 18-24" tall works killer. Tons of soil for monster plants. We make rows with most of our beds, 5' wide by whatever length fits our space and put a plant every 12'. That way works great, the whole bed fills with roots and plants get huge! The more soil, the bigger the plant. You can never have too much but you can definitely have too little.

 

[Jennin Prennison]

Are you putting soil in the pool or just using it as a water ring?

I'm filling the pool up so its like a raised bed.

 

[Jennin Prennison]

I'm from the bay too, I heard planting June 1st is best for outdoors in our area.

True. I might've brought them outside a lil too early. I'm hoping they'll be ok for the next few weeks. It's randomly getting windy and cold right now.

 

[Jennin Prennison]

Kiddy pool will probably be fine not ideal though. Just fill it with some soil. If your going to use pots outside, any thing smaller than 100g is too small imo. I prefer at least 200s now in the odds and end spots where I can't fit beds. A 4x4' bed thats 18-24" tall works killer. Tons of soil for monster plants. We make rows with most of our beds, 5' wide by whatever length fits our space and put a plant every 12'. That way works great, the whole bed fills with roots and plants get huge! The more soil, the bigger the plant. You can never have too much but you can definitely have too little.

For sure. My problem is that I have pretty shitty clay soil so I've had to dig out a bunch of rocks n dirt and then replace it with new soil and it's a pain in the ass. Thanks for the advice, I might try and build a 4'X4'X18" bed now. Sounds like the option with the least amount of work.

 

[Jennin Prennison]

Lolololol...cute chihuahua. I would just scratch the pool and dig a 4 foot hole in the ground, fill it with FFOF and let nature work.

I probably got close to digging 3' down, I'll be sure to dig a little deeper for the next transplant if I choose to go that direction. I'll be adding liquid nutes, so hopefully the soil I used isn't too bad.

 

[707humboldt]

For sure. My problem is that I have pretty shitty clay soil so I've had to dig out a bunch of rocks n dirt and then replace it with new soil and it's a pain in the ass. Thanks for the advice, I might try and build a 4'X4'X18" bed now. Sounds like the option with the least amount of work.

Yea its definitely quick and easy to do. Another up side is next year the beds are really easy to till in a little fresh soil and amendments to reuse the old soil and bed again.

 

[growingforfun]

anything over 3 ft down is wasted effort. your plant is gonna love that kiddie pool bro it's a pretty good idea. also, not super important to use fox farms, it's great soil but too expensive to really fuck with trying to fill a kiddie pool with 20 bags of dirt or whatever...
for outside, I goto the lawn an garden store and get a yard or whatever of their highest quality soil. last year I spent like $35 bucks on dirt and dumped it in 2 big mounds and planted right into that. each plant was 2 lbs. no work building a raised beds, no fancy bagged soil. I did put in a lot of work though and I feed with bat guano an worm castings a lot.

 

[Jennin Prennison]

Yea its definitely quick and easy to do. Another up side is next year the beds are really easy to till in a little fresh soil and amendments to reuse the old soil and bed again.

Sounds like a good idea, I'll post pics of the setups I choose to use when I get around to it.

 

[Jennin Prennison]

anything over 3 ft down is wasted effort. your plant is gonna love that kiddie pool bro it's a pretty good idea. also, not super important to use fox farms, it's great soil but too expensive to really fuck with trying to fill a kiddie pool with 20 bags of dirt or whatever...
for outside, I goto the lawn an garden store and get a yard or whatever of their highest quality soil. last year I spent like $35 bucks on dirt and dumped it in 2 big mounds and planted right into that. each plant was 2 lbs. no work building a raised beds, no fancy bagged soil. I did put in a lot of work though and I feed with bat guano an worm castings a lot.

Sounds good, I think I can get like a 1/2yd^3 from the local garden supplier for around $30, and have 3 garbage cans of compost I can mix in. So mounds work ok?

 

[growingforfun]

yeah

Sounds good, I think I can get like a 1/2yd^3 from the local garden supplier for around $30, and have 3 garbage cans of compost I can mix in. So mounds work ok?

sounds like a good plan. if it was me, I'd think about buying more dirt than that then filling your trash cans with the extra soil. maybe hold some compost back as well to top dress with later. saving soil is like money in the bank to me and I like to have about 100-300 gallons on hand at all times if possible.

the mounds are good for many reasons, I got turned onto them watching others get good results that way. raised beds may be better, but only marginally, and if money is a concern, than the money spent on wood to build them could be better spent in other ways, like buying a few boxes of high quality nutrients. one of my fav brands for outdoor is down to earth organics. also be sure your using mykoriza of some kind. my personal fav is mykos from extreme gardening in the granulated form. low cost for a bag and I haven't found anything that works better for me after trying 10 brands or so it's still my fav. mykos also has great synergy with azos, also from extreme gardening. go easy (ish) on the azos though, it's very powerful but won't really hurt the plant, it's just crazy good as a nitrogen fixing microb.

 

[Jennin Prennison]

yeah

sounds like a good plan. if it was me, I'd think about buying more dirt than that then filling your trash cans with the extra soil. maybe hold some compost back as well to top dress with later. saving soil is like money in the bank to me and I like to have about 100-300 gallons on hand at all times if possible.

the mounds are good for many reasons, I got turned onto them watching others get good results that way. raised beds may be better, but only marginally, and if money is a concern, than the money spent on wood to build them could be better spent in other ways, like buying a few boxes of high quality nutrients. one of my fav brands for outdoor is down to earth organics. also be sure your using mykoriza of some kind. my personal fav is mykos from extreme gardening in the granulated form. low cost for a bag and I haven't found anything that works better for me after trying 10 brands or so it's still my fav. mykos also has great synergy with azos, also from extreme gardening. go easy (ish) on the azos though, it's very powerful but won't really hurt the plant, it's just crazy good as a nitrogen fixing microb.

Sounds good, I'll check out those nutes. Lol, my truck can't hold a whole cubic yard i don't think, but I'll try and get as much as I can. I have some wood lying around, so may just make a project out of it. I'll try both ways and see what works better.