South Texas
Well-Known Member
Full sun, or partial shade...
In ground, as much sun as possible. Anything around the base of the plants will do 2 things. Protect the root system & retain moisture. Wet leaf/grass clippings is good when dried in the direct sun for one day. Don't want mold or heat to burn the ground. Once dried, they will absorb water. One cheap method is one used by warm farmers. A cut piece of old carpet works REALLY good. The carpet will insulate the ground & retain moisture. Any floor laying carpet outfit has lots to throw away. Bring a sharp razor knife, and pick out the color- a light green or brown would be best. Old carpet is VERY nasty. Wash out well with water hose prior to exposing it to your babies. For a better root system, roots can be 'trained'. The roots go to water. If you water mostly around the root perimeter, the feeder roots will follow that path, giving a rooting system more capacity to extract nutes & water for the plant. If possible, cover at least 3 foot from the base of the plant. A lot of 1/2 to 3/4 inch holes poked in the ground will aerate, & allow ferts & water easier access to the root system. This is easy and a big plus for your plants & yield. If you have decent compost around your plants, no chems or poultry manure, a handful of warms under the carpet is an instant worm farm. Help them post a sign, "Don't tread on me!".
For us forced to be bucket heads, well, it sucks. I've been gardening for 40+, don't hardly know shit about raising shit in fucking buckets....
I switched from 3 to 5 gal. nursery black containers, still not big enough. 15 gal or more may be OK. I'm now having to haul about 70 gals of water every day,.. every other day isn't sufficient. Even in real 5 gal buckets, every 2 days isn't enough. I also have to keep them shaded because of such. I started double potting which helped out a great deal. If I had known, I would have lined the containers with 1/4" Styrofoam sheeting, which would solve a major problem. If you have good drainage, use water only at first, to cool the soil down, then use nuted water for final application. Chem ferts burn, give them to your Ex.
In the meantime, save all your grass clippings, neighbors clippings, whatever is available. Come Fall, collect all the bags of leaves you can pick up. One big bag will only make about 1 gal of rich soil, so get a LOT. Keep moist & add molasses to speed up the composition breakdown. Live microorganisms is available in liquid form at your local nursery. They will make a stupid pile of leaves into the best, richest soil you'll ever touch or smell. The Microbes will die if you let the soil dry completely out, so will the worms. Bagged & sanitized cow manure is perfect, like "Black Kow". Save all the old root balls for the compost pile. I don't know all them fancy words, but the microbes love the old rooting system. A tea made with "Whole Ground Cornmeal" adds nutes & kills mold & bad Fungi. Worms love a sprinkle of it for a snack. Mopping the floors with water & orange oil is awesome, cleans & smells great. But also, pour the mop water on ant beds, it will kill them, naturally. But not around your plants or (living earth) compost pile! The goal is to have plants big & strong enough to hang a hammock from, next year. At least give FDD a run for his money! Hope I didn't bore you serious folks. Almost forgot. The ever expanding rooting system will always follow the path of least resistance- right, Common Sense Folks? SO..., when digging your hole for your plants, make them either square or rectangle, not round. If the hole is round, the new roots will not penetrate the old, hard soil, but will go round & round. If the roots are forced in a conner, they will dive in. Look at root bound in round pots for an example.
In ground, as much sun as possible. Anything around the base of the plants will do 2 things. Protect the root system & retain moisture. Wet leaf/grass clippings is good when dried in the direct sun for one day. Don't want mold or heat to burn the ground. Once dried, they will absorb water. One cheap method is one used by warm farmers. A cut piece of old carpet works REALLY good. The carpet will insulate the ground & retain moisture. Any floor laying carpet outfit has lots to throw away. Bring a sharp razor knife, and pick out the color- a light green or brown would be best. Old carpet is VERY nasty. Wash out well with water hose prior to exposing it to your babies. For a better root system, roots can be 'trained'. The roots go to water. If you water mostly around the root perimeter, the feeder roots will follow that path, giving a rooting system more capacity to extract nutes & water for the plant. If possible, cover at least 3 foot from the base of the plant. A lot of 1/2 to 3/4 inch holes poked in the ground will aerate, & allow ferts & water easier access to the root system. This is easy and a big plus for your plants & yield. If you have decent compost around your plants, no chems or poultry manure, a handful of warms under the carpet is an instant worm farm. Help them post a sign, "Don't tread on me!".
For us forced to be bucket heads, well, it sucks. I've been gardening for 40+, don't hardly know shit about raising shit in fucking buckets....
I switched from 3 to 5 gal. nursery black containers, still not big enough. 15 gal or more may be OK. I'm now having to haul about 70 gals of water every day,.. every other day isn't sufficient. Even in real 5 gal buckets, every 2 days isn't enough. I also have to keep them shaded because of such. I started double potting which helped out a great deal. If I had known, I would have lined the containers with 1/4" Styrofoam sheeting, which would solve a major problem. If you have good drainage, use water only at first, to cool the soil down, then use nuted water for final application. Chem ferts burn, give them to your Ex.
In the meantime, save all your grass clippings, neighbors clippings, whatever is available. Come Fall, collect all the bags of leaves you can pick up. One big bag will only make about 1 gal of rich soil, so get a LOT. Keep moist & add molasses to speed up the composition breakdown. Live microorganisms is available in liquid form at your local nursery. They will make a stupid pile of leaves into the best, richest soil you'll ever touch or smell. The Microbes will die if you let the soil dry completely out, so will the worms. Bagged & sanitized cow manure is perfect, like "Black Kow". Save all the old root balls for the compost pile. I don't know all them fancy words, but the microbes love the old rooting system. A tea made with "Whole Ground Cornmeal" adds nutes & kills mold & bad Fungi. Worms love a sprinkle of it for a snack. Mopping the floors with water & orange oil is awesome, cleans & smells great. But also, pour the mop water on ant beds, it will kill them, naturally. But not around your plants or (living earth) compost pile! The goal is to have plants big & strong enough to hang a hammock from, next year. At least give FDD a run for his money! Hope I didn't bore you serious folks. Almost forgot. The ever expanding rooting system will always follow the path of least resistance- right, Common Sense Folks? SO..., when digging your hole for your plants, make them either square or rectangle, not round. If the hole is round, the new roots will not penetrate the old, hard soil, but will go round & round. If the roots are forced in a conner, they will dive in. Look at root bound in round pots for an example.
