Wooden planter barrels

I would not worry about lining them with plastic. They're made to hold liquid.

I've had nasty ant probs when planting in wood. IDK if the wine barrels are treated or what tho. Maybe don't worry about it, but I've had huge ant colonies decide to live in the wood and wreak lots of havoc with the grow.

Did you not ever have a problem with ants when using clay or plastic? I've had problems in SoCal with those fucking Argentinian ants, you know the ones I'm talking about? They don't care, they invade EVERYTHING. God I detest those ants.

ant traps work like a charm.. i couldnt leave a crumb on the counter without coming home to an army of millions of ants. I bought the traps and within 2 days they are gone.

I have a plant in a 30 gallon barrel with only one 3/4'' hole, i bolted legs on it so it sits about 1 1/2 feet off the ground. filled it with 1/2 homemade compost and 1/2 garden soil and it works great.

Well, the ants ended up living IN the wood and caused a lot of damage to the planter box itself. Eggs and tiny ants everywhere. I had to transplant them at a very inconvenitent time, which really screwed up the plants I had in that box. Also the area I transplanted them to turned out to suck, so that didn't help. I can't completely blame the ants, but I ended up sacrificing a good grow environment for stealth. I have a big yard, but had an asshole roommate at the time that wouldn't have hesitated to try and get me busted. With kids, you REALLY can't get busted. Damn child services.

Agreed. And fucking ants, living IN the wood? Ugh.

Yee haw! Round up them doggies... How do you brand 'em, ST?

Yes Ye Haw!!! im going with a half mix of horse manure and half foxfarm with perlite added in the wooden barrels and of course the fish guts on the bottom. I hope it does me well.

DH, I want to see more of your hawk and falconry pix. Please. Make a thread, maybe?

First of all, you got to git yo'self a Lone Star beer. Long Neck, 'course. Then you drink it 'rat up, like with the quickness. The hanker'in fer such puts a high steppin' in your chores. If'n' you knoe what I be a-flapping 'bout. Next's, unleash the Worm Dog. Not many Folk's be having Worm Dogs to do up the rounding, causing they ain't been tought all rite' & proper like! But I muss fess up, ain't a nary day be easy a-train'n a Pup to do up dee' roundin', being all underground an such. I got's me one of dem Chawawa kinda of naturall born worm slayer's ! Oh Yeah! She cum all the way down south were them Mexican's be holding out. An they don't be cummin' cheap-wize, either! Cost me my favorite 2 legged Sow... Ole' Lucky. Dem two nother legs sho' tasted mit'e fine, what wiff all the sweet tators a man could shovel.
But fer you City slickers, want you be tendin' to do is sorta round them worms in a pile, an dat's what the dog be a-doin', pretty as you please. In'a shake, them worms be all together like, juss acking to be saved by a couple scoops wiff the hands. Now, I be tellin' Family bizznes hea !, so don't be a-broud-casting such sacred infermation!

Seamaiden said:

Yee haw! Round up them doggies... How do you brand 'em, ST?

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Pretty funny TEX...LMAO

Anywho.... im debating how to water these planter barrel bitches next season? As of now i am watering my 5 gallon pots at night by hand to avoid nosy neighbors,, its getting to be a pain, especially when my plants are surrounded by poison sumac..uggggh... I was thinking of running a drip system or a soaker hose. the drip system would have 2-3 drippers per barrel...or the soaker hose would just run up each barrel around the plant on top of the soil and then to the next barrel and so on...

any suggestions on which would be better?

also is it possible to mix the nutes in one of those MG fertilizer containers that hook between the hose nozzle am the spicket ?.. wait...let me rephrase that,,, is it possible to get the dosage right when using the fert dispenser?

Can I get back with you on that? Fuck it, here goes. Yes, Yes & Yes. But here is the problems I see, all comments welcome. In some Chapter in the growing Bible, it states,... it's impossible to water too much, IF you have good drainage. To prove point. Hydro growing. In our case, what we need is a QUICK way to water. Targeted subject- 5 gal pots. 40 or so is a mile away, fucking 5 gal pots. In the learning processes, here's what I done. Get spare pots, place 3 inches of soil into them, off=set drain holes when setting original pots into new pots= double potting. Most import, take out at least 2 inches of soil from the top, allowing that much water to be added at one quick time-slot. Water compacts the soil. I use a 1/2 inch fiberglass stick to poke holes around the root system, to allow water entry. With the double potting, 2 or more inches of water space, and the punched holes, I pour a lot of water quickly. Take note. Dribbling water will do the job, but if you keep the water level up to the rim for several seconds, it will cause a vacuum, forcing all oxygen out, & sucking fresh oxygen in. You may lose nutes in the process, but they are cheap, compared to the Ladies. Hope this helped.

hey dirthawker - I have 7 of these barrels around from 2.5 years ago when we moved in our house. They are in various states of their lives...I would line w/ plastic (with drainage for the roots) because they do rot out. But mine are outside 24/7. If you use them for a season then empty, clean, and store for the winter, they would probably last a much longer time (or somehow seal the insides to prevent rot). Plus, if you are a PH watcher, I'm not sure what a wood barrel does to ph. On the flip side (not lining them), the wood will allow for more natural sort of drainage.

Thanks for the input guys,,, these barrels i found are waterproof and made to hold wine..they are really nice,, i was gonna paint the outside of them in camo to blend in, and run some 1/4 inch wire around the sides to keep out the local squirrels.
I think if i just drill a dozen holes on the bottom it should drain good. About the drip system/soakerhose.. i still havent decided which would work better..

SOAKER HOSE OR DRIP SYSTEM THAT IS THE QUESTION?

I wonder if running nutes through either of them would eventually clog the system?

DIRTHAWKER said:

SOAKER HOSE OR DRIP SYSTEM THAT IS THE QUESTION?

I wonder if running nutes through either of them would eventually clog the system?

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There has got to be someone out there who has used one of these on there backyard grow?

Yes, but whether or not that person is reading this thread...? Here's my take on the two, and how I would weigh the options, because only YOU know the specifics well enough to make the call.

Soaker hose
PROS: Slow rate of water flow
CONS: Don't know how much water is actually being used, i.e. not such good control.

Dripper system:
PROS: You know exactly how much water is going to each plant in a given period of time.
CONS: They clog.

Ok, your turn!

Thanks... LOL well,, what i did was, as my hawks were watching with intrigue and bobbing there heads in enjoyment at me..lol i ran a soaker hose into one of my barrles, then i marked the time and turned on the water. It took 20 minutes to get one gallon. So i figure using a fert dispenser with the nutes added and let it run for 20 mins ,,then that would be sufficient.

Something just tells me that i could run into problems getting too much or too little at any given time.. who knows if plant # 1 is getting all the nutes? compared to plant #6 down the line? ya know what i mean? anyway.. i am juat tired of the midnight watering.. so thanks for offering the help.