Re: Inside Bon Vivant Nursery

One thing that I did was leave about six inches of space between
I spent some time tonight moving pots apart, gallons just getting more space and quarts set only in every other opening in the flat. Air criculation is important, plus more leaf surface getting sun.

Interesting about the shade cloth in sun vs just shade. Most of our pot beds are part sun/shade.

Kitty
neIN, Zone 5
----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher P. Lindsey" <lindsey@mallorn.com>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Monday, June 12, 2006 10:17 PM
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Inside Bon Vivant Nursery


I'm sort of curious about the misting.  Are they misted from above?

Yes.  I ran a piece of PVC all the way down the middle and zip-tied it
to the frame.  There's a spot for a sprayer every four feet (the
tables are in eight foot segments, so it made sense), but I really only
have sprayers every eight feet.

I use cheap 50-cent center-strip sprayers from Menards.  They cover about
a 20'x5' area and put out two gallons per minute.  They connect to a
1/2" nipple.

Since they're spraying down instead of up the coverage isn't quite as
good, but they still seem to get a fair amount of water down into the
pots.

One thing that I did was leave about six inches of space between each
flat -- that way the plants weren't overhanging each other nearly as
much.

I've also been adding superabsorbent polymers to the soil mix.  I got
the skinny on how they work from my brother; he used to do research
for BASF developing diapers using the same superabsorbent materials.
Personally, I'm sold on them, and the plants seem much happier.  If
I ever get my lawn ready I'm going to till some in as well; it'll pay
for itself in no time and it's completey non-toxic.

One thing that I've learned is that plants do better in full sun and
open air with shade cloth and water than in a shady area without shade
cloth.  Some shade plants suffer in my backyard, but the second they're
put under equivalent shadecloth in full sun they do much better.
We have two enclosed beds (6 timbers high) with 2.5 inch resin risers on
the bottom for drainage. They are enclosed in the same manner you've used
with pvc but we use bird netting. It's to keep bunnies out. Then we have
an in ground bed surrounded by pvc covered by fencing. We also have a
pot-in-pot setup that has worked very well, plus a few more beds. The
inground plantings do fine with rain and spray.
I've been thinking of building a framework to put 30% shadecloth over my
parents' vegetable garden.  The tomatoes will still get enough sun and
the water savings will make it worthwhile.

Now I just need more space here!  Can I have some of your beds?  :)

Chris

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