Totes McGotes

[JohnAndSancho]

It's been discussed at great length over and over how expensive large pots are. I mean, sure, whatever, most of those conversations were me talking to myself, but they still took place. So I scored 6 of these 27 gallon totes at Lowes for the Black Friday deal at $6 and change apiece. (They're still like $10)

 

Built a whole bench, specifically to hold 5 of these, to their exact measurements, with a 5 inch gap down the center for drainage. So this is gonna work. 

Eh, I wasn't paying attention when I made my first cut. I used the drill to cut the hole because I care soooooo much about how pretty it is when it's all gonna be covered in dirt anyway, but anyhow - yeah my first cut I hit the support 2x4, no biggie. I'll just make the other cuts a tad bit smaller. 

 

But John, how are you gonna keep the soil from falling out? Well I'm glad you asked, absolutely nobody. I'm going to use these old pieces of a screen door, cut it down and Gorilla Tape it before I drop the dirt in. I think first I'm gonna bust out the Dawn Power wash and the hose tomorrow, because - like so many things in and around this house, this screen door absolutely reeks of cat piss. 

 

Anyway, for those of you who don't follow the Mississippi Squad thread, here's the bench. 

 

2x4 scraps and some repurposed very old very heavy shelves. My big butt can stand on this thing so it's solid, I stood on it to hang the lights above it, and I totally didn't die - so I'm pretty sure it can hold 5 totes of dirt. I'm gonna throw my Alocasias in one or 2 of them, and I got 15 pounds of bulbs that @N8ALLRIGHT sent me (shout out again for this, and he threw in some rare cool Sabal seeds too) so I'm gonna get them going. The plan is to get a head start on everyone else - when everyone else is planting and selling bulbs, I'm gonna be planting and selling some King Kong looking plants. Not only will they be big but they'll be throwing pups by the time it's warm again... Well, warm for 8 months. And I'm gonna use one for my bokashi soil factory. Pull stuff out and throw it in 1g pots when it's there for the mail order, save the big stuff to sell to the old ladies and the people who need to outdo their neighbors. 

 

[SeanK]

This raises a good question.

I've bought many of the 27-gal totes for storage. Large, thick, rectangle, plus a separate lid. $8 at HD. So why are thin, round planting pots disproportionately expensive? 

(edit) Harbor Freight is giving away a 5-gal bucket with a $30 purchase this weekend.

[JohnAndSancho]

8 hours ago, SeanK said:

This raises a good question.

I've bought many of the 27-gal totes for storage. Large, thick, rectangle, plus a separate lid. $8 at HD. So why are thin, round planting pots disproportionately expensive? 

(edit) Harbor Freight is giving away a 5-gal bucket with a $30 purchase this weekend.

I don't have the answers, unless it's volume sales. They're gonna sell a lot more storage totes than nursery pots. I've even looked at larger nursery pots from Greenhouse Megastore, and through a specialized retailer like them, the pots themselves are relatively cheap - but the shipping is absolute murder since shippers charge TONS for anything larger than 1 cu/ft. Your same question applies to the 5 gallon buckets though, I'm using maybe a dozen of those as planters right now too - and there's a lot more plastic in those too plus the "assembly" where some kid in China has to put the handles in them. 

[JohnAndSancho]

I guess I forgot to take pictures after I loaded it with dirt. It should work well, it's a mix of Lowe's 2nd or 3rd finest and Wal Mart's finest potting soil. I just plopped a few of the elephant ear bulbs from @N8ALLRIGHT in here just for science - it drains. It doesn't leak soil (....knock on wood) and I guess I'll top it off with a layer of used coir/perlite to hopefully knock down the fungus gnats before they get started. I started rooting 2 of the bulbs out in 1 gallon pots for a week just for giggles and grins and y'all are absolutely right, I'm going to regret it when I have 6 foot tall plants in February. 

It drains just the way I want it to. I'll just have to slide totes around to work around the support beams, I didn't take that into consideration because - as anyone who's followed me on here knows, I always think everything through before I dive in. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Lord Jesus help me. Y'all told me not to do this yet, but I did it anyway. 

 

I mean, on paper it's a great idea, I designed it all for perfect drainage and it works exactly like I built it to do. But if that bulb has grown that much in what, 3 days in a pot plus 2 days in here? And there's 12 in there? And it's not even Christmas yet?