kiddy pool SIP

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greysmith

Registered:1394039826
Posts: 254

Posted 1396747510	Reply with quote #1

At the end of last summer Dollar General put these kiddy pools on sale for $2 each. I cut down some old PVC pipe I had left over from a long ago project. And. some scraps of fencing I'd picked up at a garage sale. 6" concrete mesh and rebar, I was given for free, make the cover frame, clear plastic for the sun shade. This thing is cheap. Does anyone remember when clear plastic was clear? I had a hoop greenhouse and I'd put plastic on it in early Oct. and take it off in May or maybe June. Then one year all I could find was this milky stuff (at the same price). I put it on in early Oct. and it had deteriorated so bad from UV that it fell off in mid Feb. no snow load, no bad weather, just poor quality. Now you have to buy the special "greenhouse plastic" if you want clear, or if you want it to last. I'll be cutting off plastic, bit by bit, to give the plants more sun as they harden off. Unless it just falls off. __________________ S central KY, zone 6b

IamKriya

Registered:1382711126
Posts: 254

Posted 1396752216	Reply with quote #2

Very ingenious! __________________ Zone 9a, Central Florida "Be the change you want to see in the world" ~ Gandhi ebay ID: churl82

ascpete

Registered:1336096379
Posts: 1,942

Posted 1396756510	Reply with quote #3

Greysmith, Thanks for sharing the pictures. Nice simple setup.

Joe_Athens1945

Registered:1396815560
Posts: 365

Posted 1399320020	Reply with quote #4

Good thinking! __________________ Athens, GA USA Zone 7b My young trees in the ground and in pots: Brown Turkey, White Triana JM, Magnolia, Strawberry Verte, Violette de Bordeaux, Panache, UK Brooklyn Dark JP, Ronde de Bordeaux. Wish list: St Rita

javajunkie

Registered:1362970391
Posts: 1,523

nycfig

Registered:1380768118
Posts: 886

Posted 1399330697	Reply with quote #6

Very cool. Nice setup. __________________ Danny NYC Z7a It's all about the figs! Facebook: NYCfigs Buying Fig Trees and Cuttings From the Internet

greysmith

Registered:1394039826
Posts: 254

Posted 1399552416	Reply with quote #7

I just made a pepper planter for the cook (As you value your quality of life, keep the cook happy). It's the same thing I'll be doing for the figs when they up-pot and need more room. So I thought I'd show some construction details. To get even watering to all the bags the bottom needs to be level. The easiest way to do this is to set up two level rails that you can work a scree board across. Trying to just trowel it will take all day. If you don't buy premixed, you'll need a modern efficient mixer. Fill bags and plant. These are the WalMart reusable grocery bags. They cost 50 cents each, $2 for the pool, I used local dirt and composted cow manure. I haven't figured the perlite, sand, and peat (mulch) but they weren't much. You're suppose to surround the bags with pea gravel to keep mosquitoes from breeding in the standing water. I don't have any pea gravel but I do have bark. So, I may use that, or, I may just let it dry out a bit every few days. When I see how my mix wicks I'll put a hole in the side of the pool to set the max water depth. There are float type automatic waterers you can use but I'm just going to water by hand for this small a setup. I have a raised bed that's getting overrun with Johnston Grass and I'm thinking of digging it out, lining it with plastic, and going to this kind of setup. If so I'll probably put an automatic waterer on that. __________________ S central KY, zone 6b

Ampersand

Registered:1389979527
Posts: 728

Posted 1399555775	Reply with quote #8

Good looking stuff! I'd caution that constantly wet bark/mulch will rot and stink badly. Plus the tannins might leach into the water, not sure how that would be for the plants.

farowyn

Registered:1369012438
Posts: 175

Posted 1399562516	Reply with quote #9

Great ideas! I was planning on picking up a kiddie pool for some floating seed trays I bought directly from the manufacturer. They're too big for standard trays. __________________ Jeff Central OH- Zone 6a Wish list-anything that will ripen in zone 6a.Souadi(obsessed with this one), Takoma Violet, Col de Dame anything -currently rooting: MBVS, DK, RdB, VdB. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” ― Margaret Mead

greysmith

Registered:1394039826
Posts: 254

Posted 1399564794	Reply with quote #10

That's a good point about the bark rotting. I think I'll just go with letting it dry out periodically. I think that's better for the plants anyway, make them stretch their roots a bit. __________________ S central KY, zone 6b

HarveyC

Registered:1212433117
Posts: 3,294

Posted 1399572188	Reply with quote #11

I've been thinking for some time of doing something similar to this on a large scale...enough for 100 or more pots. Just haven't figured out what I would use for the basin. I'd like to be able to go away for more than a couple of days without worrying about my plants (none are suitable for permanent SIP, I either will sell them or plant them in the ground.) __________________ Harvey - Correia Farms Isleton, CA (Sacramento County) USDA zone 9b, Sunset zone 14 http://www.figaholics.com https://www.facebook.com/Figaholics

greysmith

Registered:1394039826
Posts: 254

Posted 1399577722	Reply with quote #12

Larry Hall is the guru for this kind of thing He acts as a clearinghouse and has a load of videos out on all sorts of stuff. You can use anything for a basin that you can level and line with plastic. Just a hole in the ground for that matter. Here's one where he's showing some other ideas (starting at the 6 minute mark). Or, there's that one where he put the net cups in the bags on a rain gutter, that looked pretty good. Like I said, I've got a raised bed with a solid frame and too much Johnston Grass so I want to convert it to this system. __________________ S central KY, zone 6b

greysmith

Registered:1394039826
Posts: 254

Posted 1409500630	Reply with quote #13

I started this thread in the beginning of April. Thought I'd update it, as of the beginning of Sept., to show how it's been working so far. I up potted from those initial bags and took the wire platform out so the bags are resting on the bottom of the kiddy pool. With the bigger bags I had to start another pool. It's reached the point where I have to move the larger plants out of the first pool because they are growing through the shade support wire. I have been pinching these guys back, right from the beginning, to make them spread. Sometimes they'd put up just one stem when pinched instead of spreading but all in all I'm quite happy with how they've grown. HC and MBVS are the ones that have gotten so big. VdB and an unknown are much smaller, but they branched well and are dense. Kadota was a rescue from a Home Depot close out and it's looking healthy but it is way behind the others. __________________ S central KY, zone 6b

Charlie

Registered:1404043833
Posts: 1,214

Posted 1409501743	Reply with quote #14

I really like this, thanks for posting! __________________ Zone 7A ~ Fort Smith area Arkansas

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