What is a good container to hold / grow soil in?

[Guest]

I mix my soilless mixes in a 5.? cu. ft. 110 volt electric portable cement mixer (mine's an Imer brand, on a roller tri-pod stand).

I mix about 16.5 gal. of mix at a time, and then use the containers referenced below.

Costco and many other places have 27-gallon black poly totes with a yellow lid, made by a 'green company' (alleged to be environmentally friendly), made from recycled materials. They're stout enough to load with ~1-1/2 batches each, and stack at least 4 high with few worries. You could likely stack them 5 high safely, maybe more, but then you have to get them back down again, too, when you need them.

When it comes to 'stirring' or making mixes, or having to move them, less is more. I can manage a 27-gallon tote of mix a lot easier than I can 100 gallons.

But what I do, with a collection of these things, is more than sufficient for indoor use. If you're thinking of multiple outdoor sites, or a really large living soil bed, then these might not be what you're looking for.

 

[flylowgethigh]

Working smarter, not harder. I like it. I will bring 30 gallons inside for this first run.

 

[Guest]

Working smarter, not harder. I like it. I will bring 30 gallons inside for this first run.

I learned a while back to always take my heaviest non-caking materials, such as pumice, and put that down in the tumbler as a bed of sorts. Then add the next heaviest, and build my way up with the lighter stuff as I near the end of additions.

Two reasons; if you put light on the bottom in a tumbler, and heavy on top, it'll roll on you, often as you're trying to add stuff. Make gravity your friend, not your enemy.

Also, I used to over-water my initial mix, and didn't store it long enough to activate the bulk of the organics I was adding.

I add the salts and organics to the top layer, when everything is in, and tumble it dry, placing a piece of 6-mil poly sheeting over the opening, held in place with a long bungee; the cheap, poorly made fabric covered, nylon bungees that aren't worth much for any other serious application..

After tumbling the 16-gallons dry, I check for clumps; worm castings, pockets of perlite or vermiculite, etc., and if it's all mixed well, I add about 2-2/3 gallons on the initial wet spin, and again tumble until it's well mixed with no segregated pockets.

Then I ph, and if good, tuck the totes I referenced up to the front of the stand, and tip the mixer with the motor not running. Out she goes, and for the remaining bulk of the valuable debris inside, I slowly flip the switch off and on with the mixer still tipped into the dumping position, for several partial rotations, to dump the remainder that I can with the motor. The rest is cleaned out by hand..

I've stored them with that amount of moisture for over 9 months, and not had mold, stirring them tooo infrequently, but Doc Tim (former member here) had his own technique for aeration and moisture, involving PVC tubes through the lid, down into the mix. My guess is you can find his notes here some place, buried some where.

 

[imiubu]

I mix my soilless mixes in a 5.? cu. ft. 110 volt electric portable cement mixer (mine's an Imer brand, on a roller tri-pod stand).

^^ My (hopefully) soon to be realized goal
My shoulders won't take too many more years of this 'hand' mixing.

I'm a simple hobby gardener and only grow a small amount of cannabis for myself each winter. I like to make a fair amount of soil ahead as it gets used so damn quickly. I grow some maters/ peppers etc., and have house plants too and all of them need good soil, sigh.

I currently use a kiddie pool to mix the soil then store it in 18gal totes with locking lids. I also cover the top of my soil with old 'soil/ peat' bags inside the totes to better retain moisture. 18gal totes are the max size/ weight I am able to "tote" easily.

Glad to see your grow project moving along so well @flylowgethigh.

 

[trichrider]

Yeah, I am glad I called. There is 1 ft3 of Happy Frog potting soil, and 1 ft3 of Happy Frog soil conditioner in there also. The mix is still cold and damp. When is the bacteria gonna wake up and start the heat cycle? I will put worms in the 100 gallon tub after the cook-off, cause won't they die when it finally gets hot? Maybe I need to put in a ft3 of worm castings that I have.

What kind of worms does one want, and besides a fishing store, where to get them? I get skinny ones on my sidewalk after a big rain.

I wish that tractor was orange instead of red. My 50 year old blue one (4000 SU) pulls just as hard, and it's only 2WD.

https://territorialseed.com/collect...KC3t_SAMBmtG0dIpoCZUThjn73l5MuKUaAmJSEALw_wcB



in their 2021 catalog, under composting...
1000 wrigglers-$65. / 2000-$85.

 

[flylowgethigh]

Trichrider, thanks for the cover crop link. I want plant a couple acres with one this spring to build it up. I would love someday to plant hemp there, or dope.



So, as seen above, my soil is as ready as I can make it, and 4 pounds of earthworms arrived today. I put one pound in the 37 gallon plastic trash can I have inside. That soil is for this first run, and the rest of the 3 pounds of worms in the outside tubs that are under the shed.

The instructions say not to put Rootwise (microbes) in the soil until there is a plant - so I guess I will dunk the rootball in a solution when I pot the babies up from the dixie cups. That will be when the tents finally get set-up. The soil in the shed will just have to grow worms for now.

Right now the tubs are just covered with particle board, and were getting stirred every so often, until I put in the worms. Stirring moist soil is a chore for sure. It helps to have a stout container that the shovel can be leveraged, to pull up soil from the bottom. Short long/narrow square-end shovel works best. I want a way to flip over a container into another like it, so the contents get rotated top to bottom, without a shovel chopping up the worms.

I maybe made too much, but is that really a thing? I found the worms by typing in "earthworms for sale". These are fat worms, and I have ponds. I hope I didn't bring anything bad, via the crap the worms were in.

https://www.earthworms4sale.com/

 

['Boogieman']

I originally bought this 300 gallon container to mix soil but rolling a barrel around is much easier for me. I use it to store Rainwater now.

 

[flylowgethigh]

It has been cold the last few days. The shallow 50 gallon tub was almost frozen over. The 100 gallon tub had a frozen layer on top, and the edges, but I was able to breakup the top hard layer, and chop it up. I got 7 gallons of soil for another bag, and the worms were still wiggling. Sorta. An insulated lid may help, as would some heat in times like these.

 

[blazeoneup]

You can pick up one of these style compost wizards from tractor supply (Use as a mixer composter and storage bin) just spin it around on the stand it sets in making tumble mixing an easy process.