4/1/2010 How does your garden grow

Its the beggining of the month lots of things to do lots of ideas to work on and time ot see them gardens up and growing. i know i just posted an end of the month review yesterday so theres probably not alot of changes but this thread will be for

1. Started Projects
2. Future Projects.
3. Ideas to help eachother
4. Success & Failures (we all hate failures)
5. Ideas that are stuck in your head

Project Started:
Strawberry barrel. Used and old plastic 55 gal drum to start working on my starwberry barrel project so that hopefully it will be ready for the fall season ive got some time and its simple to construct so its sorta on the back burner will post up pic's when its done.
1. Running into a small mathmatical problem with the mix how much do i need to make to fill the 55 gal drum?? (math not my strong point)

Project started and completed today
Made my worm motel today just need to order the worms will post up detailed pics in another thread

Future project
Figureing out how to increase the psi of water from my well to my drip irrigation system so that i get the full benifit of the jets i have installed (any plumbers out there with ideas)

on a side note all is well in my garden things seem to be growing pretty decently my 2 watermelon plants sprouted this morning and the sugar snap peas have finaly unrolled thier leaves looking forward to some great food this season and will be useing as many of the recipes posted to enjoy them even more.

If you have an idea thats stuck in your head feel free to ask about it im sure some one here or in the main forum can help you turn that thought into a reality.

Project Started:
Strawberry barrel. Used and old plastic 55 gal drum to start working on my starwberry barrel project so that hopefully it will be ready for the fall season ive got some time and its simple to construct so its sorta on the back burner will post up pic's when its done.
1. Running into a small mathmatical problem with the mix how much do i need to make to fill the 55 gal drum?? (math not my strong point)

It's not really mine either.. but the formula was stuck in my head somewhere... jogged it with Google _^Topeka ..

Should be: Pi x R² x Height
R (Radius) = 1/2 D (Diameter)

Also found this:

Code:


1 cu ft = 7.48 gal
55 gal / 7.48 = 7.3529411 etc.
7.3529411 cu ft in a 55 gal drum


So that would mean a little under 8 cu/ft... which works out roughly to 2.5 cu/ft per ingredient (Peat, Vermiculite and Compost.)

Thanx Jeff much appreciated so roughly 1 4x4 box mix will take up the volume of a 55gal drum which works out great cause i have 2 extra bags of vermiculite already lol thanx again

OK Poindexters, help me out with this: I usually put 10cf in a 4x4 box. So that's what I put in this blue barrel to take to another location. But it only filled the barrel 2/3 full, what am I missing?

I've done the same math as Jeff and get the same answers. This is a food grade barrel. When it sits next to a steel drum 55 barrel, it doesn't look any bigger. What am I not seeing?

yup steve your in the same situation as i am when it comes to this but i know someone who can help she loves math maybe i can get her to chime in on this equation conundrum of ours

boffer / choksaw - to further complicate things I found this site:
http://www.metric-conversions.org/volume/gallons-to-cubic-feet.htm
the dry and liquid conversions are 1 cu ft off - why? - i knew i should have stayed awake in calculus.

Noooo.... I'm not a math whiz... I have a love/hate relationship with math... but I DO like this conversion web page: http://www.onlineconversion.com/volume.htm

You should be aware that dry measure is not the same as a liquid measure, even if you use the same term (quart, gallon, etc) I have NO idea why.

If you're using a 55 gallon drum. it should hold 7.35 cu.ft.

I don't 'get it' either. It's a conundrum that I'll ponder for a bit

There she is muuaah thanx wyldflower now when i (and steve) go to make our mix we will know approximatly how much we need

Must be like the difference between a cup of water and a cup of flower.

Still, if you are trying to get the cubic feet of a cylinder should hold true...

Standard drums are 22.5 inches (572 mm) in diameter and 33.5 inches (851 mm) high (these dimensions yield a total volume of ~218 L).

So... V = Pi x R² x Height and R = 1/2 D

V = 3.14 x (0.5x22.5")² x 33.5" = 13313.109375 cu/in
V = 13313.109375 cu/in / (12"x12"x12"=1728 cu/in)
V = 7.704 cu/ft

That is, provided my math is right... now I'm confusing myself... :suspect:

you lost me when you started putting letter in place of numbers lol i was barely a D student in math but yet i had A's in both Science and Auto shop both which use math go figure.

Heres where things get real confuseing it was stated in another thread that a 5 gal bucket holds roughly 1 cuft of mix so that would mean 11 of those 5gal buckets should fill a 55 gal drum? makeing the drum hold a total of 11cuft of soil?

what i wouldnt give for a friend tht was a mathmatician

Ok so I am trying to wrap my mind around your project. Are you going to be planting the strawberries on top of the barrel or are you planning to cut into the sides like the common pots you see for sale?




Either way I would say one thing you can do is place some sort of solid displacement in the center of the barrel. It would take less mix to fill the barrel. You could simply stack a bunch of bricks or blocks in the center or you could get fancy and find the largest diameter PVC Drainage pipe available to you at the hardware store. With the perforated PVC pipe you could actually water from the inside.

If you want to go old school, mix up some Mel's Mix in a 5 gallon bucket. However much material that takes multiply it by 11. Even the most math challenged folks can handle simple multiplication.

I agree with everybody's numbers. Maybe it's the settling/compression factor we're not considering? One of us is just gonna have to fill a 55 gallon drum with a 5 gallon bucket to find out!

Mathematically, a 4x4x6inch box takes 8cf. But I always recommend 10 to account for compression when watered. Maybe we're all right, and it's just that simple!

@boffer - I think you're right. Consider a bale of peat moss. It's very compact when packed but expands to a greater volume when opened. We've all experienced "settling" of Mel's Mix in our SFGs. No doubt the same thing is happening in the barrel.

Jason this is where i got the idea from there is no picture unfortunatly
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/document%20vh023
here are few pictures i have found of what the end result should look like and the barrel being used is exactly the same type of barrel i have

building on Jason's idea, a perforated pipe in the middle for watering, several solid pipes to take up space and reduce soil needs

The plans call for a perforated pipe to be run down the middle of the barrel going into 2 inchs of gravel for drainage and watering once the barrel is full you fill the pipe with play sand and water all the strawberry plants through the pipe rather then all over

Choksaw, when you get ready to set the pipe, can you take a picture of it with the perforations so we can see how it looks and tell us how you did it? I LOVE the barrel idea! I set my 3 little strawberry plants in the grids in my garden. But I would love to be creative with the little plants so I can have them in boxes, barrels, cans, pots, etc.

cindy

Not a problem as i build it i will take alot of photos and create a step by step tutorial just like i did with my "Wiggler Hilton"

[quote="cindyroo"]Choksaw, when you get ready to set the pipe, can you take a picture of it with the perforations so we can see how it looks and tell us how you did it? I LOVE the barrel idea! I set my 3 little strawberry plants in the grids in my garden. But I would love to be creative with the little plants so I can have them in boxes, barrels, cans, pots, etc.

I am very interested to see how you put this together as well. Are the strawberries layered with dirt? I'm not understanding if you are using more mel's mix than needed to fill the barrell rather than just plant them in the ground. I love the look and am very curious. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to seeing it progress.

choksaw wrote:you lost me when you started putting letter in place of numbers lol i was barely a D student in math but yet i had A's in both Science and Auto shop both which use math go figure.

Heres where things get real confuseing it was stated in another thread that a 5 gal bucket holds roughly 1 cuft of mix so that would mean 11 of those 5gal buckets should fill a 55 gal drum? makeing the drum hold a total of 11cuft of soil?

what i wouldnt give for a friend tht was a mathmatician

I cheated and googled it
55 US gallons = 7.35243056 cubic foot
I do like the idea you have and want to try it.

OOC, The Strawberry Fest is going on right now, anyone here going to it