I was thinking about OSB because of the cost - much cheaper than an 8" or 10" solid piece. It has held up in the bottom of my Kratky boxes, so I think it will work.What about a solid wood instead of OSB? How are you gonna do the pots? Lined? Are you gonna use Larry Hall's mix for wicking? I'm working on a Hybrid RGGS (Same Theory as the kiddie pools). Here's what I got so far for that Air Pruning system that I mentioned in an earlier post.
I thought you were going with wicking pots... They sit in a shallow reservoir regulated by a float valve. The mix is 2 5 gallon buckets of peat 1 5 gallon bucket of composted manure a coffee can of perlite, handful of Epsom salts and a cup and a half of garden limeI was thinking about OSB because of the cost - much cheaper than an 8" or 10" solid piece. It has held up in the bottom of my Kratky boxes, so I think it will work.
Not sure what you mean by "lined". Some of the pots have holes near the bottom of the sides that are about 3/4" so I figure they were drain holes. I might stick a layer of weed fabric in the bottom to cover these holes.
I will look up what Larry Hall uses, but I have been using a mix of roughly 2:1 of peat moss and perilite. I am going to try the 3:2:1 (just like ribs!) in a few buckets this year. That being 3 parts peat, 2 parts pine bark fines, and 1 part perilte.
So, you are looking at 4 different systems this year?
wow.... I'm gonna check out those Chandlers.I know nothing about Arkansas beauties but we always plant our strawberries in the fall, we usually get just a couple a berries before the first freeze which you cover your berries for. Then in the spring the berries start back up. Oh and FYI, here most of the strawberries now are Cayanosa. They travel well, much tuffer berries. But the best tasting berries, most juicy and sweet are Chandlers.
Since I was too young to run away from home we did 3 to 5K plants a year. That required picking twice a day to hopefully keep up. Then Pop would load up the truck and go give 'em to friends. LOL Gwad I hated strawberries.....ROFLMAO.
Looks like Larry's mix is about 60% peat where what I have been using is 66% peat, which is the key component to allow the water to actually "wick" the water up. The pine bark is supposed to hold water and the shape helps provide air space. Perilite is just for drainage. Much of what I have read is from people that use the SWC Earth Boxes, so I thought it was the same concept. Most of them say that compost makes the soil too wet and heavy. I haven't tried it, so I can't really speak to it.I thought you were going with wicking pots... They sit in a shallow reservoir regulated by a float valve. The mix is 2 5 gallon buckets of peat 1 5 gallon bucket of composted manure a coffee can of perlite, handful of Epsom salts and a cup and a half of garden lime
I'll hopefully get mine setup this weekend and take some pics.
1) Air pruning (wicking Grow bags)
2) NFT strawberries and herbs
3) Recirculating Deep Water Culture, mater's, peppers, eggplants etc.
4) vertical towers, strawberries, herbs, peppers.
5) Traditional Dirt Farming in ground and raised beds
6) Hybrid Aquaponics
7) container gardening.
Sounds like a whole lot but it really isn't.