GreenDragon
Well-Known Member
Yes, I agree that would work better. I didn't realize they were so large! I absolutely abhor plumbing myself.
Knucklehead's 2022 Prilep and Veggie Container Grow Blog
- Thread starter Knucklehead
- Start date
I grew up plumbing, farming and building houses but I've been a paraplegic since '84. Our plumbing goes over head in the basement so I would have to hire the work done, plus there is probably additional maintenance in terms of filters or whatnot for the whole house filters. (I have no idea, I didn't look into that route). I have no complaints with the water quality, I just need to remove chlorine for the plants. If this works, then I'm already dragging out the garden hose regardless , so the filter would require very little additional work, it's just a matter of threading the filter onto the faucet or inline between two hoses. I water slowly anyway to avoid blasting soil out of pots.
Oldfella
Well-Known Member
The idea looks good. I see that you will get 3 months from them, make sure that they will remove chlorine and don't forget the other nasty, chloride. Unfortunately all the things that I have done to treat water involve some basic plumbing. As soon as I find all of my data on this subject I'll post it.
Oldfella
Yeah, a couple of other members are looking into chlorine removal so we'd appreciate any info you come up with. I ordered the chlorine test strips to get a feel for when the filter starts to degrade over time. I paid $21 for two filters, so if each one lasts three months I'm looking at $3.50/month during the growing season to assure combustible tobacco leaf. I can live with that as long as they do what they're supposed to.
I tested my tap water today and got 3 ppm chlorine. The filters will be here Monday and I'll test the water post treatment and post my results.
Be sure to test for total chlorine, in addition to just free chlorine (typical pool or drinking water parameter for disinfection), since any chemically combined chlorine may be an issue for tobacco.
Bob
Bob
My test strips were for free chlorine only. I just ordered a kit to test for both free and total chlorine. Thank you for pointing that out.
Oldfella
Well-Known Member
I had a hunt around today and could only find my stuff on waste water treatment. I must have given it away to others. But with out getting complicated all you need is, aquarium filter wool, activated Charcoal, (I used aquarium filter carbon) something to hold it all and some piping.
Water enters the bottom of the filter and bubbles up through the Charcoal. The slower the flow the better the removal. This means that to increase the flow you will need to go bigger. As an example when I was staying at my sister's house in the city I installed a filter as I didn't like chlorine taste, I made it out PVC pipe and it was 3" diameter by 24" in length. It supplied the kitchen and the bathroom cold water, (no need for the hot as heating destroys chlorine), it used to last about 1yr.
At that time home filtration was difficult to find, nowadays not so, you may find something online that's easier to use.
Oldfella
Oldfella
Well-Known Member
@GreenDragon found some good ones at the homedepot they look easy to connect. Check his post. You should be able to connect to your hose easily. You don’t need to have the whole house connected. I noticed that they are inlet and outlet female threaded and a bracket that screws onto a wall or a fence. Connect your hose pipe in and out, easier than mucking about making something.
Oldfella
Oldfella
I'm officially beginning the hardening off process. Great weather over the next ten days, highs in the 70-80F range, lows in 50-60F with one 38F and a 42F those two nights then temps go back up again. I'll bring the plants back into garage those nights. I have the early seedings currently getting some scattered sun/clouds and I'll be monitoring carefully then get back into the shade shortly. Those later seedings are under the chair in the shade and may be getting some reflected light from the concrete but no full sun. I'll spend the next two to three weeks hardening off the plants until they can survive full sun. (est. three weeks to allow for the later plants) If it takes less that's ok too. April 22 I have a 10% chance of a 32F frost. I will be watching the ten day forecasts around the 22nd and then plant in pots based on the forecast. Some plants call for later planting in the ground as soil temps rise but I'm planting in black grow bags so some of those could go earlier if they start to look distressed due to confinement. My corn and beans desperately want some growing space. We're nearly there so hang in there babies, daddy's coming.
Attachments
I should mention that I got a week or so late start in seeding so I'm not holding myself to that last frost date. I have a long season so no big rush aside from the corn and beans want out of those tiny cells.
Ignore my last two posts. New plan, new direction.
I'm planting right now.
I drove down the hill to get my soil and grow bags out of my shop, back up the hill to the house, and now I'm planting corn and beans. The planted grow bags are going to stay in the bed of the truck. When they need sun, I back the whole truck into the sun. When they've had enough sun, I pull the truck back into the garage. I can get those root bound poor little critters out of the cells and I can harden in the grow bags without lugging all the grow bags every little while from sun to shade by sheer force of manual labor. I'm such a dumbass. One of you guys should have called me out on this before now. You guys know I'm an idiot.
I can drive the whole bunch in and out of the sun until hardened and then move the whole bunch to their permanent spot after hardening. I'm such a dumbass. Somebody should have called me out on that. I have no ego. Just say "hey, dumbass, why doncha do it this way, it's better for your plants?" I won't mind.
I'm planting right now.
I drove down the hill to get my soil and grow bags out of my shop, back up the hill to the house, and now I'm planting corn and beans. The planted grow bags are going to stay in the bed of the truck. When they need sun, I back the whole truck into the sun. When they've had enough sun, I pull the truck back into the garage. I can get those root bound poor little critters out of the cells and I can harden in the grow bags without lugging all the grow bags every little while from sun to shade by sheer force of manual labor. I'm such a dumbass. One of you guys should have called me out on this before now. You guys know I'm an idiot.
I can drive the whole bunch in and out of the sun until hardened and then move the whole bunch to their permanent spot after hardening. I'm such a dumbass. Somebody should have called me out on that. I have no ego. Just say "hey, dumbass, why doncha do it this way, it's better for your plants?" I won't mind.
I got started. My sister showed up and decided to help. Last winter, my wife commented that winter tomatoes are awful, "Grow some", she said. I said "all right". My sister, who was visiting and overheard the conversation said, "ooooh, grow me some okra". I said, "all right, I'll start the seed indoors and I may as well grow a little tobacco." That was all I was planning on growing until I started browsing the seed catalog and as usual, it started snowballing from there. I really like silver queen corn but if I'm going to grow that I might as well grow beans and squash with the corn like the Native Americans did. Aaaaaand here we go. Then deluxestogie sent the Knucklehead pumpkin seed and I start thinking what am I going to do for onions? Aaaaaand here we go again. Photo of what Baby Sister and I planted today. I moved the seedlings in and out of the sun a couple of times. They are doing well and back in the shade and the truck garden is back inside the garage. Tomorrow I get to do it some more.
Seed catalogs are fraught with danger. Beware.
Campmor used to send out a little quarterly 64-page, 2-color newsprint catalog with line-sketches of their outdoors stuff. Oh gosh! Fortunately, they have now gone totally on-line, so I only visit if there is a particular thing I need to buy. But seeds are a different story, when you've enjoyed month after month of crappy winter weather and crappy winter veggies. I carefully plan my veggie garden in early December, so that my early spring urges don't have too much space left to scavenge from the garden bed.
I haven't tried the secret pickup truck trick yet. All I would need is to purchase a pickup truck, and build a garage, to make it work out.
Bob
Campmor used to send out a little quarterly 64-page, 2-color newsprint catalog with line-sketches of their outdoors stuff. Oh gosh! Fortunately, they have now gone totally on-line, so I only visit if there is a particular thing I need to buy. But seeds are a different story, when you've enjoyed month after month of crappy winter weather and crappy winter veggies. I carefully plan my veggie garden in early December, so that my early spring urges don't have too much space left to scavenge from the garden bed.
I haven't tried the secret pickup truck trick yet. All I would need is to purchase a pickup truck, and build a garage, to make it work out.
Bob
Tobacco is planted. I only grew 12 Prilep. I planted ten and have two backups. I nipped off two-three bottom leaves and planted down to the next leaf. I'll move them to the truck garden and move the truck in and out of the sun to finish hardening.
Update on my inline RV filter with garden hose threads. Lost in transit. @#$&%$ USPS. I was given a refund and reordered from a different vendor. I did recieve my free and total chlorine test strips. Waiting patiently for the filters.
Average last frost date April 22, six days from now. 14 day forecast shows three days of scattered rain with a low of 40F Monday night and 42F Tuesday night. After that, highs in 70's and 80's with lows in the 50's and 60's. I'm going to leave this stuff outside and bring in shade as needed. They are already taking full sun for four hours with a tiny bit of wilting. Back to the shade for an hour and back into the sun. I'm still watching for signs during hardening but they'll be on their own sun wise in a few more days. Three days of wind, rain, and scattered sun/clouds are going to be helpful. I should mention that they were on the other side of the house under an eastern facing porch during the day, so they had a head start toward hardening.
I have seven more filled grow bags in the shop that are waiting on some okra and Rutgers tomatoes that were reseeded due to a bad start on the first attempt. Now I'm out of soil and debating whether or not to get more. Those seven bags may be the end of my planting this season. Just waiting for the move to permanent sunny spot.
I have seven more filled grow bags in the shop that are waiting on some okra and Rutgers tomatoes that were reseeded due to a bad start on the first attempt. Now I'm out of soil and debating whether or not to get more. Those seven bags may be the end of my planting this season. Just waiting for the move to permanent sunny spot.
For you sharp eyed gardeners, my original goal was tobacco, tomato, and okra. Each of those have their own grow bags. Having never grown veggies in containers before I'm intentionally pushing the corn, beans, and squash to determine how crowded is too crowded. Two squash per bag. One corn and one beans stalk or one corn and two bean stalks per bag. If my wife has her tomatoes, my sister has her okra, I get my tobacco, it's a successful season. Learning what not to do this year will teach me what to next year on the other veggie's. Still a win for me. Good luck everybody.
Blocking your door with filled grow bags awaiting attention is my kind of reminder.
Bob
Bob
My filter arrived today and I installed it in about two minutes. It's so easy that I plan to only use it for watering the garden for the removal of chlorine so that the filter will last longer. Many reviews state that it's use removed water spots for washing cars. I may actually try that for my biannual car washing.
I was actually impressed with the flow post install. Photo shows wide open, I will need to back off from that for watering the containers.
I used my new test strips that check both free and total chlorine. Testing the tap water before adding the filter, I came up with 1 ppm free chlorine and 0.2 ppm total chlorine. Testing the water through the filter, I came up with 0.1 free chlorine and 0.0 total chlorine. In trying to figure out how how total chlorine could be less than than free chlorine, I found some pool and spa articles that referenced the need to adjust pH and alkalinity. My goal was to remove chlorine, not santize the garden so I stopped looking for answers. Will 0.1 ppm be low enough? I dunno. I'm running with it.
I will continue to test about every couple weeks.
I was actually impressed with the flow post install. Photo shows wide open, I will need to back off from that for watering the containers.
I used my new test strips that check both free and total chlorine. Testing the tap water before adding the filter, I came up with 1 ppm free chlorine and 0.2 ppm total chlorine. Testing the water through the filter, I came up with 0.1 free chlorine and 0.0 total chlorine. In trying to figure out how how total chlorine could be less than than free chlorine, I found some pool and spa articles that referenced the need to adjust pH and alkalinity. My goal was to remove chlorine, not santize the garden so I stopped looking for answers. Will 0.1 ppm be low enough? I dunno. I'm running with it.
I will continue to test about every couple weeks.
