New wicking bed

The hole drilled on the back right side about 2 inches above the gravel.

 

Wow,,this is amazing to me.

 

I don't dye my hair so I can't attest to all that It's pretty much the only dish soap used in the oil field-at least where I've worked. H&P and Nabors Drilling both used it as a cleaner and lubricant on the flex/walker type rigs. We've still got bottles of it here in the pantry. It's the only dish soap I'll buy, however @Sassenach likes to sneak in some cheaper stuff whenever she finds it on sale..

 

@ditch witch - as a follow up how well did this work out for you?

 

It works fantastic! There are a few hiccups I hit along the way though, nothing that wasn't fixable.

1. New plants will need to be well watered at the start to give the time for their roots to reach down to where the water is. The first year I ran this bed I lost a lot of plants that just dried up, because I didn't top water. What I do now is stick the hose in the fill spout on the bed and fill it so the water level rises to above the dirt, basically flooding the bed. I do that about 2 times a week when its really hot. Doesn't take long for the plants roots to get big enough to find the water below and then I don't top water any more.

2. My drain doesn't work nearly as fast as I'd like, so when the bed is flooded (intentionally or otherwise) I have to push a little stick in it to back the weed mat/sand off it a little to get it to drain faster. I'm sure there's ways to install a little port or something to solve that but it doesn't rain enough here to make it a real issue for me.

 

Nice - I'm planning to use that system when I don't live next door to the HOA president. Any changes you would make other than what you talked about above?

 

I just finished putting another together today... I did make one change and I'll post a pic in my garden thread later today where you can see it. I cut my landscape fabric a lot longer to allow plenty of overhang, and then I took some foam pipe insulation and sleeved it over the top edge to 1) hold the landscape fabric in place, and 2) be a little softer on my hands and knee when I lean against that edge. IDK how well that'll hold up but I think it'll do the job, and keep the landscape fabric from flipping back over on top of the plants and soil when the wind kicks up. I had a couple pieces floating around and thought I'd give it a whirl.

OH... might put a screen or something over the inflow pipe when you're not using it. I always have frogs living down in there. Which, IDK, they aren't hurting anything and probably eat the mosquitoes.

One nice thing about those beds is I still have the top half of the tote so if there's a major storm coming, hail and high winds, I can drop the top over the bed to protect the plants, at least while they're not real big anyway.

Three years later here's that bed, with 2 more going in next to it.

 

Ok after a mess last night I realized something I should have done to these beds during the builds.

PUT A SCREEN INSIDE THE TUB OVER THE OPENING TO THE DRAIN

Ugh. It takes a while for the roots of your plants to reach the water, so until they do the water just sits there stagnating and turning into a mosquito breeding ground if you left the inflow pipe open like I do. I decided to open the drain and empty the reservoirs out on one of the beds that barely has anything in it, forgetting there's gravel behind it. Of course gravel got in the drain and I couldn't shut it. Took forever cramming my fingers into it to dig out the gravel stuck in the line. Next time I build one of these I'm going to put landscape fabric or some kind of plastic mesh that won't quickly disintegrate in water (not sure what yet) between the gravel and the drain entrance.

 

I'm going to add an update to this because after having these beds for 5 years, things happen that make me think, ugh wish I'd known.

IBC totes come with several different types of drains. The one I see the most uses a butterfly flap valve to close off the water flow. The problem with this flap is that with time the plastic gets a little brittle, so if you're opening and closing that valve, sooner or later it's gonna crack the drain line and then your bed is going to leak. The only way to repair it once that happens is to dig out the bed around the drain, and basically plug the drain. I had to dig up 4 of them this spring and cover the opening on the inside with waterproof tape, so now the drain doesn't drain at all.

The totes I have zero problem with have some sort of ball valve in there. Some are balls, some look like cylinders with a hole through them, but they turn a lot more smoothly and don't put pressure on the drain line like the butterfly flap does.

Overflow holes. I originally drilled some holes in them and they worked, but I did have issues with the holes getting clogged or jammed up, and in a serious rainstorm they didn't drain fast enough. Now we're looking at tapping a hole much lower in the bed, down in the reservoir actually. Using a Uniseal in the hole, we'll drive a 1" PVC into the reservoir, then on the outside attach a 90 degree elbow. Into the elbow we'll stick another section of PVC, cut to the level we want the bed to drain at.
This will serve two purposes.
1. It'll act as an overflow drain in times of too much water.
2. It'll act as a drain for all those beds I have with stupid butterfly flap drains that I've had to close off. If I want to empty the reservoir I can just turn the pipe down to horizontal and let it drain.
It could also be used as a fill tube, eliminating the need to run that uncooperative drainage pipe up the side of the bed.

 

I worked up a pretty good hydroponics green house until I figured the cost and chemicals!

Still it was fun and the family learned a few things, like don't go off and leave the drains open and the water on.

And now we have a
Heat Advisory
From WED 18:54 until THUR 19:00

 

my brain cant quite picture this so when you build would you mind posting a pic?

 

1st this thread is great and your info is awesome.
You can purchase and replace the butterfly valve with a ball valve if anyone is interested.

 

You can even get hose bibs. Lots of options and adapters out there.

 

It could be a while before I do it so here lemme draw a pic....


I bumped the PVC up to 1 1/4" because I can stick the end of the garden hose into it. The 1" was too small.

Aww thank you!
I know I can buy them but I'm cheap AF and I can get another tank for free.

 

Me and the B (husbie) are looking at some raised garden stuff but I think the shipping would be cost prohibitive for your totes dad. I'll have to find a local source for this. I even found some siding I can slap around them to keep the HOA happy.

 

I found mine on Craigslist, but if you want a bargain it takes patience. Mine came from a local bakery at a fraction of the local going rate, and was used for glucose. Consider approaching bakeries or other local food producers, especially small ones, directly.

 

How important is food grade will I be poisoning my family if I go non-food grade?

 

"It depends." In any case, flushing and cleaning MAY prevent problems. I would be ill inclined to use aircraft deicing solution totes, but that stuff is supposed to be environmentally safe. Not so sure that "environment" includes intestinal flora and fauna. In other words, I'd make the effort to find food grade totes that were indeed used in food grade applications.

 

I'm thinking those totes would work great in a green house!
Used for a center isle and then my two galvanized trays(lined with fiber glass mat)would set up a great unit. My trays have a center drain tube in the bottom and valved off for my old hydroponic system.

 

So I finally think I find a tote 500 gallon he says, great condition he says via email. First he's all bent out of shape because I'm a girl. Then he takes me to a tote that is 275-300 gallon no lid and has a big ole fork hole in it. When I ask about the lid he's all you can buy on the internet but instead of the $50 he quoted online the price is now $75. I did what you have to do in such cases. I folded my cash and put it back in my wallet and walked away. BTPost didn't raise any stupid adults. I'll keep looking until I find another deal.