Anyone Grow in Rubbermaid Tubs?

[somebody041]

hey everyone, forgive me if this is a common topic but my search yielded nothing worthwhile...

right now i use the full BMO line + compost tea (worm castings, molasses, and seaweed), to grow plants in a mix of 1/3 foxfarm, 1/3 perlite, 1/3 wormcasting/peatmoss mix, and 2 tbls dolomite lime per gallon of soil. i use 3gallon soil bags and can fit between 6 to 8 plants under each 1000watt hps light depending on how big i veg them for... normally around a month. i'm running 2 1000w lights in a 4.5x10 area.

i recently was at a buddy's house checking out his grow and he ditched individual pots to grow his plants in big rubbermaid containers. he said that the volume of soil he got using the rubbermaids was much bigger. (example, each rubbermaid holds 3 plants. that would normally be 9 gallons of soil, but using his size rubbermaid, he was able to fill it with around 30 gallons of soil). this got me considering using rubbermaids to grow. i couldn't find my info in searching RUI and icmag regarding growing in rubbermaid tubs using soil.

so... can anybody offer any insight or point me in the right direction?

thanks!

 

[smokinrav]

Multiple plants in one soil mass has been done successfully, as successful as any grow using individual planters. I remeber a guy on ICMAG from maybe 2005 who did it very well.

 

[TheNatural]

That is all that I use now is big rubbermaid like totes for growing.

They are called " Growbeds " when you grow several together in one tote.

I have had incredible success and have seen many different behaviors involved in this method of growing and plan to write something up soon on it

The totes that I use are " 48x18x18 " and " depending on the strain, " three to four plants in each tote with as much spacing as possible for I direct seed and do not transplant.

I have only my 10 girls in three of these totes and they get revegged every few months and are under a 1000 watt H.P.S. / H.I.D. conversion and Flourescents and a little natural light.

They done so well and got so settled, that when I grew these girls, I could not cut them down.

Good Luck and Be Blessed,

Rev. TheNatural

 

[somebody041]

how much water do you use and how frequently do you water? i would think that it would take a lot more water to moisten all of that soil.

 

[TheNatural]

Four to five gallons of water per tote each watering and that is about every seven days or so.

A good soil moisture meter will keep you up to snuff on your waterings.

Be Blessed,

Rev. TheNatural

 

[glassblower3000]

sounds like a good idea

 

[johnnysacoseeds]

For my upcoming grow, I plan on planting 1 mj to a tub, with chamomile and basil at the perimeters to test the potential benefits of these two companion plants.

 

[somebody041]

For my upcoming grow, I plan on planting 1 mj to a tub, with chamomile and basil at the perimeters to test the potential benefits of these two companion plants.

wow johnny, that sounds like a great idea! could you elaborate on the how the two types of plants pair well together?

i've thought about trying to grow some mushrooms in the same soil as the bud plant. they would release CO2 and could add to the microbeastie population. what do you think?

 

[warisnottheanswer]

there is a dude named DIRTBAG on here who grows some killa plants out of them totes u should search for his "portfolio...." grow i think its called

 

[johnnysacoseeds]

wow johnny, that sounds like a great idea! could you elaborate on the how the two types of plants pair well together?

i've thought about trying to grow some mushrooms in the same soil as the bud plant. they would release CO2 and could add to the microbeastie population. what do you think?

I don't want to hijack, I've got a thread in advanced that talks about it a little, with a link to the potential benefits (basil improves taste, chamomile increases oil production).
I don't know much about shrooms, other than they like very moist, dim areas - kinda hard to do while growing mj.