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Frugal Gardening

Intensive gardening with soda bottles

14 years ago

I want to use soda bottles, 2 liters, to plant in burying them with the bottom open, so to plant things closer.

What can be planted in them, and how close can I plant,what varieties of vegetables, herbal or tea plants will grow tall instead of outward, or what plants are easy to prune to grow upward?

Things can be planted much closer if it would work. Any ideas?

I've given up on my bottles as irregation because of intensive labor and unreliability. Space is an issue above ground or below as well. 2 liter bottles are not small and if only holding water, will take up half the garden.

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Comments (3)

oilpainter
14 years ago
The soda bottles the way you want to use them are mini greenhouses and would be too hot to leave on all summer. Once the leaves touch the sides they will burn. They are great for warming the soil, protecting plants from frost in the spring and for starting frost hardy plants earlier.

I don't know what made you think you could plant closer if you used them. A plants roots need the same amount of space whether or not they are covered with anything.

If you want to have more room in the garden then think of having some vining plants and have them grow upwards on trellises or chicken wire secured on sturdy posts. You can make a teepee with bamboo poles stuck in the ground and tied at the top.

On these you can grow cucumbers, peas, pole beans, and vining tomatoes--make sure they are vining not bush varieties. I'm sure there's more but I can't think of them right now. Maybe someone else can add to my list
marlingardener
14 years ago
"I want to use soda bottles, 2 liters, to plant in burying them with the bottom open, so to plant things closer."

It sounds like you are using the bottles as bottomless pots to contain the root growth of the plant. Am I understanding that correctly?
If so, you are going to end up with root-bound plants which do not thrive nor produce as well as those who have sufficient space.
Oilpainter's idea of trellising plants such as cucumbers, squash, pole beans and even small melons will save you space. Succession planting (lettuce, followed by beans, followed by broccoli, for example) will utilize your space well, too.
Making the hard decision on what to plant and giving the plants space to grow will result in a better garden than a bunch of plants that are competing for space or are root-bound.
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How about carrots? Will you be using 2 litre bottles, or some other size? If you're using gritty mix, the bottom of a half-gallon bottle will be as aerated as the bottom of a half-gallon pot, so no worries about useable container volume. I don't know if plants with strongly horizontal root systems will grow just as strongly vertically if they don't have any other option, but if they do then you can grow in a half-gallon bottle the same way as in a half-gallon pot. I use pop bottles for Haworthias mostly, and I've just put a couple of Lophs into a large bottle. The Haworthias would do fine in a regular pot large enough to be deep enough for their roots, but I don't have enough mix for that. The Lophs would probably explode with that much air and water available to the roots.
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I used inverted 2 liter soda bottles a couple of years ago to supplement watering. I left the lids on with a couple of small holes poked through them. Obviously, the bottom of the bottle was cut off to allow for filling. These would drain themsleves in a day or so.My eggplants loved them! I suppose one could surround a plant with these if the outlet holes were small enough to prevent overwatering, thus watering the plant and keeping it warm too.
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I've planted my cucumbers over a week ago. They were wintersowed and growing already outside. I covered them with bottles, same as you describe. I've mulched around with shredded leaves pretty high. So far, so good and they survived a few quite cold nights. I know, it's crazy early but everything sprouted so early. I want to do this with a couple of tomatoes and sunflowers. I have to wait till weekend, no time right now.
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scarletdaisies
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks! I was thinking along the lines of what a raised bed garden would do, so without the extra raised bed soil, it seems to be a worthless to do what I want.

What about using them as mini raised beds? The plastic would dry them out and kill them in this somewhat hot climate, but a planter next to a plant, it shouldn't bother them. I should just cover them in relfective white paper, do you think that would cool the plastic bottles off?

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