Ljbrandt, Excellent experiment, and right on time! I'm about to start my fall/winter garden here in Houston, and need some advice. Been trying to catch up to Al, but, seems he's outta pocket. I used a modification of his 5:1:1 container mix for the first time last season, growing the best crop of healthy tomatoes and plants ever. On Al's recommendation, I used a 3:1:1 mix of PBFs:peat:perlite in 5-gallon, self-watering eBuckets. I used MG Potting mix as my peat component, and I mixed in 1 cup of powdered Dolomite lime + 1 cup of 10-10-10 per eBucket. Very healthy crop! Only concern I had was at the end of the season when I ripped the plants, I noticed the mix at the bottom 1/4 of the eBucket seemed to be holding a bit more water than throughout the top 3rd. Also, I stayed confused on the watering schedule, because I could never tell if I needed to water or not. I might try your dowel this go-round, and try to adapt that as a measuring system. Now, I'm prepping my eBuckets for my fall/winter garden. I'll be growing cabbages, cauliflowers, Brussels Sprouts, and broccoli in the 5-gallon eBuckets. These are high feeders (they like organic mediums), and they are water hogs! I'd like a recommendation, please, on how to reuse the 3:1:1 mix from last season, and in what proportion to fresh MG potting mix, fresh PBFs, and fresh perlite? After reading your experiment, I'm inclined to go forward to a 5:1:1 mix in at least some of the eBuckets (I'll have about 48) just to see what would happen. Also, I need a recommendation on incorporating Black Kow Composted manure into the mix, as the plants are heavy feeders. I've grown them quite successfully in eBuckets before, in a mix of 50/50 MG Potting mix/Black Kow Composted manure. I'm still trying to get a feel for Al's container mixes, and how the plants respond (last season was my first time). I loved the lightening fast drainage, and felt there was definite oxygenation going on in the mix, because the seedlings took off like a rocket when they were planted, and stayed so healthy through our Texas heat. They grew faster than I ever saw before. Please note that not all my containers were true eBuckets. I made 1/2 of them free draining with holes drilled in the bottoms and 1/4" up the sides. These were top-watered with MG Water Soluble Plant Food for Veggies. The remaining were enclosed with the built-in reservoirs. Early on, I experienced an anaerobic odor emitting from some of the self-enclosed eBuckets, and discovered the overturned colander soil platform had collapsed in them and the mix was sitting in the water. Once I rebuilt them, there was no further smells. One other observation was that the eBuckets didn't seem to wick the water high enough, which is why I started top watering them, before the season ended. I know I've offered a mouthful here. Hope to hear some feed back as soon as you can get it posted. Almost forgot. I've started sifting dead tomato root hairs from the old 3:1:1 container mix, and will be ready to re-purpose it for the cole crops by the end of this week, so a speedy reply would be appreciated. Thank you so much, Linda

Hello, I would like to try to grow this bamboo, can it be brought inside in buckets, does it like water. I have a couple kinds of Elephant ears, they are green. one is really big, the other kind is smaller. I have seeds for saucer hibiscus, the flowers are closed to 7 inches across, they maybe grow better down there, they are cold hardy though, so they will come back every year. I also have a few,ferns, and jack in the pulpits, as well as a variety of flower bulbs

Hi, These are my favorite... I have every size from half gal to 25 gal in planters and 3 huge field divisions. When they say poor soil they mean once plant is established and growing most likely. The morphing is triggered (once plant is healthy and growing) by deprivation... water and fert ... leave in planters for best "Belly" forming. I have posted many Buddah pics here... take a look under my postings ... best of luck with the seeds. I have not heard anyone state the plant is in flower so I wonder 1) how old these seeds may be...and 2) If they are in fact Vent Buddah seeds. Happy planting

I have bought some seeds of this bamboo a while back, I kept the plants in the same pot but they were in a room that was bit too dark ,I think. I now put the pot in front of a better lit window but I wonder if I should cut down some of the thin and long stems so they can grow some shorter and stronger stems. When I bought the seeds it said you don't get the bulbous stems if they get too much food ,does that mean no feeding and only rainwater? And when replanting should I put it in peat and not in normal medium? I never grown bamboo before so I don't really have a clue, I always assumed that bamboo like normal grass would grow like weeds.