Self Watering Green Bean Machine

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Grumpy Gator

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I scored 12 food grade 55 gallon barells for free.This is my seconed build project. lf anyone is interrested I took pictures as I went along and can post more.
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Nice...

My green beans are doing great this year and have picked many for meals. They're great.


Ray
 
That of the barrels is a cool idea!
Next spring I'll try to grow my own snap peas in that way: I love them, but in this area they are not very used.
 
That looks like it would work very well. If it's your own idea you might be interested in submitting it to Make magazine - http://makezine.com/. It'd be cool to see it in there.

-Ron
 
An improvement: if you place the barrel over a pallet, you can move it wherever you want.
 
Interesting but not sure how it works.

We planted field peas (zippers, crowders and such) and okra. The field peas took awhile to produce but the wife has canned over 50 quarts from our little patch. We get enough okra for her to add to stews and fry up a batch now and again. Only way I really like okra is pickled or fried. Get about a dozen a day from the patch.


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If I only could grow things like you guys have. If I tried, it would be like buffet food for the deer, wild rabbits, turkeys and other native critters around here.
 
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My wife is interested in your green bean machine and would like to know is the lower pipe in the barrel for watering and is there drain holes in the bottom of the barrel. Also did you fill the bottom half of the barrel with rocks or is it full of soil. Linda uses wooden frames in the garden,but they take up a lot of space. TKS Dave
 
OK since you asked I'll post the pictures.
First I layed out and cut the holes for the "Wicks" and the center pole.
Then I cut the top of the barrel off and cut the ring off and cut some wedges from the sides so it would fit in the bottom. Then drilled some extra drain holes in the top of the new bottom.
Then I cut some larger pipe for the wick tubes. Slash cut on bottom for water and cotten sock filled with potting mix stuffed inside. Removed bung plugs and added fill tube{W/slash cut} and extra cotten tee shirt for another wick.
Filled barrel with more potting mix in three stages wetting with water between layers.
Drilled holes in the top of barrel for the strings and made a ring for the top out of old pice of stainless. 28 holes in barrel 14 holes in top ring.
Ran all the strings then moved into sunny spot in yard. Then drilled four drain holes 1" below the bottom of the inside piece to allow air flow for the roots.Added water to fill tube till it ran out the drains.{About 15 gallons} and planted the beans.
Four days later the beans have doubled in size.I will add some mulch to the top when they get a little bigger.
Next project will be a worm farm composter.
Any questions feel free to ask.
*******Thanks for Looking********Gator**********
:eek:uch:

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