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Growing in 55 Gallon Barrel halves.

cramer74

cramer74

I have these barrel halves and was wondering how many pepper plants I should plant in each? Bhut Jolokia Vs Jalapeno.


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They look quite large. As far as Jalapeno 2 to 3 depending on the type. The Bhut probally 2 unless your planning on overwintering(if more than one in a pot-seperate for spring). If your planning on overwintering one per pot would be best- chances are they could be huge in a few years. I could see a wild one getting to monster size in no time
 
Heres a tip. PUT HANDLES ON THEM! They will weigh around 180 pounds two thirds full of moist soil. I would be planting one plant per container but my plants are greedy lol. I would not put more than three in each thats for sure.
 
^ I agree at 50 I'm not up to hauling something like that without handles. Give them room and your plants will thank you. And about that soil- garden soil, top soil, with alittle perlite should do ya(compost if ya got it)
 
So roughly for you to fill up 12 of them to 75 percent capacity will take 225 gallons of soil or 1012 litres for us aussies. You could just buy a ton of soil from your local landscaping joint.
 
Novacastrian said:
...I would be planting one plant per container but my plants are greedy lol. I would not put more than three in each thats for sure.
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Hey, Nova, I thought you were one of the 'clumper' advocates? Three would be a good clump, eh?

With that many barrels, you could experiment, 1, 2 or 3. Don't know the bhuts, but I'd put 3 jalapenos in one pot. Who knows, on those hot dog days of August in Missouri, the extra shade from the crowd might come in handy. And provide mutual support in a storm.

RobbyJoe hit a good point: if you are planning on over-wintering, you prolly should stick with 1 for the most part.

For soil: Keep it light as possible. Silver Surfer has a good recipe: 5 gal peat, 15 gal pine bark fines, 5 gal perlite, 2.5 gal composted chicken manure, 2.5 gal humus, 2 cups dolomite lime.

Since you got plenty of barrels, consider the one Duane and Sorellita posted: put a couple of chunks of concrete in the bottom for ballast and fill container with Pro-Mix BX. Fert with time release Osmocote. That would be pretty light. Could mix in some compost for more nutes, too.

Good luck and keep us posted.... :cool:
 
Im a ground clumper not a pot clumper, every time i have planted more than one plant in a pot i have removed the "other" plant within a few months. I would advocate clumping the pots together though, they seem to like company. :)
 
I grow in those same barrels and i have put 3 in each and they are doing famously. all fruiting madly and looking good.
Also for handles all I do is drill two holes 1 inch down and 4 inches apart then put one more hole another inch below each of them then get the jigsaw and cut out berween all the holes and Voila you have handles plenty good enough to drag em around or onto a trolley to move them.
Oh and over here we call em 44 gal drums, a US gal is 4 litres and we have Imperial gallons which are 4.55 litres. Weird I know.
 
Most often I drill two holes on each side of the barrel and tie on two thick rope handles. I'll try to find pics
 
Sandgroper said:
I grow in those same barrels and i have put 3 in each and they are doing famously. all fruiting madly and looking good.
Also for handles all I do is drill two holes 1 inch down and 4 inches apart then put one more hole another inch below each of them then get the jigsaw and cut out berween all the holes and Voila you have handles plenty good enough to drag em around or onto a trolley to move them.
Oh and over here we call em 44 gal drums, a US gal is 4 litres and we have Imperial gallons which are 4.55 litres. Weird I know.
Click to expand...


My previous math is off by 11 gallons and .55 of a litre. :rofl:

Thanks for that groper :D
 
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