Common household items you use to grow fruit

There are people on Facebook cutting the tops of gallon jugs (clear ones from target I think would work nicely), filling with potting mix and starting seeds inside with the lid taped back on. Basically making mini greenhouses.

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I’m in the process of testing if I can use old K cups to help cold stratify seeds. I put some ume, apricot, peach, and japanese maple seeds in a bunch of old K cup containers with extra holes in the bottom along with some potting soil, then buried them in the garden for the winter. I figured it would be easier to move them to other locations that way.

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Most of the common items have been posted, but I don’t see 20 Mule Team borax. It is a common household laundry cleanser but also a necessary micronutrient especially important to cabbage and apples. Very tiny amounts are needed. A tablespoon is enough for a 100 ft long row of cabbage.

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That might be quite an endeavor.

Are you using 20 mule team borax to add Boron to the soil?

From the discussions about deer deterrents-homemade liquid fence is an affordable option to try that you should have in your house. Thyme is in the original product too.

Yes, the 20 mule team borax provides boron which is a critical micronutrient. It leaches out of the soil over time. Figure out if you are growing plants that need it and then add very tiny amounts to the soil. Apples for example need extra boron in some climates. Willows also need boron to grow healthy and vigorously.

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Update to my K-Cup stratification experiment:

Yeahhhh doesn’t seem like it worked! I think either:

  1. not enough drainage

  2. buried it too close to the soil, didn’t give enough space for the drainage holes to actually allow drainage

or 3) didn’t protect enough against things that would eat them

I think the kernels either were eaten by worms or rotted, the soil in the k-cups was all damp and I only found a few seeds left, most were rotting, ONE successfully germinated (out of ~20-30)

I’ll try again next year, next time I’ll try adding a layer of mulch underneath to have easier drainage, and maybe add more holes in the bottom. I like the idea of using them as seed starters, I’ll see what I can do to make it work.

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Baking cooling racks for drying scions after sterilizing

Used 2.5 gallon ice cream buckets from local shop (25 cents each), food grade with lids and stackable for storing fertilizer, grafting supplies, picking produce, etc.

Masking tape for marking scions

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  • Paper binding 1’’ metal clips - absolutely mast have for securing nets on frame. Also connected together can be used as adjustable weights for young branches bending. I was lucky to get two buckets of them few years ago for free on a yard sale, still using them.
  • Old cotton t-shits cut in strips make perfect bio-degradable ties for tomatoes and other veggies.
  • Gallon plastic jugs from medical solution to prepare for colonoscopy (square with handle) make perfect loose fertilizer storage, easy to carry, waterproof and compact
  • Plastic jars from drinkable yogurt with hole on a side can be used as fruit maggot traps
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I think your comment here is appropriate for this thread. How to get ants to stop climbing your tree - #11 by galinas

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There are people trying to build things with it, marked for recycling or not. You might want to reconsider your policy.

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I am counting on guys like you to save the world from guys like me.

There are currently a million plastic bottles per minute being used and discarded on Earth. Do the math on that.

Recycling isnt the answer…they couldnt build skyscrapers or battleships fast enough with the amount of recyclable waste on Earth.

Ask your policy makers to stop making plastic… What happened to Reduce/Reuse/Recycle? How did Earthians survive for thousands or tens of thousands of years without it?

Oh and recycling is a lie. Forgot about that.

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kiddie pool + Sawzall for this hack.

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Blowtorch for black knot removal…

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Kitchen chip clips to hold plastic sheeting onto PVC supports in raised beds started early.

Soda cans and aluminum siding for labels

Toothpicks to pick up and sow tiny seeds indoors

Plastic meat trays as pot water coasters

Cheap apples coated with sticky trap hung as a lure

Plastic or glass bottles to hold cuttings of one blooming tree branch placed in the crotch of another tree to pollinate it

Hay bale string to support tomatoes grown with vertical support

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Regina, many clever ideas! I use meat tray to catch the water of the pots too. When do you put out sticky trap apple out and what insects do you catch? I think use apple is a good idea, save the lure cost.

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Clothespins/binder clips to hold together hardware cloth tree cages.

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I use the walmart moving totes to grow horseradish and saplings. Makes horseradish easy. Just flip and replant with strays.

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Toilet paper core to sow seeds, I put a bit of peat moss and then throw my seeds in there. No need to buy any starting pots, lol.

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