Backyard Farming Forum
Bringing food production home

Hi Ya,
My plan thus far for a wicking bed is to place my railway sleepers on a bed of level bricks.
I would then dig inside of bed out , line with plastic , put in drain and delivery pipe in bottem , fill over pipe with plastic bottles , cover bottles with shade cloth , cover shade cloth with straw , put back in dug out soil and some cow manure.
Is it safe to use plastic bottles, I just go through heaps and could do the job , and cheaply.

What a great idea, Skipd. Shouldnt be a problem with using plastic drink bottles. Never thought of using them but with the amount that we go through they could be used in this way. Save a few bucks on the ag pipe

Good thinking, I would think they would be safe to use as they would be out of sunlight so less likey to break down and release harmful chemicals, also they are assumed to be food safe to start with as they are drink bottles, couldn't say the same for ag pipe, pvc or the black builders plastic that most people use so I say go for it.

_________________
___________________________________________________________________
Why did the chicken cross the road? ... To have her motives questioned.

Cheers people,
I will go forth and collect.
Another question, do I have the layering correct.?
And finally, when putting in bottles I am not sure if to leave tops on and not crushed, or tops off not crushed , or crushed tops off.
I was thinking if I leave tops on they float the soil up
I think crushed with tops back on will fit more bottles in and stop water getting in to bottles and stagnating.

What about glass bottles. More fun to empty and they will not break down over time. Plastic drink bottles will still break down and in a closed garden there is no where for anything bad to go.

_________________
To think before you act is a wise option. But not as funny.

glass breaks and I have young kids, dont drink as much booze these days more soda and Ginger beer. Kids and glass bottles dont mix much around here.
I hear you on breakdown etc.

I would go caps off crushed as this way you will get less subsidence as over time the bottles will probably crush down with the weight of the soil, don't worry about stagnant water, all wicking beds will get this and it doesn't seem to do any harm.

Order of layering is good, you don't haveto use straw or hay, Burnsy and I used it and found that it quickly brokedown and the soil level in the bed sank and needed top dressing. If you have the straw already just mix it with the soil to add organic matter and airation.

Oh and don't forget to add the composting worms.

_________________
___________________________________________________________________
Why did the chicken cross the road? ... To have her motives questioned.

I think I will go for glass to now as glass on plastic souldnt be so breaky, plus will make stockpile up a bit quicker.

In collecting my empty drink bottles, I have been wondering what effect the glue holding paper on bottle plus the paper left on them would have on the wicking bed,
just wondering if anyone had any thoughts / ideas on this ?

its a high polymer I think?
couldnt see much on google.

Would it be easier to just use ag pipe or a few lengths of 100mm PVC.

_________________
To think before you act is a wise option. But not as funny.

easier maybe, but cheaper to hang on to a few milk bottles from the recycling...

this little wicking bed has milk bottles in the bottom

_________________
contentment

Not a bad option Dufflight, I work in construction and am forever throwing that sort of stuff in the bin!
Jaimey, how long have you had that wicking bed going, did you remove the labels that came off easily?

I did it on sunday, nah left the labels on, forgot to even think about labels and glues

_________________
contentment