ole_dawg,

I tried this "pot in ground" method couple years ago.
Very unsuccessful for me, but I've read many professional growers use it successfully.

2 major problems were:
A. small holes in the pot. As you plan, putting large holes would be critical. On some of my 5 gallon buckets, the bucket soil didn't contact the ground soil and the bucket became water logged and the squash died.
B. On the buckets where soil contact was made, I had a good draining potting mix and the ground was clay. So the bucket soil would dry out relatively fast, while the ground was waterlogged. The squash lived, but was very stressed and underperformed.

So you probably need to make your mixture similiar to the ground soil (or vis versa).

Let us know how it goes. I might try it again.

One method I use now for ground planting, which I learned from a permaculture book, it to start seedlings in bottomless 2-quart paper milk cartons. I can fit 12 of these in a 12 gallon rubbermaid tote. You water from the bottom and thus don't stress seedlings by top watering. Then when time to transplant in the garden you stick the carton & plant in the ground and then slip the carton up over the plant to remove it. This helps minimize the transplant shock and keeps the root soil intact/compact.

Or when transplanting sometime I just lift the carton up a little bit after its in the ground to form a collar to protect the plants. Then I just leave it there all season.

Still all this seems like to much work. So this year, I'm going to try planting seeds directly in the ground and protect them with some self-made cloche bells. I'll compare the results to my normal transplant method.

regards

As long as there is continuity between the soil in the container and the soil in the substrate below the container, there is no gain in effective drainage between 1 small hole and 100 large, except the speed with which the water drains, which is of no consequence. It doesn't matter if the container drains in 1 minute with 100 holes, or 10 minutes with 1 hole - it's all the same to the plant. As long as water can still move through whatever size, single hole that happens to be there, it will drain. The only advantage in having more than 1 hole is the greater probability that there would be no hole obstruction problem, but that's usually NEVER a problem when soils are appropriate & well-aerated.

Since you still intend to use organic fertilizers, I'll caution you to be careful of their use when soil temperatures are below 55* or above 80*. The microorganism population that digests the organic component of the fertilizer will be inactive or dead beyond certain temperature parameters. Since organic forms of fertilizer tend to build up in soils when not broken down, a return to favorable temperatures (or improvement in other cultural conditions conducive to microorganism growth) occurs, populations can explode & release large amounts of (particularly) N that you don't even know are in the soil, which can cause the same plasmolysis that over nitrifying with a chemical fertilizer would.

Al

Hi ole dawg.
I have made my own 5 gal bucket garden. I made my own idea of a self watering bucket and find it very successful as it really helps to keep the soil moist all the time. I had fair luck last summer and for my winter garden I have collards, slick leaf mustard, and turnips. All of these are as good as I ever grew in a garden in the last 59 years of growing a veg. garden. I only water at the time I plant and they are about ready to start to harvest when I water again and then I fill the bottom water area about every 10 days. I have some pictures of part of it and as soon as I can get someone to show me how to post them I will. Happy gardening.

DAN

EM,Al and Dan:
Thanks guys.
DAN, I would very much like to see your set up. I had planned to use drip irrigation. I am working now in trying to devise a means to get spring water LIFTED up 25 feet and across 175 yards of an open field. Water is getting expensive up here and I would prefer NOt TO USE city treated water.
THanks to all

Ole dawg, do a search for 'ram pumps'. Working with one of the companies that sells them you may be able to figure out how to rig one up for your needs. They do not use electricity. Very dependable.

Nanadina,
I don't have the necessary drop in supply. I am looking at a spiral water wheel right now, but must first measure the flow rate.
Thanks,

1eyedJack and the Dawg