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  #1  
Old 22nd June 2020, 12:34 PM
Terry S Terry S is online now
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Default Secondary use for 5 litre containers?

I am slowly building up a collection, of now empty, plastic 5 litre developer and fixer containers.

I've not put them into the recycling yet, as I'm sure there must be some other use for them?

I'm a keen fruit and vegetable gardener and I've thought of cutting the flat bottoms off and using them as cloches (mini greenhouses put over individual plants) in the colder weather. But, can anyone suggest any other use for them, either in my darkroom or my garden? My only use of a couple of them at the moment, is 1. Used to collect the chemicals from my Nova slot processor when they need changing; and 2. To keep 5 litres of fresh water in for topping up the above.

Any other ideas?

Terry S
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Old 22nd June 2020, 01:45 PM
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paddy paddy is offline
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Buy a water distiller of eBay use the cartons to store the water
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Old 22nd June 2020, 02:04 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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Hi Terry, as you live by the sea, and like gardening, get yourself some seaweed, steep it in a water butt, as far away from your house as possible, store the resultant liquid plant food in the 5 litre containers and use a couple of capfulls or so in a gallon of water, and feed your Tomatoes,vegetables,pot plants,bedding plants hanging baskets Etc,better taste,better blooms and better growth than anything you can get at the garden centre, but must be stored in sealed containers as it does pong a bit, believe me, I was a professional garbener for 40 yearas, and it was my family business for generations and this is a family secret, cheap,and good for any plant, has aall the NPK and trace elements you will ever need,
Richard
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Old 22nd June 2020, 02:25 PM
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An alternative to seaweed would be comfrey and nettles for those of us not near the sea. It also stinks, I believe.
Am I right in thinking that not many growers use vraic on their potatoes and other plants these days?
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Old 22nd June 2020, 04:46 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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Hi Collas, sadly over here the good old Jersey Royals are mainly gerown by just 2 firms, and they claim they don't have time to collect Wraic these days, but many gardeners will still collect the wraic, not just for the spuds and vegetable, but will spread it around the Roses and other areas of the garden, and when I was a professional gardener I would spend a lot of time during the winter collecting the stuff, and yes, you can use comfrey and nettles in place of seaweed, I have been known to, and it smells, oif anything, worse than seaweed, does as good a job, but living where I do seaweed is the traditional plant food to used. I will say that Royals grown with seaweed have a completely different taste to them, I remember a few years ago a friend of mine was visiting us from the UK just at harvesting time and was going on about how nice the Royals were, so different to others, so I said that these days the royals you bought were just ordinary new potatoes, and to make my point I gave them a plateful of my own grown spuds, grown just with lashings of wraic, nothing else, and just boiled with mint and served with a knob of Jersey butter, and to this day they won't buy the Commercialy grown Royals because they don't taste of anything compared to my own grown spuds.
Richard
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Old 22nd June 2020, 05:59 PM
Collas Collas is offline
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I can remember them tasting different but don't know how long ago it was and where I ate them. It could have been in Guernsey when I was much younger and we'd be visiting my grandparents and other relations. Even the organic ones I get through Riverford don't really taste anything special.
I can also remember seeing the quarries full of rotting tomatoes, out at Bordeaux back in the late Sixties or early Seventies.
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Old 22nd June 2020, 07:36 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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You need to try the Jersey Royals in Jersey, not in Guernsey, it is possible that you were given just new potatoes, for royals we have a very narrow season, and it is possible that you were given royals, if that is what you got, grown with a lot of chemical fertiliser, also grown under Plastic, which has been the way for years, ruined the taste, they are spraying thye ground above the spuds before the cover them straight after planting, as a organic gardener I take great execption to all chemicals, time past only 2 things were used, Guano, the real Guano not the chemical fertilezer of today, and Wraic, I remember the days when all the small growers, and there were many of them would pile wraic along the side of the road after a good wraicing tide, piled up to dry,to be used in the Autumn and each farmer would have his own mark on his piloes, sadly now witi only 2 very large scale groiwers here now the spuds are not the same,there are still one or two small growerr, but for the local market,and these dtill use wraic, and they fo a roaring trade with the local supermarkets, people will buy these rather than the jersey royal company spuds any day, they only place now you can get a taste of the real, old fashioned Royals is here in Jersey
Richard
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Old 23rd June 2020, 11:36 AM
Terry S Terry S is online now
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Thanks for all the suggestions peoples.

Quote:
Originally Posted by paddy View Post
Buy a water distiller of eBay use the cartons to store the water
I'll look into it Paddy, but I already buy my distilled water locally, for a good price, so I'm not sure if it would be economical for me to buy a water distiller. This in turn has led to a good collection of yet more five litre bottles, but this time in opaque white plastic.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Gould View Post
Hi Terry, as you live by the sea, and like gardening, get yourself some seaweed, steep it in a water butt...
I too grow organically Richard and every other year I try to bring some seaweed up to put on my vegetable beds over the winter. On top of this there is always lots of homemade compost as well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Collas View Post
An alternative to seaweed would be comfrey and nettles for those of us not near the sea. It also stinks, I believe.
Am I right in thinking that not many growers use vraic on their potatoes and other plants these days?
And comfrey is something else I also use regularly in the garden, both fresh and as liquid. I have some plants of it growing it in a corner of the garden. As for the word 'vraic', I had to look that up, not realising that it's another name for seaweed.

Terry S
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Old 23rd June 2020, 06:51 PM
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skellum skellum is offline
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There must be something wrong with me.
Some folk immediately come up with horticuture tips, I automatically started wondering if you could use them for Home-brew.

I'll fetch my coat.
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Old 23rd June 2020, 07:48 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by skellum View Post
There must be something wrong with me.
Some folk immediately come up with horticuture tips, I automatically started wondering if you could use them for Home-brew.

I'll fetch my coat.
Nothing wrong at all It's the heritage of the Western Isles.

We turned back at Derby nearly 274 years ago because (a) we had run out of home brew and (b) the English deployed their weapon of mass destruction by offering us Bass-in-a-bottle

Mike
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