AusBonsai

Hi everyone, I've made up some wooden boxes for collected material. I drilled a stack of 16 mm holes in the bottom of them to allow for drainage.

Just wondering what the best material is to line these boxes so the water can pass through with out the growing medium going with it!

Thanks in advance.

Reece.

try some plastic gutter guard from one of the hardware stores. Its a cheap alternative to pot mesh.

squizz

I use mesh tree protectors from the nursery section in Bunnings, and staple them to the bottom of the boxes. I have also used plastic gutter guard but I find the gutter guard mesh size a bit big and it lets too much media fall through. Also if you make the base of your boxes out of thin planks with a about 10-20mm gap between them then you get excellent drainage and no need to drill holes.

I'm trying some metal flyscreen mesh in mine... Working good with diatomite and orchid bark nuggets (got some jbp and a peach tree in the boxes) As Jase said above I've used slats in the bottom with 20mm + gaps

Shade cloth also works well and is pretty cheap.

Mo


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Ok unreal!

Thanks guys.

squizzy wrote:try some plastic gutter guard from one of the hardware stores. Its a cheap alternative to pot mesh.

squizz

X2 Gutter guard. Ive used the 10mm variety [black] and Hugh has some stuff in a smaller diametre [brown] they are pretty good value.

Yer initial purchase was (so discovered later) gutter guard! Now I buy that at a third of the cost... Some people!?!?


Cheers
Elmar

I have quite a few wooden grow boxes and plastic crates also. I just use shade cloth in them. I usually find odd pieces at garage sales and have a stash of them for when I need them.

Josh

I use an old 'trampoline' mesh.
This I use for both drainage grills and box liners...reusable with a wash and 'hard rubbish turns up a few extras from time to time.
Steve.

I just made some large wooden boxes with slats with about 5-7mm gaps overlaid with aluminium flyscreen. When I'm planting I just fasten (screw) a large cable tie to a slat then fasten roots this way. I am also using polystyrene to line some instead of any wire at all. I fill any gaps with scoria.

Yeah so there's millions of options then.....

fossil finder wrote:I just made some large wooden boxes with slats with about 5-7mm gaps overlaid with aluminium flyscreen. When I'm planting I just fasten (screw) a large cable tie to a slat then fasten roots this way. I am also using polystyrene to line some instead of any wire at all. I fill any gaps with scoria.

Very nice boxes fossil! I would almost be reluctant to keep them outside. Mine are thrown together from pieces of an old shipping crate!

I was just thinking that! Beautiful wood - I knock off old palettes from work, what doesn't stoke the Brazier will be converted into boxes... Don't have too many large stock options as yet ...

Yes it may seem a bit extravagant Elmo but it cost very little other than time as the timber was cut from a couple of freshly fallen bluegum and tallow wood on our property in 2.5m lengths then trailered to local mill and air dried a couple of years. I'm interested in doing plantings along the lines of saikei so the boxes will allow me to create mini landscapes,especially Australian landscapes combined with rocks we find. I have only one so far done crude one with a tiny untrained Atlas Cedar (I understand is not a bonsai ...cringe...?.?...) and some blast furnace slag, as a experiment, till Spring in a box 1400mm long but have since bought decent prebonsais that I'll aim to use in future plantings.

Hah! That doesn't look to shabby at all...

Would you consider oiling the box to bring out the wood grain?