Larry Hall in Minnesota has come up with a very interesting and highly productive gardening system you might want to look into. This gardening system is perfect for renters, tiny house owners, those who travel a lot and can’t oversee the plants except once a week, and those with limited garden space and/or bad soil. If you ever have to move, you can pack up everything in an hour and go.
The benefits go on and on and I hardly know where to start because he keeps innovating and adding new features. At the core, the rain gutter grow system is a self watering container gardening method. You can use plastic buckets, barrels or grow bags for containers. The containers soak up water from the rain gutter using a ‘net cup’ on the bottom of each container. This system is relatively inexpensive and easy to build. Here are the directions if you want to make some: How To Build The Self Watering Rain Gutter Grow System! (101)
The best advantage in my opinion is containers provide the perfect growing environment if done correctly. In contrast, it’s very time consuming to build up perfect soil throughout a garden, but it’s much easier to do with containers since fewer materials are required. Using this system, the plants get exactly what they need. They soak up water at the rate they want, and Larry explains how to make the perfect growing mix with peat moss, aged manure or compost or worm castings, and perlite. Larry loves to try new things. He puts grow bags in kiddie pools, raises earthworms, adds earthworms in the containers and is even experimenting with biochar. His YouTube channel has dozens of videos that explain everything in detail.
Hi Does anyone have any extra floats and the connector on outside that the hose goes into? I spent 4 hours today at 3 different Home Depots and could not find the correct parts. I have the float and screw to hold into gutter, but i desperately need the connect from tube onto the float.
Thank you,
Walt
i am new to this group . i want to build a system of 10 gutter connecting with 1/4 inch tubes with a Tee connectors. i will be glad to see a diagram with parts and where to find them.thank you.
I use a modified version of this. I use the 4″ PVC drain pipe instead of the gutter. No open water thus no mosquitoes. I have two pipes in each section that run parallel to each other. I control water level in the pipes with one float in a small tote between the two pipes. I have a large elevated tote that holds about 12 gals that gravity feeds to the smaller tote thus the pipe always stays full. The larger tote is filled 4x/day via a timer. This larger tote also has a float. I have 12 tomato plants sitting on the two pipes. This larger tote also feeds another two pipes with various other plants. System has worked great going on 4 years now.
If you have issue with mosquitoes in the rain gutter you could try to cover the gutter with landscape cloth to prevent anything getting to the water. Cut holes in the cloth only where you will set a bucket/bag. You should also use opaque totes (black) so the sun does not cause algea in the water.
When growing tomato plants in the ground 1 gallon of water per week per plant except in really hot days. How much water do I need to put in my rain gutter system per week for 8 tomato plants, 1 plant per bucket.
I suggest that you go to Larry Hall’s YouTube channel and find an appropriate video to answer your question. There is a least one video specifically about tomatoes.
https://www.youtube.com/user/larrylhall/videos
Larry Hall’s YouTube videos are awesome. But its been awhile since he posted anything, and the web site link he provides is no longer valid. Any thoughts? I’m particularly interested in the float used for self watering. Would’ve loved to buy the “complete set” from Larry’s website
Have you tried to connect with Larry and his group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/144745362329424
Larry pass away recently
i am new to this group . i want to build a system of 10 gutter connecting with 1/4 inch tubes with a Tee connectors. i will be glad to see a diagram with parts and where to find them.thank you.
Omgosh, nooooooooooooo!!!!
I just discovered this method about 6 months ago and I’ve come to love Larry via his videos.
Heartbroken.
Larry has passed away. To connect with people who grow in this manner,go to Facebook groups. There are a couple of them out there.
We have the gutter garden system set up and it’s doing great. However I just looked and I have mosquito larvae in the water. What do I Do?…
I’ve heard that you can float garlic oil on the water to deter mosquitoes.
Join the”rainguttergrowsystemgrouppage there are members that will help you out.This is Larry Hall’s group of over 40000 members.Hope to see you in the group.
The best way to deal with mosquitos requires a bit of for thought. An addition of an on/off valve before the float valve and a petcock at the far end of the trough enables you to drain the system of mosquito larva as they occur without too much wasted water. A screen or other lid should be sufficient to keep them out of the rain barrel and having the ability to drain or invert it without upsetting the system would also be beneficial.
Do I keep my rain gutters continually full of water because I fill them in the morning, by evening they are empty. My tomatoe, squash and cucumber plant turning yellow and brown then dying from starting at the and higher every few days. Am I under watering?
I think the rain gutters should be full all of the time. That is why they use the float valves to keep them full. I suspect your plants are drying out too much.
I designed a deeper net cup for use with 4” pvc for printing on a 3D printer.
You can find it on thingiverse under model 3681543
It’s free for personal use, but it is not commercially licensed.
My plant in a pot waters it’s self automatically from the top as it needs water! Anyone interested?
richardjwalsh1955@gmail.com
what is the soil mix you use
Join the”rainguttergrowsystemgrouppage there are members that will help you out.This is Larry Hall’s group of over 40000 members.Hope to see you in the group.You can get Larrys potting mix recipe there,it is for the RGGS
Have a problem with my buckets staying too wet. Not caused by rain. So wet than my tomato plants die shortly after planting. Can’t figure what the problem is?
Maybe the soil mix has too much absorbent materials and not enough aggregates?
There could be many reasons for this.Are you using the RGGS,Join the group.rainguttergrowsystemgrouppage on facebook there are members that will help you out.This is Larry Hall’s group of over 40000 members.Hope to see you in the group.You can get Larrys potting mix recipe there,it is for the RGGS
Hi,
I’m planning to build a raingutter growsystem at my remote cottage. The one thing I cant find on the internet or in the youtube channels is if you can start seeds in a 5 gal bucket or bag. I understand that little plants as tomatos etc can be transpanted at that this wirks good in this system. But to start say carrots in a 5 gal pail, will that work and how. I would love to see Larry explaning how he does that. Hendrik DeWit, Ontario Canada
There are lots of videos now on every topic. I know there are some about easy ways to start carrots.
I grew carrots last year in buckets that were set up on the gutters and stayed wet from the time I planted the seeds. I covered them with a thin layer of vermiculite. Made a template of 1/4″ plywood with holes 2″ apart to place over top of bucket and plant 1 seed per hole. So much easier than thinning.
How do you deal with algae in the stationary water?
Will the algae build up cause a problem and if so how do I deal with it? Due windy conditions I have secured the 5 gal.buckets to the 2×4 frame.
Thank you for your attention.
Dan.
Join the”rainguttergrowsystemgrouppage there are members that will help you out.This is Larry Hall’s group he has over 40000 members.Hope to see you in the group.Larry is the inventor and has been on youtube since 20078
Hi Larry, I’m another Larry writing from our shop in Hugo MN. I got your name from Brian Graffius, the guy with the new Grobucket insert for use in 5 gallon pails. We’ve developed a unique strap on 3D trellis for 5 gallon buckets. We’re calling it the Pail Rider. It’s similar to a trellis we have on our website we call the Topiary Container Trellis or TCT. Would you be interested in selling them?
Here’s a rain gutter grow system in Germany that uses drain pipe connected to a roofwater rain barrel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTBjHBpXfhA
What causes tomato plants to grow tall and have no leaves most the way up
It sounds like they are reaching for the light.
Join the”rainguttergrowsystemgrouppage there are members that will help you out.This is Larry Hall’s group of over 40000 members.Hope to see you in the group.You can get Larrys pitting mix recipe there,it is for the RGGS
I’m gonna have to give this a shot, I like the efficiency of it.
I am using his kiddie pool system and it is highly sucessful. Copy and paste this interesting link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h64ACHLImB4&list=PLL-ewab6SFFfuEy3F4tCKoAdYwNXDnv8p
Good to hear that. I’ll take a look at the video.
Update: He has an updated video that shows his latest kiddie pool and grow bag ideas. He recommends adding pea gravel so there’s no problems with algae and mosquitoes. You can even dress it up with mulch on top etc. I like Larry because he keeps innovating and coming up with improved grow systems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sanol21Lmbc
Here is Larry’s shopping site.
https://www.growbaggardensystems.com/collections/all
We might try some container tomato plants using his soil mix in our greenhouse. People are having good success growing tomatoes in plastic totes.
You can use drain pipe instead of rain gutter to keep out mosquitoes.