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troughs revisited

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Joakim B:
Dear all
I have seen the articles of making a trough out of fish boxes and concluded that is a cheap way of getting lightweitght throughs.
But there seems to be a "problem" since the troughs seem to be quite low/shallow. Looks like maximum 15 cm of planting deepth and often less than 10cm. To me that seems to give some limitations in the plants to be used.
I have seen another source of styrofoam boxes that are deeper and with thicker wall and bottom as well as often with lid. It is the boxes used by companies to send things that need to be cold. They are often seen in laboratory and other similar environments. This might not be as available as fish boxes but might be a better alternative if one can ge hold of them?

I have used them to store plants that need a period of dormacy and that I was afraid of getting awake by early wormth in the winter so that they start growing and get damaged by the cold that so often come after an early period of warmth in the winter. It was possible to cool by adding a frozen milk package (water filled). I also used this to get temperatures above freezing by using warm milk package (water filled) so that there would be no freezing in the box. It worked in both cases! :)

Are others using the thermal capacity of the troughs or is this just a thing that is there without being used?

An alternative use is to have plants that do not like warm summer in these troughs and "water" with ice.
Any use of the thermal properties and other use of the trough would be appreciated. It can be if people have seen that something grows better in a trough outside than in the garden.

Kind regards
Joakim

mark smyth:
if you go to a shop that sells tropical fish you can get boxes in many sizes

David Shaw:
Erm, Mark, I thought tropical fish were supposed to be alive and came in poly bags filled with water ;).

Electrical goods shops can also be a source of alternative boxes. Make sure that they have a decent thickness of wall. I once found sme quite nice boxes at a sweetie factory but the walls would have been too thin to take the pressure of planting.

Joakim B:
Well since I work in a lab I have OK accsess to the boxes, but there might be others that are not that fortunate.
I am wondering if people is using the thermal poperties of the boxes.

Merry Christmas every one
Joakim

Anthony Darby:
I've just filled this trough with two old pieces of tufa (ex-marine tank, been lying behind my shed for at least 10 years) and a limey mix. Just a couple of Orchis mascula in so far, but I fancy growing some 'tuff' cushion plants. Any suggestions?

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