Comments on: Soda Bottle Carrots: a Very Small Kitchen Garden

By: Daniel Gasteiger

Daniel Gasteiger — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:46:33 +0000

trashmaster46: Your comment has piqued my curiosity: I don’t know whether BPA or other questionable chemicals leach from soda bottle plastic. The bottles seems to be very stable; I’ve used several in direct sunlight for years and they seem as strong and flexible as ever… compared to milk jugs that become quite brittle after a single season in sunlight. This winter I’ll do some research and post my findings on the blog. Thanks for raising the question!

By: trashmaster46

trashmaster46 — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:13:34 +0000

I would wonder about BPA and other chemicals leaching from the plastic. I realize they are soda bottles, but they also aren’t meant to be left in the sun where the UV rays break down the plastic. Of course, that said, I’ve certainly used otherwise not-so-useful plastic totes for growing potatoes…

By: Renee - Kudos Kitchen

Renee - Kudos Kitchen — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:44:53 +0000

This is a very cool idea. Thanks for sharing! They’re so cute

By: TopVeg

TopVeg — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:51:21 +0000

good to see carrots with soil on!

By: admin

admin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:23:07 +0000

Lynn: Thanks for visiting! Yes, I gave complete details on creating the soda bottle carrot planter back in May: Carrots in Containers. Since my soda bottle planter lived outdoors, I didn't need a bowl or basin to catch the runoff. Of course, we had so much rain this year that a container without drainage holes would have been a swamp. I wrote about drainage holes here: Container Garden Drainage.

By: Lynn C Behnke

Lynn C Behnke — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:58:16 +0000

Great information. I’m collecting garden ways of reusing plastic bottles. One question: Were there drainage holes in your bottle?

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:55:24 +0000

Great pictures and article! I want a small herb garden, but didn’t want to start digging up the clay soil. Using soda bottles as containers will work. We have big window sills!

By: Roger from Solar Power Facts

Roger from Solar Power Facts — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:04:01 +0000

Good post. There are benefits to the dreaded soil though, as it contains a whole array of microbes that assist digestion, or so I am told.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:00:25 +0000

Daisy: Thank you for checking back to see. I’ll probably mess with this approach on into next season and try to come up with a “best practices” list for soda bottle carrot planters.

Dava: Two challenges with winter windowsill gardening: 1. There really isn’t enough sunlight to get vegetable plants to store food (and so, make vegetables). 2. Windowsills can be pretty cold, and that can slow down growth.

That said, I think soda bottle carrot planters would produce snacking carrots over the winter if you provide supplemental lighting, and if you keep the soil temperature at at least 70F degrees.

Carrots don’t mind a little cold, so the 70 degrees isn’t mandatory, but the cooler the soil, the more likely you’ll still be waiting for carrot shoulders to form as the temperature rises in the spring.

Tell you what: I’ll plant soda bottle carrots on my south-facing windowsill in October and write about its progress in this blog. I’d be thrilled to hear about it if you do the same.

-Daniel

By: Dava

Dava — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:03:09 +0000

Do you think you could grow carrots like this on a windowsill during the winter? It would be neat to grow a little salad in the kitchen during the cold months when I am longing for the summer garden.