In this video, I’ll show you how to triple the size of your veggies using free milk jug greenhouses! This free gardening hack will make your vegetables grow faster, and you can grow plants in cold climates thought to be too cold to grow vegetables in winter thanks to the incredible cold protection they provide!
I designed an experiment growing cold hardy winter vegetables in my winter garden. Identical plants were grown out in the open and under milk jug greenhouses side-by-side. The results of this life hack were dramatic! Be sure to watch until the end to see how the vegetable garden performed!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 How A Milk Jug Greenhouse Works
2:22 How To Transplant Vegetables
3:52 Installing The Greenhouses
4:40 Experiment Results 48 Days Later
7:31 A Close-Up Of The Results
8:44 Make Your Garden More Productive!
10:32 Adventures With Dale
If you have any questions about how to make free greenhouses out of milk jugs or empty water jugs, have questions about growing fruit trees or want to know about the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!
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41 Comments
If you found this video helpful, please "Like" and share to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 😊TIMESTAMPS for convenience:
0:00 How A Milk Jug Greenhouse Works
2:22 How To Transplant Vegetables
3:52 Installing The Greenhouses
4:40 Experiment Results 48 Days Later
7:31 A Close-Up Of The Results
8:44 Make Your Garden More Productive!
10:32 Adventures With Dale
They used to be called Coches. Made of thick glass.
Have you done this experiment with plants started from seed?
Two bamboo BBQ skewers and a bit of packing tape or a couple of small slits. Stake them down and then add the mulch .
GREAT EXPERIMENT Thank you so much for showing us how beneficial the milk jug method works
Captain Planet would salute you.
I do this all the time it works great 👍
I just learned about winter sowing and cannot wait to see the results!
Great experiment.. thanks for sharing 👍. Happy gotcha day, Dale 🤗🐕 My dog's gotcha day is 1-24-2010❣She is a sweet old lady now😘❤
#Awesome Thanks for this tip!👍🏻
I have always used juice and soda bottles in the same way! Yesss, it absolutely works. I call them nursery botles.
I’m surprised that the fact these jugs are not clear doesn’t seem to have an effect. I would’ve thought that this filtering out the little light we have in winter would’ve been detrimental.
Great video Blessings
That’s amazing how the science we learned as kids has some value after all. Thanks for the experimentation and sharing your results.
My grandmother used this technique when I was little. One thing she did was save the firm twigs that fell from her trees in the fall. When she placed the jugs she pushed the twigs through the top to keep the jugs in place during wind storms to “protect the babies”
I live in zone 7b in NC. What are the best types of garlic and onions should I grow?
Nice content 😍 new friend from Pakistan 🇵🇰 stay in touch ♥🙏🏻
Cute dog🐕
Kohlrabi also does quite well in the Winter. I may harvest some tomorrow.
Great video! Did you have to water the ones under the jugs? Just wondering since there's only a small hole at the top for rainfall, although you probably capture/hold ground moisture better under the jugs.
Great experiment! Thanks!
Wow!!! I need to get my strawberry plants put under some milk jugs, plus start my seeds this way as you have done. Tks
Great way to demonstrate the benefit of using water jugs as mini greenhouses.
Last year I learned about Winter Sowing method of growing from seeds (I use to start with plants from a nursery). I couldn't believe I could grow all my veggies and flowers from seeds. The jugs/greenhouses help protect them and allow them to harden off at the same time.
Since I am in South Jersey 7a, I can't put out transplants yet. But I will start sowing my seeds, with the Winter Sowing method next week.
As always, your videos are so helpful!
Chick-fil-A has the perfect sturdy, clear gallon containers. I called to ask if they sell them, but they don’t. It’s a great excuse to purchase a gallon of their tea or lemonade! Love your channel!
Would clear jugs work? Or would that be too much sun/heat?
Genius bro, genius.
GREAT video!!!!!
Do you think it would work with seeds?
78sunny expecting 108 sun summer,all tips helpful. Thanks , tropics.
Thank you for your info and videos. I live on the eastern part of NC. It helps that our weather is the same. What kind of green beans do you grow? Do u plant a wide long bean, like from Turkey or the Asia area? Tks much.
Excellent info, thank you!
GREAT I'll use it 👍👍👍
And keeps the slugs 🐌 away!
Best put water in those jugs.
I used this hack since the 1980s to plant tomatoes before the frost date. Saw it in Organic Gardening Magazine way back when. It works great!
Noice!!
Just a question… can you use the clear water jugs for this or are the frosted plastic jugs better ?
Awsome. I live in Arkansas. Now I can get my tomatoes out a few weeks earlier 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Great experiment. I do a similar ting when I plant my parsnips. I plant the seeds beneath plastic lemonade bottles. The only problem with them is that they have a smaller surface area and easily topple over or the wind could carry them off. I get around this by using a thin bamboo poke stuck into the ground but protruding a 6 to 12 inches out of the bottle top. This gives them that extra security seeing that they will remain in place after any rough weather. You could do this too for added protection.
I'm going to add more bottle cloches like these to other plants I have. 👍
Great idea! Have done this with 2 liter soda bottles but not milk jugs. I thought they might be too opaque. Thanks so much. Will give this a try!
The real trouble with the milk jugs in my area in NW Arizona is our high winds. Just a pain to find enough large rocks to hold them down. I probably could try to use plastic tent stakes or possibly the long landscape staples but did not try any of that other than just wedging rocks up against each jug so they would not fly away. Seriously.