-
- Articles
Index : Miscellaneous Gardening Topics
-
-
- 9. Making Your Own Hypertufa Pots - Top
- Ancient cut stone watering troughs dating back to Roman times are prized possessions in England, France, and Italy. They’re typically used to plant miniature alpine and rock garden plants, herbs and seasonal flowers. But these stone artifacts are hard to acquire and extremely expensive. The alternative to the unobtainable real stone planters is hypertufa. Tufa refers to a type of porous rock found along natural springs. Hypertufa is a cast concrete-like material that has much the same appearance as true stone. It’s also relatively easy to make and form into attractive pots and planters.
Materials: To make hypertufa pots or planters you’ll need: peat moss, portland cement, vermiculite or perlite and chicken wire or fiber mesh for larger pots as reinforcement. Wooden dowels, half-inch in diameter are needed for making the drainage holes necessary for the bottom of the pots. All of these materials may be purchased at most hardware and home supply stores. You’ll also need rubber gloves, plastic wrap and a dust mask for protection from cement, perlite and peat moss dust.
Tools: The easiest way to mix the ingredients is to use a wheelbarrow, small plastic tub or trash container. Recycling containers with the drainage holes covered with duct tape also works well for mixing.
Hypertufa Recipe: Thoroughly mix 2 parts peat moss (sifted to remove sticks and lumps), 1 part portland cement and 1 part vermiculite or perlite. Add 1 part water to the dry ingredients and mix well again. The hypertufa should be moist enough that when squeezed in your hand, just the slightest amount of water can be squeezed out. If the mix is too dry, add more water to make it cohesive. The mortar mix should be stiff, not runny, to form well.
Forms: It’s a good idea to start with forms for making small pots until your skill level increases. I like using black plastic nursery pots up to 5 gallons in size. These are great for making individual pots. Square or rectangular planters more reminiscent of the ancient troughs used in Europe can be most easily formed using cardboard boxes or plastic storage containers.
If you want to customize the size of your trough, you can cut styrafoam sheets to the size and connect them into squares or rectangles using galvanized nails.
The Process: When making small hypertufa pots, only one form is required. Using a nursery pot or other container, turn it upside down and cover it with plastic wrap. The wrap will keep the mortar from sticking to the form. Next apply a 1 to 1.5 inche thick layer of hypertufa mortar to the outside of the inverted pot starting at the bottom and working up. At the top, insert cut half-inch diameter wooden dowels into the mix to form drainage holes. Keep the thickness of the mortar as even as possible. Press the mortar firmly to sides and top to compact and remove all air pockets.
When making larger pots or planters greater than 18 inches across, an inner form must be used to hold the mortar in place. The thickness of the mortar should be increased to 2 inches. Consequently, the inner form should be small enough to allow this thickness . In addition, to provide the stability necessary to keep these larger pots from breaking, reinforcement with fiber mesh or chicken wire is needed. Fiber mesh, short lengths of synthetic fiber, can be mixed into the mortar. Chicken wire can be layered in the center of the mortar mix when forming the bottom and container sides.
Curing: The mortar should dry slowly. Plastic can be placed over the exposed mortar to hold in moisture. Exposed mix can also be moistened over a two week period to prevent rapid drying. After removing the pot or planter from the mold, allow to cure an additional two weeks. Then immerse the hypertufa container is a mixture of a quarter cup vinegar in a gallon of water for about 30 minutes to remove excess lime. Let dry and plant.
Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161. - Updated: December 18, 2005
-
-
[e-Mail me
the Articles] - [Search
the Articles]
-
|
