Strawberry towers

[bsfman]

A couple of weeks ago, I built several 34 inch long strawberry towers out of a 10 foot length of 4" PVC drain pipe. The fittings for capping the bottom ends cost me more than twice as much as I paid for the pipe! I think I paid like 8 bucks a piece for the end caps, then had to use zip ties thru drilled holes to hold them in place since the end fittings are made for the thick walled PVC - not the thinner outside diameter of the drain pipe.

Several days later, I had an epiphany while shopping at the local Publix grocery store. Eyeballing the 2 liter soda bottles, I splurged 89 cents on some Publix brand cola, then cut the empty plastic jug's bottom off. Though difficult to get it to slip over the pipe end, once you do, it fits nice and snug. 89 cents versus eight bucks! It's a no brainer! A little spray paint will render the clear soda bottle plastic opaque too, and the soda bottles have a built in nozzle to fit into holes cut in a return drain pipe! This afternoon, I added a couple more strawberry towers to one of my systems using this technique.

Hint: briefly soak the cut end of the soda bottle in an inch or two of hot water and it will soften the plastic enough to make it easier to slip onto the pipe!

[alex281]

I'd love to see pics But seriously the fittings at home depot for anything in the 4" range for abs(all they have) are like 9-16 dollars depending on the fitting just yesterday i paid 11$ for 2' of 4" abs...

[Basil1]

Would also like to see pics. Do they stay on with just pressure or are they attached in some way?

[bsfman]

Would also like to see pics. Do they stay on with just pressure or are they attached in some way?

They stay on with pressure, but they are also resting against the return drain which helps hold them in place. Just finished the two with soda bottle bottoms last evening. The three that are overhanging the wading pool are hydroton filled and planted as of yesterday, but I haven't painted the clear plastic nor loaded the two new ones with hydroton yet. You can see the new ones situated over the 2" return drain. Let's see if I can post some pics...

[JCO]

Keep the ideas and photos coming....you are the original innovator

[keith_r]

you can get "test" caps for 4" under a buck..

[davidstcldfl]

you can get "test" caps for 4" under a buck..

Keith, I was thinking the same thing. I have seen the test caps in Home Depot...but not all HD's.
Keith, BFSman said the regular 4" fittings/caps won't fit ( too lose) on the thin wall drain pipe...."?"
I think they should...'?'....the OD of the pipe should be 4", regardless of the ID...right ?

[bsfman]

....the OD of the pipe should be 4", regardless of the ID...right ?

Actually, no. PVC pipe sizes are inside diameter based. The abs pipe has very thick walls as compared to the drain pipe and the fittings are sized accordingly.

I'm not sure what a test cap is or looks like, so not sure if local HD or Lowes has them. I'll scope them out on Google images. and hunt for them next trip shopping hardware.

[davidstcldfl]

Actually, no. PVC pipe sizes are inside diameter based. The abs pipe has very thick walls as compared to the drain pipe and the fittings are sized accordingly.

....the OD of the pipe should be 4", regardless of the ID...right

Yep, messed that up.... What I wrote and what I meant are 2 differant things...
Should of said.... I would think the OD of the thin wall pipe should fit in a regular 4 " cap, regardless of the ID.
But it doesn't matter, because the caps cost too much....and you came up with a great idea to get around the cost problem.

[keith_r]

i saw a pic of a 4" pvc pipe that had a hd paint bucket (thin plastic pail) held on with a dryer duct clamp.. whatever gets the job done!