Homemade Cowpots

So, I was to buy some of these so-called "Cowpots" because I thought that having a plantable pot with built in fertilizer made from a renewable resource (that being cow poo) is a great idea.  However, with over 50 brassica starts, and at a whopping $.50  per pot,  I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  Instead I 

made my own.  

After gathering the "raw material", courtesy my mom's cattle in Kelso, I started experimenting with breaking up and adding water to the manure, which, BTW, was not smelly at all having been deposited last Fall. 

As I started to experiment, I quickly found out,  that not having the benefit of a powerful mechanical press, the poo was not going to hold up on it's own.  It needed some kind of structure to hold it together and what ever it was also needed to be just strong enough to hold up without impeding root growth.  I settled on using sinamay mesh (a coarse woven, natural fiber mesh) which I picked up at Howell's Craftland.  People usually use this stuff for hats, or as ribbon.  I bet I'm the only person who's ever bought this stuff with the objective of covering it with shit (a fact I did not share with the shop owner).  

My first attempt at trying to cover preformed sinamay frames failed, as I couldn't get the poo to adhere sucessfully.  I quickly realized that a layer of moistened manure needed to be pounded into a flat piece of the mesh on both sides.  It worked great, kind of reminding me of wattle and dob construction on a tiny scale (the Masai, of Tanzania actually do build their houses of wattle and dob with cow dung).  I then made cylinders and then pushed a small piece of mesh through one end to form the bottom and then spackled that with more manure.  Wallah!  

After resting on cloth to collect excess moisture, they went into a low (200) oven until dry.

Yes, that's right.  I put them in OUR OVEN.  I have a very tolerant household.  But actually, while "baking" they kind of smelled like cooked spinach!

I up-potted 20-some brassica starts to these poo pots the other day.  Hopefully they will perform well, allowing the roots to penetrate the sides.  They will then be planted, pot and all about mid March.

This red cabbage seems happy so far......