when can i make hypertufa

I Just Can’t Wait…I Must Make Hypertufa!

On Saturday, even though it was cold, I just found myself desperate to get going and make hypertufa planters for this year. So I heated up the garage with a kerosene heater, vented it by opening the garage door just a little, and the back exit door just a little. I waited about an hour, and voilà !   A warm place to make my first batch for the year.

This is an update of last spring’s first batch of hypertufa. There are three videos for this process, so be sure to watch all three.

How to make hypertufa

I have already mixed the dry ingredients, sifting the peat to get all the larger sticks and debris out. And I put the water in and mixed it all up. So the video begins after the 10 minute wait for all the hypertufa mix to absorb the water thoroughly.

( Yeah, I see the drips in the corner.)

I stopped and started the video in places, so my procedure does take longer than this 6 minutes. But you can see a bit of how easy it is to make your own planters this way. If you are new to it, you can see it’s not difficult. Just messy.

I had saved this vinyl-like basket since I wanted to test how the texture of the basket weave would transfer over to the outside surface of the hypertufa pot, so I lined it with a soft plastic. I think the texture transferred really well.

I have cement coloring in this batch of hypertufa. I chose the “Buff” color. But I don’t really like using it because it seems to take so much of the color additive to give an apparent color difference to the finished hypertufa pots.

Cant-wait-must-make-hypertufa-gardener

How early in the spring do you start making your pots? It is pretty cold here in Ohio, so I can only do it in a heated garage. It is not really very convenient there since my husband has so much junk in the garage. But it does give me access to the outside garden hose for cleanup. But then I have to unhook the garden hose and drain and bring it inside again.

It is hard when you are so DRIVEN to make hypertufa no matter what the temperature. But I am addicted! Didn’t I tell you that?

Thanks for reading and if there are any questions, let me know. Please visit the Facebook Page too.

Closing-TheHypertufaGardener

4 Comments

  1. Monique Clouatre says:

    Hello, I like your work but I do not understand all. Do you put cement outside of the basket in a box order to get the weave of the basket outside of your planter. I hope you see my problem my french is not that good, but I try.

    I should start hypertufa soon and hope tp have nice results.
    Thanks for answering,

    Monique (Canada, Québec) in the snow.

    1. Hi, I do put the mix inside the basket. That way the weave shows on the outside of the resulting planter. Make sure your basket is bendable or just plan to sacrifice the basket and cut it off after your form is dried.

  2. Thanks so much for the great video, it was interesting and informative. Some day I’ll take a stab at making hypertufa. I actually have all the ingredients out in my garage, they’ve been sitting there for a couple of years actually. Do you think the cement is still good? Thanks for taking the trouble to make a video, I know from having done a little cement work that it’s a nuisance to take the time to take off your gloves and it’s hard not to get cement on the camera.

    1. I had some fun making it, and I hope to do more. Not sure if your cement would still be good after that long. If you think it is still dry (should be very fine like talcum powder), then you might try a small pot or even a ball. Just mix your ingredients in a tiny amount. For instance, use 1 cup cement, 1.2 peat and perlite. Then it will be done in a 15 minute period and you can check your results next day to see if it is hardened. But if the cement in the bag seems to have drawn moisture and is lumpy already, it probably is just beyond use. Thanks for commenting!

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