Red Wine Barrel Planters

by Tom
(San Diego, CA. U.S.A.)

Hello, Please, Do I need to treat the inside of these old oak barrels, I have seen plastic liners for them and also was told that I could tar the insides. Is this necessary? I was planing to plant Queen palms in them. Thank You

Doug says that he never treated the insides of barrels. The will rot out eventually because they are wood - liner or not - with the moisture trapped between the liner and barrel. Or they'll rot from the outside in or bottom up because you can't treat all the drainage holes as well as the insides.

The way to really make sure they don't rot out is to use something called CPES on them. It's an epoxy that soaks into the wood and will seal them from rot. Used extensively in boat building to seal wood and other applications where wood is a critical part of the building compenent. You can do outside and inside as well as all holes in the barrel.

There are environmentally friendly (as environmentally friendly as they get anyway) thinners and hardeners made from corn or nuts but the epoxy itself is still pretty wicked stuff (don't breathe fumes etc). But it will stop the rot.

I've never worked with tar and plant roots but I don't see why it wouldn't work. I don't know if tar will kill palm roots or not. My guess is not but the roots will likely turn away from the tar surface. (or we can hope so anyway).

Hope that helps a little.