Are The DIY earthboxes Working for You? ?????

Big_Red ran into a soil problem. He used the wrong soil. How are the rest of you doing as you should have results by now.

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This message was edited Jul 5, 2006 1:37 PM

Is anyone out there????

Yep, you want to know about EarthBoxes?
I have 5 and are doing okay. I wanted easier method to transplant the seedlings, though.

:) I've got zucchini, english cucumbers, carrots (sort of), nasturiam, garbanzos and peppers.

pegdog -- Are they the original EBs or the do it yourself kind??

TPlant - I have 5 DIY earthboxes - I used the design by Handhelpers with a 14gallon rubbermaid inside an 18 gallon. They have been ENORMOUSLY successful. I have 2 with tomatoes - 3 Fourth of July and 1 Celebrity. The plants are over 7ft and loaded with fruit - none quite ripe yet though but I think that is because of the rainy, rainy, rainy weather we have had all Spring and early summer. In the others I have cucumbers (Burpless) which has been producing cukes for well over a month now) and in the others 8-ball zuchinni (I LOVE these) - been harvesting for 2 weeks), yellow squash - started harvesting last week) and green bell peppers (no fruit yet on these). The squash plants are EEEEEnormous! They are at least 3ft high and 5ft wide. These containers are SOOO easy to care for.

For soil I used 70% Promix, 30% compost with some Azomite, Kelp Meal and the recommended fertilizer strip and Dolomite. I also spray them once a week with solution of 8% hydrogen peroxide and I have not had one and I mean not ONE yellow leaf or bug.

I will never grow vegetables any other way. I will try to post a picture for you tonight after I get home from work.

Diane Krny

Hi Tplant...So far I'm happy with mine. Here are some tomatoes I picked this morning. Azoychka, Marianna's Peace, Sweet 100's and Christmas Grape. We are also picking Summer and Zuc squash out of DIY boxes. The plants in the DIY containers I have outside are twice as bushy as those in the ground. The containers these were picked from are in my unheated GH. Plants were set out in April, not too bad for NH. Happy to have an early season going :). I gave a couple DIY boxes to my mother and she is amazed at how well her tomato plants are doing.
Dave

Wow! That is really terrific news for theDIY boxes! Love to hear success stories and see the pictures. Keep posting to encourage others to either make or buy their own as it is a wonderful way of gardening. For some of you that may not know I'm growing melons in my true EBs and they are doing great.

This is a spanish variety called Sweet Barcelona. They sell for 99 cents a pound in my supermarket. One of my favorites. I wear a size 11 shoe to give you a comparison of size.

Tplant...They look good, do you let them sprawl or cage them? How many melons do you think you'll end up with? The squash I planted in the boxes is producing like crazy. I noticed that ant colonies have setup in both squash boxes, the ants are all over the flowers and taking care of the pollination. So ants in your boxes must be a good thing?
Dave

I have the original EB and like 'em. I have had good luck with everything in them. I'll try photos, too.

Yes Dave. My EBs have ants but they don't seem to be doing any damage. As far as production goes at this time I can only say about twenty-five melons but that is close to what I have now. Come Oct 1, I must clean out the melons to set my tomato plants. Sure hope the melons ease off by then but I don't think they will? I'd hate to destroy them as I don't have room for both!

pegdog --- Aside from an oak tree, I don't know what you can't grow in them. My friend grows papaya trees that bear beautiful fruit. As long as one uses the proper amount of fertilizer and keep the water resevoir full and use potting mix and not potting soil, you can have lots of productive fun.

Hi, Guys..as promised I got out today and took some pics of my DIY earthboxes today. Here's me and my tomato boxes.. I have my DIY EBs in an enclosed area to keep the deer out.

Here's a view from the side showing the yellow squash, 8 ball zuchinni and cucumber..

and one more better view of the squash...

I am thrilled with the healthy, robust plants I have obtained this way..

Holy Moley!! I've never seen such giant squash plants like yours. At first I thought they were a variety of the large Elephant Ear we have here in Fl. Beautiful! What type of squash is it?

The yellow squash in the frontmost container is just called "Early Yellow", In the container directly in front of me is the 8 Ball Zuchinni squash. Have you ever tried those?? They are GREAT - I love them. Look like a small pumpkin - you pick them when they are about the size of a baseball. Very, very good.

Diane

I grew 8-ball last year and enjoyed them until a mold or something destroyed my squash and cukes. My melons are just doing great this year.

Wow, K, really great. I actually have grown an oak by mistake. We call them "squirrel trees" and one or two showed up this spring b/c I didn't winter my EBs. :)

Ok, Ya'll have my attention. Tell me about DIY EBs, please!

TPLANT - I am so sad...remember my beautiful Squash plants six posts up?? Well I have now lost one yellow squash and one 8ball plant. They were so massive and heavy the whole plant snapped off at the base of the plant when it was windy Sunday night. I found them Monday laying on the ground, heavy with fruit.. (sob..). I did have two vegetable ladders (from gardensupply.com) in opposing corners of the box, but it was an inadequate trellising system for these plants and the plants grew around the ladders and were hanging out over the edge of the box. Just too much weight. So the lesson here is, folks, these boxes REALLY grow some massive plants - please take the time to build adequate trellis structures for the all the veggies - not just the tomatoes. Speaking of tomatoes..the trellis system my DH built for mine consisted of 4 6ft pcs of rebar sunk in each corner and tie-wrapped to the edge of the box. Then we tie-wrapped cut bamboo stakes across all four sides at about 2.5ft and 5ft in height. They are holding up very, very well.

Diane Krny

Where are the instructions for the DIY EBs?

Has any one ever gotten BR on tomatoes when planting them in EB????

Yes! BER will occur no matter what precautions you take. Some varieties are more susceptible than others. Roma's seem to be the worst for me.

Ok. Are ya'll friendly here, or what? At least point me to a link. Thank you.

Gymgirl - "EB" stands for Earth Box. A container growing system. As for DIY - no clue.

Pegdog,
Thank you for at least answering. DIY = Do It Yourself. Seems there're some homemade EBs that everyone is raving about. And since the yield on these is so great, I thought this thread might want to share how to build one.

I did receive a link to the site. Thanks.

Gymgirl..here is a link to the ones I made with some pics. There are many variations of the DIY EB's, so pick the method that appeals to you the most and save a few $ :). Mine cost ~$12, so I can make 3 for the price of 1 original box. The DIY and the original seem to perform equally well. I do get twice the water capacity with my DIY boxes, gets me a couple days between watering. Other than that (which is a big plus), everything else is similiar.

http://www.myhudsonplace.com/diyearthboxes.html

Dave

Gymgirl ----- Not many of us have made their own DIY EBs so that is why no one answered your question right away. Perhaps the ones that have them were at work and couldn't answer your question or were not tuned in for the short period of time that you made the request. Patience is a virtue and we are a very freindly bunch of gardeners with very few exceptions. However before you try to build your own go to www.earthbox.com for a better understanding of what they are and the principle of why they are different.

T, I found the problem with my DIY boxes, it was not the soil. Apparently the drainage hole I drilled was too close to the bottom of the screen. Because my boxes were not quite level, the soil was submerged in the water at one end. I stopped watering for 3 days and they responded very well. Now both plants are doing very well and are loaded with tomatoes.

I have Amish Paste tomatoes in the boxes (2), in open containers (2), in straw bales (2), and in-ground (3). The ones in the DIY boxes are doing much better than the others although they are susceptible to blossom-end rot where the other plants are not bothered. Could be too much water since they have a constant supply?

OK, YA'LL. Sorry for my impatience. The coleus gardeners are lightening fast with replies, and I've been spoiled. Mea Maxima Culpa!

TPLANT: I went to the site and read up on the EB process. I love it, and am thinking this is a DH DIY project. I'll get him to makeg the one with the two (2) blue Rubbermade 30-GALLON? boxes with lids (one nestled inside the other, upside down), the round pond aerator, the 1-1/2 pvc watering tube. Cutting the holes in the botton of the first blue box turned upside down inside the second box, and resting on the pond aerator. PVC tube in the corner of the inside box and coming out the correspondiing corner of the lid. Covered with heavy guage plastic for the plants to grow through, since the holes in the lid may not exactly match up to where the plants grow out. Seems simple enough. My DH is a welder, so I'm thinking he can also construct the plant trellis to stand over the box!

Thanks, guys. Will report my progress.

Linda

Good for you Linda! Show us pictures when you can? Use Miracle-Gro Potting mix for your soil. Very important! Contact us when you are ready for set-up?

Red- --- I have occasional bouts with BER but not to a large extent. The first few tomatos on certain plants are more susceptible no matter what precautions I take. The BER spray available in stores is a waste of money as I discovered the hard way. Your potting mix was soaking in water for a few days or more so that is one reason for BER. Glad I'm raising melons just now as we have had rain for most of a week. Did spray for mold between the drops. Only need an hour or so between rain so the spray should work.

Gymgirl, I have created a website for a college class where I explain some things about DIY earthboxes. They really are great! Here's the link:

http://crux.baker.edu/ddenst01/web111a/project/

I'm still not completely finished with the site, but it is good enough for now.

- Deborah :-)

Red, I'm glad to see that my theory solved your problem! I'll have to keep that in mind for my website. I do have a few boxes for which I noticed this, and therefore they now have two drainage holes - one on top of the other. Oh well, this way they can get some extra oxygen. I've been taking pictures of my garden, but haven't transferred them to my computer yet. I started rather late in the season - particularly with my tomatoes - so my plants may not be as impressive as some others' plants, but then again, this is my first attempt at gardening, and I started everything from seed.

Deborah, great "tutorial" on the DIY EB's!

Thanks for sharing all your work with us.

Shoe.

Deborah,
Thanks for the website! It's really great.

After looking at your blue tubs lined up so neatly, side by side,I have a question for all you EBers. Could one theoretically build a custom wooden planter box and set the EB inside to hide those blue storage tubs, and enhance the aesthetic look of the EB. In other words, those blue bins work, but they aren't that attractive. And I'd like to try the EBs for my patio plants.

Why not? Just leave the drain hole free of any obstruction...

The might want to try using different containers to make them. Something that might look more like a planter. You could use one of the large planters and put a liner made out of heavy plastic as the basin or better yet find a planter without holes. Drill your overflow hole just above your liner, but below the screen. Install your screen, wicking chamber and fill tube cut to size. It should work just as well. I'm in the process of building a large deck and will make some better looking containers for the deck planters.
Dave

Thanks! I'm glad you like my website. Like I said, I still have some work to do on it. I have some ideas for the 'build' page, but Joe's pdf file seems to be pretty good, so I'm sticking with that link for the time being. If you have any suggestions for the site, please let me know. Of course, you'll notice that one of my links was to one of my favorite gardening websites - DG!

Deborah,

Yup, it worked great! I'll have to remember it when I build more next year!