Brian, I'm in my first season here in south florida. 5gal SWC buckets are going great guns. Will tell you in a month more about the produce.
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A ton of tomatoes on this big beef. I have about a dozen different buckets now with various mixes and types of tomatoes.
bernie

Beautiful, thanks Bernie!

Anyone else???

Brian

I live in Hayward and have had great success. My first year I followed the instructions putting in the wicking basket, drain hole, aeration holes and fill tube. After adding the soil, fertilizer and seedling all I had to do was water it. I had a bounty of tomatoes. Last year I mistakenly put potting soil and had poor results, but it still worked.
This year IÂm mixing my own soil and putting in an automatic watering system. I had it on a drip system last year and wasted a lot of water. This year I hope to keep the wasted water to a minimum.

Andy.

Cool thanks guys, two SWC's out of 5g buckets will be constructed tomorrow to comlete my tomato farm...well for the time being :)

Built two SWC's today out of fours 5g buckets today. I didnt want to use them, but I did...Bright Orange HD buckets. I couldnt fork over $6.99 for white ones when the ugly Orange ones were on sale for $2.59 each.

They came out well. They took about 1qft of Miracle grow each. One cup of Lime and once cup of TomatoTone each.

Will be interesting to see how the plants do compared to the ones in my Earthtainers

bdobs,
What did you do (how did you do it) to make them self watering??? I've been trying to figure out how to do this with a 5 gal. bucket.
Thanks

If you have the lids it's super easy with one bucket, and some 4" pvc pipe.

trim down the lid until is will fit inside the bucket, use 3 length of pipe about 4 inches long. one of them will be the wicking basket, so fill it full of 3/8 inch holes. attach them all to the lid with some small holes and zip ties. cut a hole in the lid to match up with the pipe that will be used for the wicking basket. drill your drain hole below the soil shelf (where the lid will sit inside the bucket)

Some people use a bucket inside a bucket, but I think that's a waste of a bucket.

I used the two bucket method. Simple, and at $2.50 a bucket....what the he!!
Using the two bucket method you get the advantage of the full 5 gallons for the potting mix. I used the lid with a small cutout to act as the mulch cover.

Drill a bunch of holes in the bottom of one of the buckets except for in the center where you will make a cutout to fit your whicking basket.
You can use many things for the whicking basket, I used a small 10oz plastic cup that I used for my seedlings. Or you could use some PVC pipe like imstillatwork says.
I used a heated nail and poked about a million holes(ok. not a million:) in the cup to turn it into a whicking basket.

Your whicking basket should be the same heighth as the gap between the two buckets so that it sits on the bottom of the lower bucket when inserted through the hole in the top bucket and sits flush(or close to flush) with the bottom of the top bucket.
Drill the applicable size hole in the bottom of the lower bucket on the far edge to insert your fill tube. I used a piece of 1/2 sch40 PVC, so a 3/4" hole was right for me.

Drill a drain hole in the lower bucket about 1/2" below the bottom of the upper bucket so there is airspace between the soil and water resivore.

To fill
First fill the wicking basket with wet wet wet potting mix, again, wet wet wet and pack it in there really tight. You want that initial mix in the whicking basket to be super saturated and packed reaaly tight in there.

Then fill the bottom water resivore(you want to start the whicking action.

I then put a layer of mix about 1/2" deep in the bottom of the bucket and wet it dowm. I them cut out a circle of landscape fabric to install before I finished filling as I want to try and keep the roots from penetrating down into the water resivour. This is a purley optional step.

I continued to fill the bucket with mix about 2" at a time and wet it and lightly packed it as I went.

When the bucket is about 2/3rds full, add 1 cup of Dolommite Lime and mix throughout the soil.

Once the bucket is full, I made a small indentation around the perimiter of the soil to add my cup of fertilizer. You dont mix it in, just put it on top.

Plant your plant.

I used the lid as my mulch cover. I just cut a hole in the center of the lid and carefully slipped the plant through the hole.

Simple, and at $2.50 a bucket....what the he!!

What? I can't find them for less then 5.99 around here!

They are the orange HD buckets. Maybe they are on sale?
I think they were actually $2.89

Dude, home depot around here wants $5 minimum for their orange buckets and $3 for a lid.

They are on drugs with their prices.

The sad thing is their lids are awesome for making an air tight seal and I use their buckets/lids for storing RO/DI water I use for my fish tanks. I needed a few lids and they were sold out.

I can't believe how fast they sell their overpriced stuff.

If you can get them for less than $3 each you might be able to make money reselling them ;)

Lids were $.98 too :)

I've been getting mine at the local Walmart bakery. I just have to call head and they will have them cleaned and ready. Price is free and they smell really good as I think the had fruit filing in them. Can't beat that price.

bdobs,
thank you for a great explanation.
I wonder what mix have you used? Isn't one cup of lime too much?

I'm new at this but I added an extra 1&1/4" tube, drilled a hole in a 1&1/4" cap, inserted an HD lawn sprinkler flag into a wine cork and ended up with a float stick so that it's easy to determine when the water reservoir is getting low.

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For those interested in giving this a try here's a nice pictorial on making the buckets.

BTW, the orange HD buckets are also Tom

Tom is a whomping success at gardening and I get to visit with him tuesday pm to learn some more of his tricks :>)

You can supposedly get buckets at BK free if you are in with the owner or really nice to the manager.

The one thing I am more experienced at than Tom is 5 gal SWC and you do not need a flag to know they need water. If you have not experienced it, you will not believe the quantity of water a growing mater can consume in 12 hours. I have added 2 gal on low humidity days. Even in a 2 bucket system, you are not going to hold more than a couple of gals. Make yourself a water gun by putting a pistol grip nozzle that is threaded on the end. Now screw a short piece of old small diameter hose on it (18 inches) long. Just stick in the fill tube inlet and give a squirt until it flows out the overflow hole. I put a short piece of AL (2-3 inch) long with a flare on the inside. It is much easier to tell you are full. ( If this is not clear, I can make a pic and post it. A pic is worth 1000 words or in my case, many times that)

I have over a dozen SWC and wish to make it so I can leave them without depending on neighbors so currently have four hooked in series with 3/8 flex hose. I put water in another bucket hung on a post that is higher than the SWC's. I drip well water in that I use for dripping my other non-SWC's. Will increase the dripper from 2 lph to 4 or 8 as required later. Next year all of my "SWC" will be hooked up this way unless Tom comes up with a better scheme!
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Briergardener
I dont think 1 cup is too much cause they recommend 2 cups per Earthbox which takes about 2qft of potting mix and two Tomatoes.
The 5g bucket took about 1qft of mix with one Tomato, so I figure 1 cup is about right.
That was my thinking.

I used regular Miracle Grow potting MIX like I do with my Earthbox and Eartainers

Good idea with the float Tom, but when those badboys get big, they will suck the water dry daily, sometimes twice a day.

Well, I'm not as far along as Bernie but I have two things to consider since it will be quite a while before I can install an AWS.

1) I have most of my containers BELOW ground level to keep the roots cooler here in Florida, which limits my ability to look at the water level from the side of the container.

2) I have room for EIGHTY containers and plan to go 100% BWBs for all my veggies, given the fact they will be using varying amounts of water the flags will allow me to go through the garden and selectively water at any given time.

Ok Tom, less than 6 months ago , you had to explain what a SWC was, now you have to tell me what the acronym BWB stands for ??
bernie

Well, they really can't water themselves can they? And, we are using buckets, so it's a Bottom-Watering-Bucket, or would you prefer CAB? Capillary Action Bucket.... ;-)

Well here are my Homedepot specials :)
I have mine on a timered drip system. I have them to fill a little less than a gallon a day. Way too much right now, but what the heck. I have my Earthtainers and 1 Earthbox on the AWS system which is great. Never have to worry about under or over watering.
I just didnt want to drop the extra cash dor my two BWB's...(I like that Acronym)
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man, dbob, you should never stumble over those HD buckets, they are bright. :>)

I think those lids like you and Tom have will put too much water in if it every rains on them. The rim of the lid will capture the full diameter of the bucket and it will all run thru your "soil" and wash your CRF out the overflow. This probably is not a big deal, but one of the things I like about the BWB is that you should never put excess nutrients in the water run off and into our estuaries. I am a catch (rarely) and usely release kayak fisherman, it is terrible the algae build up we get in the Indian River Lagoon with the stupid runoff from lawns and golf courses , not to mention the new polo fields in our basin , YUK !

I dont really have to worry about the rain here. It doesnt really ever rain from May thu Oct here

Very nice Bob! I can see you used the 3.5" hole saw for the top as well as the bottom, I'm going to scale back from the 5" hole saw as Bernie may have a point for me here in Florida with the rain.... Also, I may have more evaporative losses from the soil around the base drying out more. Thinking down the road I have heard others say that with other crops the top hole can be hazardous with excessive wind, vines can be severed on the sharp edge of the hole, so I took the O-ring gasket from under the lid, cut sections and slit them with a box cutter to form a rubber grommet around the top hole. I don't know if your lids had a gasket but if so this is something to consider if you deal at all with windy conditions.

Tom

Also, for anyone interested in giving this a try, here's a good source for an inexpensive hole saw kit that is more than adequate for this purpose....

Tom

Good point about the plant getting cut by the plastic. Hmmm, my backyard is pretty protected so I dont thiiiink it will be a problem, but I may just add some sort of gasket for fun anyways :)

Actuelly for the holes, I used a cup for a template and drew my circle. I dont have a hole saw, and instead of buying one I improvised.
I took my drill and drilled closely spaced holes around the circle. I then used my knife to hand cut the hole. I little filing and sanding....
Came out pretty good if I do say so :)
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I'd say you did an excellent job! If you decide to expand next year then the $14, with no shipping cost, for this amazingly complete hole saw kit might be worth your while....

Tom

I use a sabre saw to cut the ring in the bottom for the wicking device and the filler tube. It does a nice job and oh so much quicker than the drill and knife routine, but not as quick as the hole saw if you are doing a production run of 80 buckets like Tom is about to do. Tom I like your idea of burying the buckets, but an not yet concerned about the soil temps. My buckets are running cooler than the concrete blocks and the box with the brandywines. I know it is not summer yet so it may yet become an issue. The thing I like about burying the buckets is it will not turn over in the wind and looks much nicer although you realize that is not an issue in the S&S garden :>)

bernie

Great pics and thanks for the link for the hole saw cutter.

One of the reasons I never used the lid in EB knockoffs was ,as mentioned, rain would wash in from the top and wet the fertilizer strip completely so you would be essentially top-watering with way too much fertilizer in the container. Earthbox instructions are careful to remind people to mound the mix up so that rain sheets off the top. Even in my 5 gallon SW containers I mounded it on top and just used the bag from the potting mix cut to size. It is a very heavy plastic and white to boot which is what I wanted.

When the plants get bigger I don't think you need to worry about rain as the plant shields the holes. Plus maybe it depends on what type of fertilizer you are using whether or not you need to worry about too much water entering from the top.

bdobs,

I may sound a little strange, but I would consider moving your AWS units to the Home Depot containers. My reasoning is that the 5 gallon buckets will need refilling daily, whereas your EarthTainers hold a lot more water, and can likely go 4 to 6 days between refilling. Sounds strange, but true.....

Raybo

Lots of great information flowing here. Instead of using the fertilizer strip on top I put Nutricote Total 13-13-13 in the mix based on this post, we'll see how it goes. Also, I have 3.5 gallon containers for most of the veggies except the indeterminates, that gives me extra water volume for the bottom 5 gallon container, and I'm thinking of using 6 gallon bottom containers for the indeterminates just for the extra water volume for them. Considering moving to JAG's approach to fertilizing too, would prevent solute accumulation....

Thats a great idea Ray, but....
I used 1/2PVC for my fill tube which wont fit the AWS air bell. Add to that I cut the bottom bucket with a 3/4" hole that fits the 1/2 PVC perfectly. To expand the fill tube to a larger diameter would require me to bore out that hole which would be quite a problem.
I'll just have to waste a bit of water to ensure they dont go dry this suummer.
My timer has A, B, C cycles for each zone. When they get bigger I will add a third fill cycle mid day.

So far so good!
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bdobs, what did you use for wicking chambers for all your self made comtainers? Also I agree looking good.

Larrick

Larrick

I ended up using a couple of the 10oz cups I used to start my Tomatoes in. It turned out they were the perfect heigth to use as the wicking chambers

Brian

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Great job Brian, can't wait to see some mater pictures, keep us posted ;-)

Tom

Brian, BTW, what mix did you use and how are you fertilizing?

Tom

Hi Tom
Just using regular MG Potting mix, one cup of Espoma Garden Lime mixed through and one cup of TomatoTone in a ring around the circumference of the bucket.
This is vs two cups of each in my 31 gallon Earthtainers that have two plants per.
My Sungold is over 5' tall now.

See earlier posts for how my tomatoes looked just over a month ago. These guys are really taking off!

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Ok...so how are the plants in the five gallon buckets doing? I would like to know because I have hundreds of five gallon buckets laying around and wanted to make some 5 gallon SWC's.

Damon

For a wicking device, I like to use a 3 or 4 in dia PVC pipe. That way you have sufficient strength to support the top bucket higher than it's normal nested height. This does 2 things. More water capacity in bottom bucket and better air to the bottom of the top bucket. I am currently developing system so that a series of BWB's are hooked up to my well with timer.
Tried it with 3/8 ID plastic tube and stopped up with trash to easily. Now using 1/2 ID and it is working fine with 3 BWB's . Will put a couple more on line soon.

One advantage of mounding the "soil" and a plastic sheet cover is that your tomatoes does not split when you have 6" of rain in 4 days due to too much water. Know that is not a problem to you guys in the desert, but Florida is DIFFERENT.

Tom, I missed JAG's fertilizing method. Give me a connect to it, thanks bernie

Damon

I posted a pic a couple of posts up. They seem to be doing great even though they really dont get that much sun in comparison to my other guys.

All I see above is the ones you have in bigger SWC's, do you have a stand back picture of the ones in a fiver gallon?

Damon

Just the one that is 9 posts up. I will take better shots this weekend sometime

Brian

My bad, missed that post, looking very nice. What is the resevoir size on those?

Damon

Not sure, but prob around 1g

Very nice Brian, very, very nice....

Bernie, I'll send you an email, don't want to hijack Brian's thread....

Tom

I've been following this thread for a while. This year decided to try some 5gal. buckets and i can safely say it can be done. Other than daily topping off the resevoir. maybe 2x daily when plants are full size i see no problems with the system. The plants are looking healthy as can be, most have quite a few fruitsets and are 3' or taller.

Here is a brandywine from 5 gal BWB. Seed was planted mid Feb.
Note the dollar bill the mater is laying on.

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