I bought these at the Grow Shop of Lexington hydroponics store (and the owner actually gave me a hard time about buying them informing me I was wasting my time with the 'Earthtainer' and that a nice hydroponics setup is what I needed). :( I stood firm and informed him that I had bought all the other materials to construct the Earthtainer, so there was no going back. The next largest size he had was maybe one with a 3" opening. I think I might have a simple solution that should work. What if I insert a 1" plumbing pipe section in the middle of the wicking chamber and seal the ends of it, so the middle part cannot be used to draw up water in the center of the wicking chamber? That would effectively reduce the area inside by 1" in all directions, decreasing the volume ?(think bunt cake). I had only planned to construct 3 Earthtainers, so I could try this one as an experiment to see how effective and buy 2 of the correct baskets off you perhaps?

bcskye, The advantages of growing in EarthTainers are a much earlier start to the season in that the potting mix warms up in the Spring considerably sooner than in-ground soil temperatures. Also, the constant moisture wicking allows the plant to consume just as much water as it needs, and I believe plants respond better with consistency in watering rather than flood to drought type situations in many gardens today. What the "challenge" is later in the Summer is to minimize the heating of the exposed container top and sidewalls so one does not "cook" the root system, in areas of intense sunlight. Bamboo curtains or other protective materials can be used to shade the EarthTainers. As an example, the last photo (above) of the CornTainers was taken on April 23. Here is the same photo taken on April 28. Five days of growth due mainly to the warmth of the soil: In your situation, perhaps a mix of a few EarthTainers for "early" harvesting, coupled with using your land for later season crops. I would really love to have some real land to grow on, but as you can see from the photos, I have a "postage-stamp" sized yard to make best use of. Raybo

Yeah those kids are smart as hell! I plan to get the tubing to make it happen just as they show in their videos. Not all teens sit around playing video games and texting I guess. ;) I grew up on a real farm and texting wasn't invented yet (and cell phones were too pricey for any farm kid to own). I just had video games, but they always took a back seat to school and working for my family. Yup.. we both shared "The Yellowing" of our plants. So far so good with adding that sifted pine bark and more perlite. I cannot remember the initial proportion of peat to vermiculite to perlite that I used for my base soil medium, but I remember it was said the proportion that Miracle Gro uses in their non Moisture-control. The only reason I made my own (which was a lot of work) was because I had 5 Earthtainers to fill and it was cheaper in the long run and I didn't mind getting my hands dirty. I mixed this in the 3:2:1 ratio (soil medium:pine bark:more perlite) for this year's mix. Anyhow you're probably asking about the fertilizer mixes, so for that I used 1 measuring cup of OLD Tomato-Tone + 1 cup of NEW Tomato-Tone for the fertilizer strip (in a 30ga ET). I blended those together and laid the strip. Then for EACH tomato hole I put in approximately 1 cup of my homebrew worm casts. My worm bins are very simple. Take two 5-gallon buckets, drill 3/8" holes randomly through the bottom of one bucket (50 holes or something). Fill this bucket with shredded paper (junk mail, paper bags from fast food and credit card offers are what I use). You will want to moisten the paper and squeeze the water out like a sponge, so it is just damp. This is the worm bedding. Add this and then next add worms and organic matter like banana peels (primarily my worm's major source of material). I use red wiggler worms provided by a class I took a few years ago at UK. Put this bucket inside the other bucket which will serve as the outer bucket to catch whatever drips from the worm's activity above. I use that worm leechate on my Blueberry bushes. Also get a lid for the worm bucket bin. The worms get enough oxygen by lifting the lid every now and then to toss in more organic waste for them to work the bacteria off of. I've gone weeks without lifting the lid. The hardest part of the worm bin is collecting the casts 6-8 months later. I can describe that process if you want. Here's what my bins look like: From 050509 Harvesting: From 022810 From 022810

dave, I always look forward to reading your posts. Regarding the cost effectiveness of the EarthTainer, you are absolutely correct, that a raised bed or traditional in ground planting is far more inexpensive. Here is Silicon Valley square footage for gardening is almost non-existent. I literally have a 5' by 18' raised bed - - and that was all the tillable space I had. Last year I was able to grow a grand total of 13 tomato plants in this space. With the 'Tainers this year, I am able to use sunny deck space, and other locations in the yard that wouldn't support in-ground planting. So I am now growing 46 tomato plants plus 4 'Tainers filled with corn. As I travel sometimes for 2 weeks at a time, I needed a "hands-free" watering solution and the Automated Watering System from the folks at the EarthBox Company fit the bill perfectly. I haven't touched a hose since March 22 when I planted out. As this part of California is about to be put under mandatory water rationing, the closed eco-system of the 'Tainer has got to be the most water stingy approach I could think of. I have found other benefits such as spinning the 'Tainer 180 degrees every 30 days, as this has encouraged a more symmetrical plant with better yield. Also, I haven't had a squirrel or gopher attack the plants this year - perhaps they don't want to scale the container walls. The soil temperature of the 'Tainer warmed about a month earlier than the temp of my in-ground bed, so I have been harvesting tomatoes since May 25 - something I have never been able to do previously. In terms of cost, the cages and staking are a wash when compared to in-ground planting. So the $23.00 for the base container system is the issue. As the "innards" of the 'Tainer are not exposed to UV, I am estimating a 15 year service life for it. I so anticipate that the Rubbermaid outer shell should last 7 years with careful use like rotation from the sun, etc. The Rubbermaid costs $9.97 at Lowes this week so that would work out to be about $1.50 per year amortization expense. The (optional) AWS worked out to be $6.25 per plant - - and in my view, saving me hours of weekly watering, this is the best $6.25 that I have ever spent in the garden!! Everyone has to weigh their priorities and tradeoffs with land availability, ROI horizon, and so forth. Yes, I did go a bit overboard in building 28 of them but I am quite happy I did so. Alley Cat, Yes, I agree and would love to find a basket of 3" by 6" with a depth of 5", as my ideal size, but exhaustive searches at houseware stores, the Internet, Amazon, etc. have not turned up such a size. joytwo, I experimented with "extreme pruning" on my early Stupice and as you can see, the tomatoes were both early and prolific. Not a pretty photograph, but as one said in another thread "Do you eat the leaves....or the tomatoes??" Raybo