Ha.. same exact thought crossed my mind while working with the 3:2:1 mixing and filling operation in my Earthtainers after work today.. that Ray has at least 7X more of these than I do and REALLY had his work cut out for him. I am not sure if I should be doing this, but I gently have been patting the mix down into the Earthtainers. It is very light and fluffy, so I pat it down for good internal particle contact. Is that ok to do? Or should I fluff them up, remove the extra on top and just let gravity do its work as time goes on? I've got 4 filled with the new mix and then the smaller 18ga and various BucketTainers to go. Here's a pic from Sunday when I worked out in the rain til I couldn't see anymore in the evening. This year I am actually leveling the ground and making sure each EarthTainer is level. It was a mosquito paradise last year even with the dunks in the reservoirs because excess water drained out of the lower side and created a perpetual swamp for the nasties to thrive in. I am using the squarish milk jugs Sams Club sells their milk in... packed with gravel as pillars as they feel very stable and give enough 'play' to balance the EarthTainers on my sloped yard. Also they might act like shocks for stability in an Earthquake. ;) I might actually rotate my EarthTainers this year too as it should be easier with less surface area touching the bottom of the container. From 032710

Suggestions / questions for v3.3: In Step #12, what's the purpose for inserting that lid cutout into the bottom of container #1? In Step #15, the 3 5/8" hole and the 1/4" "pegboard" holes are being drilled into the bottom of Container #2, correct? (The angle of the photos for 15 and 16 make it difficult to tell if this is Container #2, or just a lid? It may be useful to show Container #1, the aeration bench assembly and the cut-down Container #2 (with the wicking basket installed) side by side, then show how Container #2 fits on top of the bench assembly. I'm assuming that the weight of Container #2 (once it's been filled with 130 pounds of media) is supported by the bench assembly and the screws / washers connecting the two? How movable is the structure once it's been filled with media? I'm concerned that if the container needs to be moved once full, any lateral motion can cause the bench assembly to buckle, and once that happens Container #2 will just collapse down into Container #1 because it will only be supported by the side screws, tearing the plastic and crushing the wicking basket. Would something like 2 ea 4" diameter SCH40 PVC, cut to a height of 5" (or whatever) and placed in the bottom of container #1 provide greater vertical structural support, and also reduce the chance that the two 3/8" pilot holes from Step 3 become clogged, preventing water from flowing into the wicking basket chamber area? If 4" PVC are used as columns then the wicking basket will be free-floating in the water at the bottom of the container. Move Step 13 so that it's right after Step #4? That way you're doing all the jigwsaw cuts at the same time on Container #2. Perhaps indicate that another pilot hole should be drilled for this as well, except it's only going to be used in order to cut away the 1 3/8" section so that Container #2 + wicking basket aren't sticking up above the rim of Container #1? If you change the name of the PDF file so that it has the version number embedded then browsers won't present a cached version of the document. (When I clicked the link, because I had already downloaded v3.1 and the new document had the same name, my browser helpfully just showed me v3.1 because the names were the same. If the new document was called "EarthTainer-Construction-Guide-3.2.pdf" it wouldn't have done that.) Thanks, Bob

woodcutter, Thanks. I put a lot of thought into the EarthTainer III after looking how to improve the prior design. The Pea Fences from Gurney's were a wonderful coincidence!! ...from an "old" WA2WOD Raybo

The new EarthTainer III Rev 3.2 Construction Guide is now available at the TomatoFest website: http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/pdfs/EarthTainer-Construction-Guide.pdf Mostly "evolutionary" improvements regarding cage installation, planting instructions, etc. Raybo