Earth Boxes

15 years ago

I live in Central Florida The Villages. I would like to grow some vegetables in Earth Boxes. Has anyone used these and if so where did you get them from? Thanks

Deb

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Comments (7)

Donna
15 years ago
I have used the Self-Watering Tomato Kit from Gardeners Supply, which I believe are very similar to earthboxes. I have grown tomatoes and bell peppers in them with excellent results. I have had somewhat limited results with the bush varieties of cucumbers.
pandorasgardens
15 years ago
I've had a lot of success with growing vegetables in a homemade version of the earthbox. Many thanks to jmatl31 from the container garden forum .... His thread named "New improved homemade self watering container / Earthbox" has the details on how to make a relatively inexpensive container. I like them so much that I currently have 6 of them... tomatoes, cucumber, squash, zucchini, eggplant have all done well. I'm going to try them with some cool season veggies as soon as I can. The link to his thread is (hopefully) forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0501044214330.html
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If you want to go cheap and use 5 gallon buckets, cleaning them takes forever. What I'm trying with the white 5 gallon containers is to put colored electrical tape or large stickers on them. As far as "ugly" containers go, if you look at someplace like Target throughout the year, you can get colors that are more attractive/appropriate for SWC's. They have orange/rust colored containers that look like clay color in the fall. And these *are* real rubbermaid roughneck containers. As far as using containers year after year, if you are an urban apartment dweller who will probably move every 2-5 years, the durability is not as much of a factor. Then again, you don't have the economies of scale from building large numbers of containers. If the cost of your components is $20, and a real Earthbox is $30, how much is your time worth? You have to go out and buy materials, gather your tools and put them away afterwards, then your first time you spend some thought processes to figure out how it works. Given a large supply of 5 gallon buckets, I could probably pump them out at 15-30 minutes apiece. But I need to know where to buy funnels, tubing, cups of the right height for the wicking chambers, zip ties... And if I were making the 2/3 height SWC's, using the lid instead of 2 buckets, I'd need screws, and a good knife and sturdy scissors. I also need 4 or 5 different types of drill attachments. And then there is the time spend decorating the darn things... They do look respectable at any distance over 5 feet. Where you can't see the stripes are crooked, or that I covered over the label with white duct tape. And the colored electrical/duct tape cost a bit. Alice
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Earth box soil
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Comments (2)
I hope that when you say "soil" you don't mean soil. You generally don't want to use soil per se in containers, only potting mix type combinations. Earthbox has a list of approved media here, and you'll do much better if you stick to something like these:
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Two years ago, I made some sub-irrigation planters much like the popular Earthboxes. Winter came, and I was busy doing other things; I let the boxes sit with soil (and water) in them (gross, I know :( ) . Now, my life has calmed back down enough for me to garden again. However, I just dumped out all of the two-year-old soil and water from the Earthboxes and it smells like a sewer. Are the Earthboxes salvageable after having foul-smelling water in them? Is there a way I can kill the bacteria that may be causing the odor and still use them safely for gardening? Or should I just make new ones? Thanks for reading :)
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Comments (3)
I see a lot of interveinal chlorosis, perhaps Sulfur or Magnesium deficiency? What is in the Earthbox, potting mix or actual earth/soil? Have you ever fertilized the plant? It is quite large and fruiting, so it might have depleted whatever nutrients were in the medium. Since it's a container with little microbial activity, you need immediately available nutrients, such as liquid fertilizer in the water.
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dandart_comcast_net
14 years ago
I love the Earth Boxes for those of us who are not so handy or don't have the time, the are fairly reasonable in price for what you get.

Here is a link that might be useful: Earth Box info
Donna
14 years ago
I have used the Gardeners Supply Tomato Kits too. I had great results with tomatoes (Better Bush and Bush Goliath were winners), peppers (better than in the ground), lettuce in the winter, and carrots in the winter. I tried cucumbers (limited success), squash (no success), and pole beans on a trellis. The beans grew well but didn't produce. I have since learned that I was probably planting them way too late and it was getting too hot for them.

The drawbacks are you MUST water EVERY day with NO exceptions. You must fertilize every other week to have fruit. And, it costs alot more than in-ground planting due to the cost of the pot and potting soil. Otherwise, it's easy. One year, I was still picking tomatoes at Thanksgiving.
dancinglemons
14 years ago
I love EarthBox gardening. I have 25 EarthBoxes and several DIY selfwatering planters. Severe arthritis does not allow me to have in-ground garden anymore.

If you are not able to water every day you can buy the EarthBox Automatic Watering System but it is specific to the brand name EarthBox. Try reading the EarthBox forum - link below. If you do decide to get EB brand name planter - buy from the company as most garden centers charge $50-$60 dollars each and they only cost $29 from the company (plus shipping fee)

DL

Here is a link that might be useful: Earth Box Forum
art1
14 years ago
I just went to the EarthBox company link you provided, there actually priced at $54.95 + $15.95 shipping, not sure where you got that price. Usually the manufactures sell their product a bit higher than than distributors as not to compete with their own distributors.

The other thing to note with the EarthBox is, you only need to fertilize once they provide a time released fertilizer that typically last until you harvest.
praisercheri1_aol_com
13 years ago
I had beautiful yellow squash and zucchini plants last spring--that is, until the vine borers got to them. I never got to taste even one squash. My husband bought me 3 earth boxes and I was planning on trying my squashes again. Do these boxes give added protection, or do I still need to take precautions against this evil little pests?

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Earth Boxes

Comments (7)

Donna

pandorasgardens

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