When I first got my starter Earth Boxes, I got them from Whole Foods for $59 each. When I recently bought seeds from Gurny's, there was an offer from Earthbox directly that sold the boxes for $37 for one (including shipping). Discount is 3 for $110, 5 for $175, and 10 for $344. obviously the more you buy, the bigger the discount. Call 1-888-588-5897 I wish I can be an industrious as others who make their own but I am already being a renegade in New York City by gardening on my balcony. (i hear that I am one of the few who veggie garden in my building. I need to maximize my yield with little space so the Earthbox option is the best one for me. So far, I am learning to be a better gardener and have higher yields every year. My first year was dismal b/c I didn't know what I was doing. Now I use seeds, start my plants in a greenhouse rack, and use self watering containers. Hopefully I will have more happy news to report at the end of summer.

Earthbox sells what they call the "Staking System", which gives the whole set-up a 61" height when full assembled (subtract the height of the box plus however high your mounded soil is and that's how much trellis you'd actually have - probably about 4 feet). They also sell an extension kit that extends the height another foot. I have the staking systems attached to 3 of my Earthboxes for tomatoes and cucumbers. It is fantastic for cucumbers and works well for tomatoes, but we all know most tomato plants (including some determinates) get taller than 4 feet. I purchased 6' stakes from HD and added them to the box when I transplanted and secured them to the cross-bar on the staking system. So far it's working well, but my black cherry tomato is almost at the top of the stake, so I will probably have to rig up additional posts since it's still so early in the season. A friend does not use the staking systems and just has standard tomato cages with 6' stakes and hers are doing just fine. There are many people who have taken the time to build external "cages", trellises and other support systems to contain the sometimes unwieldy growth. They're not necessary attached to the Earthbox, but they surround it. Now that I see how massive my plants are getting, I'm thinking of doing the same for next season - I don't really see any way around it unless Earthbox makes available a variety of more substantial add-ons. Below is a photo of the tomatoes taken this morning before sun up. This post was edited by NBM81 on Thu, Jul 10, 14 at 9:06

thesii/Curt, This year, I got it into my head to try container gardening with only using materials (other than the container) available from the land, nothing store bought. I planned to post this with pictures later when a harvest is visible. For this experiment I have 3 5-gallon double bucket homemade SWCs. Trying 3 different mixes: 1. Pure crushed charcoal (no ashes) 2. Assorted leaves, hand pushed down to "compress". I added a thin layer of dirt (actually clay mud here in California) on the top to plant the seeds in and to help retain moisture. 3. Roughly 4 parts leaves, 1 part dirt/mud. And a layer of dirt/mud on top for seed planting. Planted green beans in each of them. Now the fertilizer is home-brewed, diluted urine. I have tried solid, store bought organic fertilizers in the past and been quite disappointed with the container results, and switched to chemical ones a few years ago. However, I have been completely surprised by how well & quickly the urine has worked so far. I dilute it 1 part urine to 5-10 parts water. The beans in the leaf mixtures are doing great, very green and growing well. Too early for a crop yet, as I started late. The beans in the charcoal mix, are doing ok, but the leaves are yellowish or they constantly change between yellowish and greenish, depending on when I fertilize them. The charcoal drains very fast and I'd conclude they don't support enough of the bacterial life necessary to process the urine as the leaf and soil mixture does. (I did add a handful of dirt to the top of the charcoal). Also I started fertilizing a 4-year-old potted dahlia with the urine. Even though the mix is 4 years old, the dahlia is doing the best it has ever done, profuse flowering for over a month now, with deep dark green leaves. It's in a SWC with a very small reservoir. After the dahlia start doing so well, I started fertilizing the rest of my container plants with urine too. They are all doing the best they've ever done this year. I believe in part due to the urine and in part because I am being more careful with the watering this year. I'm getting good harvest now from my eggplants and my regular bean containers. I use an Al-like mix for these. 1 part pumice, 1 part peat, 1 part bark. I judge when to fertilize by looking at the plant leaves, if there is a hint of yellow they get fertilized. Then I wait for a few days to see how much greening has taken place before deciding whether to fertilize more. It takes a few days to see the leaves start greening. I believe part of why my plants respond so well to the diluted urine is that the pH is 6.2 to 6.5 with an alkalinity of 120ppm, compared to my tap water of 7.4 pH. I was concerned that the plants would get too much nitrogen and impede fruit development. This hasn't been my experience. Dahlia flower constantly with no other fertilizer. And I even started using urine in my raised garden beds. Getting the best bean harvest ever, from my garden-bed pole beans, which received about 10 cups of urine, early in the season. About making an automatic self-watering system. Since this is for food production, you should test whatever self-watering container with a hand watered one. Same mix and plants in both. You'll most likely get a much better harvest from the hand watered one. I have and I've used good soiless mixes. If people want to depend on these for food to eat, they really need to learn how to stick their finger in the soil and decide how much to water and do it regularly (I now wash my hands after this activity). Good luck with your efforts to help.

I use bamboo poles tripod style with a ridge pole. I tie my tomatoes with plastic grocery bags folded from top to bottom until it is about one inche wide. Then I cut the band into about one inch strips. Each strip when unfolded makes a loop. I cut the loop and tie my tomatoes with the one inch strips. They work very good. The tripod makes it easy to cover when the weather gets cold. I had tomatoes covered on stakes that froze while the ones on the tripod didnÂt because there is more ground underneath to keep the tomatoes warm. See my tomato supports and my photoÂs. Karyl ==== Here is a link that might be useful: Photo's of my tomato support