How does your Earthbox yield compare - Page 2

Dewayne mater · June 12, 2015

The earthboxes I have are not quite 20 gallons. Here is the size of the ones I have per earthbox. "The dimensions of the EarthBox are 29" L x 13.5" D x 11" H. It holds 3 gallons of water and 2 cubic feet (60 dry quarts) of growing media." I think that means 15 gallons of grow media, 3 gallon water reservoir. The earthtainer holds approximately 24 gallons of grow media, plus 7 gallons of water. So, while not quite twice as large in grow media it is about 2/3rds again as large. I believe that extra size and depth makes a significant difference for growing 2 indeterminate plants. When I've completely emptied earthtainers, I find roots are throughout the entire grow media area and they have penetrated the weed cloth and are drinking directly from the reservoir.

As for construction, I am probably the least handy guy around and making the first one was really intimidating. It probably took me twice as long as the directions say and I wanted to quit a few times. But, the second one was easier. By the 3rd one I had it down and made it quickly. The 4th took a little longer because the design had changed. After that, I was making them 2 at a time and they are easy. In my experience, if you have the tools and the component parts, anyone can do it! Ray's instructions are not like the kids toys that come from China and are as accurately translated as alphabet soup. He has pictures, lots of pictures! It includes step by step instructions down to the smallest step. If I can do it, you can do it! They are more a winter time project to me, when there are no tomatoes to worry over. Good luck!

As for size, you can definitely get good sized tomatoes from earth boxes! They may be 10 or even 20% smaller than those grown in the ground (my experience) but, the are still full sized slicing tomatoes! So, if you don't build earthtainers, definitely Go for it with earthboxes.

Dewayne

schill93 · June 12, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

The earthboxes I have are not quite 20 gallons. Here is the size of the ones I have per earthbox. "The dimensions of the EarthBox are 29" L x 13.5" D x 11" H. It holds 3 gallons of water and 2 cubic feet (60 dry quarts) of growing media." I think that means 15 gallons of grow media, 3 gallon water reservoir. The earthtainer holds approximately 24 gallons of grow media, plus 7 gallons of water. So, while not quite twice as large in grow media it is about 2/3rds again as large. I believe that extra size and depth makes a significant difference for growing 2 indeterminate plants. When I've completely emptied earthtainers, I find roots are throughout the entire grow media area and they have penetrated the weed cloth and are drinking directly from the reservoir.

As for construction, I am probably the least handy guy around and making the first one was really intimidating. It probably took me twice as long as the directions say and I wanted to quit a few times. But, the second one was easier. By the 3rd one I had it down and made it quickly. The 4th took a little longer because the design had changed. After that, I was making them 2 at a time and they are easy. In my experience, if you have the tools and the component parts, anyone can do it! Ray's instructions are not like the kids toys that come from China and are as accurately translated as alphabet soup. He has pictures, lots of pictures! It includes step by step instructions down to the smallest step. If I can do it, you can do it! They are more a winter time project to me, when there are no tomatoes to worry over. Good luck!

As for size, you can definitely get good sized tomatoes from earth boxes! They may be 10 or even 20% smaller than those grown in the ground (my experience) but, the are still full sized slicing tomatoes! So, if you don't build earthtainers, definitely Go for it with earthboxes.

Dewayne

Thanks Dewayne. I'm curious. How long did the first one take you to construct and how long did the last one take you to construct?

Tchamp77 · June 12, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by peebee

I have only one Eathbox and I use it to grow peppers and/or eggplants only. Tomatoes and cukes do better for me in-ground, but peppers and eggplants do better in containers for me. I not only use the fert strip down the middle, I use liquid ferts in the water and they are so prolific, I couldn't be happier.
I did a test last year growing Padron peppers both in ground and in the EB. There was no comparison.

Hey PeeBee,
Which liquid ferts do you recommend?

schill93 · June 12, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by peebee

I have only one Eathbox and I use it to grow peppers and/or eggplants only. Tomatoes and cukes do better for me in-ground, but peppers and eggplants do better in containers for me. I not only use the fert strip down the middle, I use liquid ferts in the water and they are so prolific, I couldn't be happier.
I did a test last year growing Padron peppers both in ground and in the EB. There was no comparison.

Hi peebee. Was wondering since eggplant get so big, are you putting one or two in an Earthbox. Also, how many peppers in a box?

Dewayne mater · June 12, 2015

How long...well it has been a while, as fortunately, they have held up very well! I think the first one took 3-4 hours, but by the end, it was closer to an hour, when you take into account you are cutting two at at time. You will definitely need a drill and jig saw though...don't even think about it if you don't have them or can't borrow them!

I started using them in a pinch when foundation troubles wrecked by gardens, but, I became a believer after that year and will always keep them as a part of of my garden. They are particularly nice when gardens don't get good light because you can put them where the light it. Good luck!

Dewayne

peebee · June 13, 2015

Tchamp, I used MG in the beginning, just put in the grains right into the pipe, making sure I rocked the ET around to spread it. I don't like to use MG much, but it serves it's purpose at times and I wanted quick growth. Later, I used Urban Farms Texas Tomato or Vegetable Fert, whatever I had. Sometimes I would just add directly into the pipe, othertimes I would dilute it first and poured that in if I felt that the ET would need more water.

Schill, I put 4 each of peppers or eggplants to an EB. But this year I am trying something new and planted 3 peppers and 2 eggplants in one: 2 Giant Marconis, 1 Slovono Uno (sp?) and 2 Millionaire Japanese eggplants. I did it hoping that the heavy dose of fertilizer will keep them growing ok. So far, so good. They are all large and healthy and I see 2 huge peppers ready to be picked. I will probably have to put some kind of wire short fence around them soon for support.

RomanX · June 15, 2015

I have 2 EBs, one 18" container and five 5-gallon shop buckets. . . for a total of eleven tomato plants (10 different varieties).

I move the EBs and the shop buckets monthly, trying for even sunning as they all are on casters. My garden helper built me two "skids" of 2X4's on casters, each with cross brackets so three shop buckets fit in each "skid".

Another plus: the "skids"

RomanX · June 15, 2015

raise the tomato roots off the hot concrete patio!

Sojourner · June 20, 2015

The problem I saw with the earthbox - that's the one out of Florida, right? Anyway the problem with that container is/was that it is simply too shallow to support a full grown healthy tomato plant. Possibly some of the mini tomatoes would have done better in it, the ones specifically bred as container plants. There is a limit to how deep any "self-watering" container can be because water doesn't wick well through container medium more than about 6" to 9" (depending on the medium and environmental conditions).

In Las Vegas and similar hot, dry, windy desert environments, you often end up with the top dried out and soupy glop in the bottom in any sort of container, if you're not very careful. I'm trying a Growstone/peat blend this year to see how that works under our high desert conditions. Last year I used a Dry Stall/peat blend which worked OK - but I feel could be improved. (Dry stall is crushed pumice about 1/16" to 1/8" in size).

I have leftover "gritty mix" - utter failure with that btw in my indoor growing situation and I'm not willing to try it straight as an outdoor container medium because of that - which I may try in a 50/50 peat/"gritty" blend to see if that can be salvaged at all. It depends on what I hear back from the university about the safety (for earthworms) of adding calcined DE to the soil, as I usually add my spent container medium to my compost and there is calcined DE in the gritty.

schill93 · June 23, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sojourner

The problem I saw with the earthbox - that's the one out of Florida, right? Anyway the problem with that container is/was that it is simply too shallow to support a full grown healthy tomato plant. Possibly some of the mini tomatoes would have done better in it, the ones specifically bred as container plants. There is a limit to how deep any "self-watering" container can be because water doesn't wick well through container medium more than about 6" to 9" (depending on the medium and environmental conditions).

In Las Vegas and similar hot, dry, windy desert environments, you often end up with the top dried out and soupy glop in the bottom in any sort of container, if you're not very careful. I'm trying a Growstone/peat blend this year to see how that works under our high desert conditions. Last year I used a Dry Stall/peat blend which worked OK - but I feel could be improved. (Dry stall is crushed pumice about 1/16" to 1/8" in size).

I have leftover "gritty mix" - utter failure with that btw in my indoor growing situation and I'm not willing to try it straight as an outdoor container medium because of that - which I may try in a 50/50 peat/"gritty" blend to see if that can be salvaged at all. It depends on what I hear back from the university about the safety (for earthworms) of adding calcined DE to the soil, as I usually add my spent container medium to my compost and there is calcined DE in the gritty.

Are you trying to grow in the extreme desert temperatures (112-116 degrees in summer)? It is the consensuses from local city forums here that container vegetable gardens just do not work in this heat for the most part unless you plant only the very short season variety plants or certain cherry tomato varieties.

I planted several different variety tomatoes, some eggplant, and zucchini in the 15 gallon nursery containers using a vegetable container mix purchased at our local nursery here with predominately peat, some perlite and vermiculite added, and I'm not sure what else, as this was a last minute decision I made after a major landscaping job I did on my house that lent lots of 15 gallon containers from all of the trees I planted, and it was vegetable planting season, so the nursery was brimming with vegetable plants. (I discovered Earthboxes after the fact)

I decided I would try and keep my plants alive by wrapping aluminum foil, then a layer of silver insulation I found at Lowes around the 15 gallon pots to deflect the intense summer sun from frying the roots. I also put about 4 inches of mulch on top of each plant to prevent the tops from drying out. I hesitate to speak, as it is only June, and I have yet July and August of 110-115 degree temperatures to contend with. But to date, THEY'RE ALIVE !!!!!

, and have lots of green tomatoes on them still growing.

I want to switch to Earthboxes (or Earthtainer's next year) as I will get the watering down better. (I over watered this year) and I'm trying to anticipate how many containers I need for what I want to be able to plant. I got small tomatoes from my containers this year, but I did not feed them properly starting out, and they are only exposed to morning sun of between 5-6 hours max, which didn't help growth. In other words, I did everything imaginable wrong starting out.

So, I want to try and right all my wrongs next season. I have never grown so much as a pea before, so this has been a fun journey.

Sojourner · June 24, 2015

Actually I was living in MO when I had the Earthbox.

And no, it rarely gets much over 90F to 95F here. I don't think it's broken 100F the whole time I've been here. Folks further south and at lower elevations do have that problem with 110+ temps, but not here.

The problem I have is the night time temps drop below freezing so late into spring - even if it's 75F or 80F in the daytime it can still freeze at night. SO my gardens always go in "late", comparatively speaking. Last year stuff went in mid to end of July and later as it was still freezing at night at the end of June.

I have my tomatoes in the ground this year and every year any more actually, as they just do better than in ANY container. But when I was trying to grow them in containers, they did better in any (large) container than they did in the Earthboxes. I have 25" or 26" containers that I got for a song from Lowe's yesterday that I will be using for container grown plants. Yeah, its late, but I have an injury that has been slowing me down even more than freezing night time temps did this year. So lots of secondary stuff that didn't go in (I have VERY limited planting-in-the-ground space) could still end up in a planter.

Anyway I paid like $9 for these ginormous planters and I have 8 of them. Nearly all my stuff is already in (as in actually in the ground), but 2 of these are for some dwarf Okra, and then I have cardinal climber (already started in pots) I will put in some of the others set along the back fence. Mostly flowers will be going into these containers this year.

Hopefully I won't be here next year, but somewhere more conducive to gardening and less likely to freeze in June, LOL!

Another issue I had with tomatoes in containers was that by the time I got them into something big enough for the root system, they were growing way over my head. Then there is the wind issue - which is even worse here than anywhere else I've lived as we get frequent high winds. So no 'maters in containers for me, for many reasons.

But maybe I'll revisit that in a new place. I can see planting them at the side of a deck or porch (if the light situation is right) and using the porch as my "ladder". I am too old and decrepit to be tottering about on a ladder trying to reach that one big ripe tomato over there at the back ...

IronPete · June 25, 2015

If I can get the picture inserted you will see that I am using the stacked 5 gallon pails as a 'poor man's eartainer'. I used the same 3 1/2 inch hole in the bottom but used a red plastic beer cup with holes drilled in it to hold the wicking material. Same watering pipe and enough holes in the watering bench to get good breathing. I am not done yet. I will be adding plastic to the top and also a water level indicator. The fertilizer is in a ring around the edge of the pot so as to avoid the roots. Free pots. Free beer cups. I bought the PVC pipe. I am still going to build some Earthtainers according to Raybo's excellent plans but that will have to wait until my wallet grows a bit. Until then these will have to do.

Most of the plants going into these are determinates like Blanche Du Quebec and Mac Pink. These ones in the picture are a brandywine and in the background a Casey's Pure Yellow.

schill93 · June 25, 2015

iron Pete. Those should work. I am sure you will see some tomatoes. It is just that the plant and fruit will probably be smaller. Lots of people use them, even though not ideal. You can't beat free, so whatever tomatoes it yields will be a plus.

I put a couple of plants in some containers that I had that were probably less than 5 gallons, as I had extra plants that I bought and needed to plant them, and that's all I had left. I got some tomatoes off of them, though admittedly not a great deal.

I know that size does matter. But there is no harm in starting out small, and working your way up to bigger. Actually people have said that pepper plants do especially well in SIP 5 gal. pails. So when you eventually get some larger ones made, you can move your tomatoes over to the larger ones and use the 5 gal. for other vegetables like peppers or eggplant, garlic, etc.

June 12, 2015	#16
Dewayne mater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2008 Location: DFW, Texas Posts: 1,212	The earthboxes I have are not quite 20 gallons. Here is the size of the ones I have per earthbox. "The dimensions of the EarthBox are 29" L x 13.5" D x 11" H. It holds 3 gallons of water and 2 cubic feet (60 dry quarts) of growing media." I think that means 15 gallons of grow media, 3 gallon water reservoir. The earthtainer holds approximately 24 gallons of grow media, plus 7 gallons of water. So, while not quite twice as large in grow media it is about 2/3rds again as large. I believe that extra size and depth makes a significant difference for growing 2 indeterminate plants. When I've completely emptied earthtainers, I find roots are throughout the entire grow media area and they have penetrated the weed cloth and are drinking directly from the reservoir. As for construction, I am probably the least handy guy around and making the first one was really intimidating. It probably took me twice as long as the directions say and I wanted to quit a few times. But, the second one was easier. By the 3rd one I had it down and made it quickly. The 4th took a little longer because the design had changed. After that, I was making them 2 at a time and they are easy. In my experience, if you have the tools and the component parts, anyone can do it! Ray's instructions are not like the kids toys that come from China and are as accurately translated as alphabet soup. He has pictures, lots of pictures! It includes step by step instructions down to the smallest step. If I can do it, you can do it! They are more a winter time project to me, when there are no tomatoes to worry over. Good luck! As for size, you can definitely get good sized tomatoes from earth boxes! They may be 10 or even 20% smaller than those grown in the ground (my experience) but, the are still full sized slicing tomatoes! So, if you don't build earthtainers, definitely Go for it with earthboxes. Dewayne

June 13, 2015	#21
peebee Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Southern CA Posts: 1,714	Tchamp, I used MG in the beginning, just put in the grains right into the pipe, making sure I rocked the ET around to spread it. I don't like to use MG much, but it serves it's purpose at times and I wanted quick growth. Later, I used Urban Farms Texas Tomato or Vegetable Fert, whatever I had. Sometimes I would just add directly into the pipe, othertimes I would dilute it first and poured that in if I felt that the ET would need more water. Schill, I put 4 each of peppers or eggplants to an EB. But this year I am trying something new and planted 3 peppers and 2 eggplants in one: 2 Giant Marconis, 1 Slovono Uno (sp?) and 2 Millionaire Japanese eggplants. I did it hoping that the heavy dose of fertilizer will keep them growing ok. So far, so good. They are all large and healthy and I see 2 huge peppers ready to be picked. I will probably have to put some kind of wire short fence around them soon for support.

June 15, 2015	#22
RomanX Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: North Carolina Posts: 119	I have 2 EBs, one 18" container and five 5-gallon shop buckets. . . for a total of eleven tomato plants (10 different varieties). I move the EBs and the shop buckets monthly, trying for even sunning as they all are on casters. My garden helper built me two "skids" of 2X4's on casters, each with cross brackets so three shop buckets fit in each "skid". Another plus: the "skids"

June 20, 2015	#24
Sojourner Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: Earth Posts: 27	The problem I saw with the earthbox - that's the one out of Florida, right? Anyway the problem with that container is/was that it is simply too shallow to support a full grown healthy tomato plant. Possibly some of the mini tomatoes would have done better in it, the ones specifically bred as container plants. There is a limit to how deep any "self-watering" container can be because water doesn't wick well through container medium more than about 6" to 9" (depending on the medium and environmental conditions). In Las Vegas and similar hot, dry, windy desert environments, you often end up with the top dried out and soupy glop in the bottom in any sort of container, if you're not very careful. I'm trying a Growstone/peat blend this year to see how that works under our high desert conditions. Last year I used a Dry Stall/peat blend which worked OK - but I feel could be improved. (Dry stall is crushed pumice about 1/16" to 1/8" in size). I have leftover "gritty mix" - utter failure with that btw in my indoor growing situation and I'm not willing to try it straight as an outdoor container medium because of that - which I may try in a 50/50 peat/"gritty" blend to see if that can be salvaged at all. It depends on what I hear back from the university about the safety (for earthworms) of adding calcined DE to the soil, as I usually add my spent container medium to my compost and there is calcined DE in the gritty.

June 24, 2015	#26
Sojourner Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: Earth Posts: 27	Actually I was living in MO when I had the Earthbox. And no, it rarely gets much over 90F to 95F here. I don't think it's broken 100F the whole time I've been here. Folks further south and at lower elevations do have that problem with 110+ temps, but not here. The problem I have is the night time temps drop below freezing so late into spring - even if it's 75F or 80F in the daytime it can still freeze at night. SO my gardens always go in "late", comparatively speaking. Last year stuff went in mid to end of July and later as it was still freezing at night at the end of June. I have my tomatoes in the ground this year and every year any more actually, as they just do better than in ANY container. But when I was trying to grow them in containers, they did better in any (large) container than they did in the Earthboxes. I have 25" or 26" containers that I got for a song from Lowe's yesterday that I will be using for container grown plants. Yeah, its late, but I have an injury that has been slowing me down even more than freezing night time temps did this year. So lots of secondary stuff that didn't go in (I have VERY limited planting-in-the-ground space) could still end up in a planter. Anyway I paid like $9 for these ginormous planters and I have 8 of them. Nearly all my stuff is already in (as in actually in the ground), but 2 of these are for some dwarf Okra, and then I have cardinal climber (already started in pots) I will put in some of the others set along the back fence. Mostly flowers will be going into these containers this year. Hopefully I won't be here next year, but somewhere more conducive to gardening and less likely to freeze in June, LOL! Another issue I had with tomatoes in containers was that by the time I got them into something big enough for the root system, they were growing way over my head. Then there is the wind issue - which is even worse here than anywhere else I've lived as we get frequent high winds. So no 'maters in containers for me, for many reasons. But maybe I'll revisit that in a new place. I can see planting them at the side of a deck or porch (if the light situation is right) and using the porch as my "ladder". I am too old and decrepit to be tottering about on a ladder trying to reach that one big ripe tomato over there at the back ...

June 25, 2015	#28
schill93 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2015 Location: Nevada Posts: 275	iron Pete. Those should work. I am sure you will see some tomatoes. It is just that the plant and fruit will probably be smaller. Lots of people use them, even though not ideal. You can't beat free, so whatever tomatoes it yields will be a plus. I put a couple of plants in some containers that I had that were probably less than 5 gallons, as I had extra plants that I bought and needed to plant them, and that's all I had left. I got some tomatoes off of them, though admittedly not a great deal. I know that size does matter. But there is no harm in starting out small, and working your way up to bigger. Actually people have said that pepper plants do especially well in SIP 5 gal. pails. So when you eventually get some larger ones made, you can move your tomatoes over to the larger ones and use the 5 gal. for other vegetables like peppers or eggplant, garlic, etc.