How To Build An EarthTainer

[Mischka]

How to build Ray's Earthtainer in PDF format. My thanks to Ray for this file!

[rnewste]

If anybody ever needs help or is confused by the Instructions, just PM me directly here on Tomatoville, and I will be glad to assist.

If you live within 100 miles of San Jose, I will be glad to help you build them at your site (you just need to buy the beer!!)

Raybo

[geeboss]

for you Ami



or

[rnewste]

Gee,

I would have been happy with 6 bottles, but I will take your 18 bottle case in any event.

Raybo

[Timmah!]

This is what I would hope to see after driving 100 miles.

[amideutch]

Pabst? What the heck is that! Your going to have to come up with some real beer as Timmah has pictured. Don't forget folks, Raybo makes frequent business trips to Germany. Ami

[Dewayne mater]

I'd drink Pabst if it were being served by those Fraulines I always see in the brau haus pics! Seriously though, Cali is home to some darn fine beers too like Sierra Nevada Pale ale, my all time fav.

[Faced1]

Any thoughts on using coco coir as the base instead of peat? I know that coco coir wicks MUCH better than peat, and has a higher air filled porosity (AFP) as well.

[rnewste]

I trialed Sunshine Advanced Mix #4 last year and did not have positive results with it. Too much moisture retention in this coir based mix. The peat based mixes give better results (also look at Virtex' Thread with what he used - excellent results).

Raybo

Note: The current EarthTainer design is now at version 3.8.

[Faced1]

Sunshine advanced #4 is not a coir based mix, only 20% at the most. It is almost all peat and perlite.

I used sunshine advanced #4 for a while, but I stopped using it and went to compressed coco coir bricks. Sunshine advanced also has terrible quality control IME. I would get some bales that would work just fine, but some the pH was just awful.

Have you ever seen the autopots system? I used 50/50 coir/coco in them and it turned out really well for me.

[rnewste]

As Virtex did, I encourage everyone to experiment with different Grow Media components and post their results. Sunshine Advanced Mix #4 just didn't perform well for me. Perhaps a coir mix as you propose will have much better results, and we can all learn from that.

Raybo

[Faced1]

Well, I won't be building an earthtainer, but I am using coir as the base for my container garden this year. Many of my containers are 25 gallons, so we will see how it looks come end of season.

Last year's 10 gallon coir/mushroom compost/additives super sweet seedless hybrid tomato was over 40 feet long.

[Winemaker]

I'll preface my note with the comment that I didn't see anything in the City Limits rules that said to not discuss prices so please let me know if this is out of bounds.

I am already looking forward to 2014 and plan to build my first 4 Earthtainers. In trying to keep costs in line, I found that I can order 2 of the Pea Fences from Gurneys for $46.93, essentially $23.50 each vs the Burpee price with free shipping that works out to about $30 each. The difference being a 32 inch height vs 40 inch height. By the same token I suppose I could order 2 of the Burpees and 2 of the Gurneys to get an extended cage of 72 " vs 64" or 80". One of my Earthtainers will have Cukes, the others will all be Tomatoes, a few Costoluto Genovese Romas a cherry and some slicers. Seeing Ray's pictures I am a little concerned about the height needed. I am about 10 miles from Ray in Sunnyvale so climate is pretty much identical but maybe a few degrees cooler than Campbell. So, that is my long vacillating post. Do I spend the extra for the Burpees or go with Gurneys or a Combo.

[rnewste]

Both the tomatoes and cukes will go well beyond the Gurney's cages. I recommend you wait over the Winter until Burpee runs a sale / free shipping promotion. Remember on your Burpee's order, when you place 2 (or more) in the quantity box on their web order form, the unit price is further reduced automatically when you checkout.

Raybo

[Winemaker]

Thanks Ray, I did see that reduction. It was just that after watching your 3 videos, it got me all excited about getting this project going. Burpees current price is $33 and then it knocks down to $28 with 2 or more and then free shipping with a coupon. So not sure if they have sales where they give an additional 10-20% plus free shipping it would sure make sense to wait. I'll go ahead and get the containers and get that part out of the way. Actually I can't start for another month or so anyway as I have a ton of Zinfandel grapes coming in next week that will keep me pretty well occupied for the next month.