EarthBox-water from under...

[luigiwu]

Originally Posted by Jimcooper

Do you guys and gals use any real soil in the boxes, or is it all manufactured????. Sorry, I'm a soil guy and want to make sure, and because of failing eyesight will move to container plants nexr year.

Hi Jim, if you are thinking bout doing container veggies can I suggest looking into Larry Hall's rain gutter grow system? He has a lot of youtube videos. The thing about sub-irrigated planters is you must use potting MIX - something that is SOIL-LESS but peat-based, for its ability to suck up water.

This is Larry's homemade DIY potting mix recipes (if you don't want to buy bagged commercials potting mix.)

Larry Hall's Inexpensive Potting Mix!

2 five gallon buckets full peat moss, dry
1 five gallon bucket Well rotted horse manure or compost or worm castings
1 and 1/2 cup Garden lime
1 large coffee can full of perlite
1 handful of Epsom salts

This makes enough for approx three containers that are 5-gallon buckets.
Now this is the basic mix - from there you can add your own rock dust, bone meal, blood meal,etc to this if you want! But at minimum, add an additional 1/2 cu of lime and handful of Epsom salt to EACH TOP THIRD portion of potting mix in each bucket.

There is also an active RGGS facebook group if you have questions!
I've had great success on the RGGS system - using bagged mixes like Sta-Green and iracle Gro Potting MIX or making my own potting mix using mushroom compost.