Homemade selfwatering containers.

[matermama]

Hi All
I know it is a bit of an old thread ,buuuuut i m going to try something new with an Homemade EB,
Llama poop, it can be used fresh,will not burn plant, no odor, no bugs, :wink:
i m going to make some EB cuz i ran out of room and have many maters left over that did not sell, go figure? LOL
I htink i will add maybe 6-10 cups of Llama poop in it and see how it goes. Then give them a good drink of Vitamin B1. will keep you posted.
sue

[bbjm]

Originally Posted by timcunningham

Hi Emaewest,

I saw a documentary on Rubbermaid's relationship with walmart and now I understand why. Wallmart basically put them out of business. The documentary may or may not present all the facts, but Rubbermaid now makes everything overseas, and it seems the quality has suffered.

Tim, you might watch that documentary again. Rubbermaid was told by wal mart to lower their price, but the only way they could do that was through cheap chinese labor. They refused and lost out to some other company. Sterlite or something. I have two Rubbermaid containers on my deck. Both say "made in the usa." Lowes and Home Depot still sell Rubbermaid.

Wal Mart sells only things that can be made cheap. Most of the time, that means "made in China."

I apoligize for this post, I came on here b/c I'm struggling with containers of tomatoes on my deck. I just wanted to say that Rubbermaid was not thrown from wal mart b/c of quality. It was over a couple of pennies.

Tim is right, wal mart did nearly, and still may, cost Rubbermaid its business b/c they no longer have shelf space at wal mart.

[timcunningham]

I was incorrect in saying that Rubbermaid makes everything overseas. Rubbermaid makes some of their products in the USA and some overseas, due to pricing pressure. Walmart did put them in bad straights because they expected a price decrease every year they carried their products, regardless of the costs involved to make the product. One year a basic ingredient involved in making Rubbermaid products had a shortage and the price went up. Walmart still insisted, that Rubbermaid continue to do its yearly price decrease.

U.S. companies shutting down and moving to China and other countries tend to be large, profitable, well-established companies—
primarily subsidiaries of publicly held, U.S.-based multinationals, including such familiar names as Mattel, International Paper, General Electric, Motorola, and Rubbermaid.
http://www.isa.org/InTechTemplate.cf...ContentID=9458

[MsCowpea]

Matermama, sound like a good plan. Hope they do well for you. I have used organic fertilizer (storebought) in the earthbox . The instructions said 3 cups to be mixed in the potting mix but I was reading on another site that the instructions have now changed--they want you to use a granulated organic fertilizer and go with the 'strip' of fertilizer on the top.

6 cups sounds like a good amount to experiment with. Good luck!

[timcunningham]

Mattermama,

One thing I found from hard learned experience is not to make my soil too fertilizer rich.

Last year I had two tomatoes each in 18 Gal Container. I used a mix of Peat Moss / Vermiculite / Compost. The compost I used was mixture of mushroom compost / cow manure / and homemade compost. So my soil is already is a lot more rich than regular potting mix. To that I added the fertilzer strip of 10-10-10 about 2 cups.

I had the worst Blossom End Rot, which I believe was cause by over fertizilation. So I added some lime to the resevior and dug up the fertilizer strip and filled it in with peatmoss. Eventually the BER cleared up.

This year I did an experiment, one container with store bought potting mix and granulated fertilizer, one with very rich composted soil - no fetilizer, one "over fertilized" like last year.

So far the overfertilized box has BER pretty bad, so I once again did the remedy I did last year. The other two I see no BER and no big difference in production.

Certainly not a scientific experiment, but it does confirm my gut feeling.

[matermama]

Hmmm good to know this stuff.
Thanks for all the info , it does help when you are giog to experiment, when someone else shares experience.
thanks
sue

[MsCowpea]

Tim, you are right overfertilizing does contribute to BER. (see below)

But I was curious , do you add the 2 cups of dolomite as instructed by the Earthbox people per box if growing tomatoes?.


causes of BER
"The following conditions may increase BER: low soil Ca, high N rates, using ammoniacal sources of N, high concentrations of soluble K and Mg in the soil, high salinity, low humidity, inadequate soil moisture, excess soil moisture, damage to root system by nematodes, disease, mechanical means or heavy pruning. " (U of FL BER brochure)

[Mantis]

Very interesting experiment Tim and thanks for sharing. I was wondering just how to go about loading my boxes as I haven't used them before. As you know.
I have homemade compost and the nursery around the corner sells bags of the best compost I have seen in a store. I think I will go with a rich compost mix in a couple and store bought potting mix and fertiliser strip in the other two. Your experience with rich mix and fertiliser strip has put me off that path. Thanks again.
Must go and check if you have put any more pics of your harvest in the other thread

[timcunningham]

MsCowpea,

Sorry I didn't mention that, yes I did add the recommend lime to the soil, in all cases.

[MsCowpea]

Tim, I also noticed in another post you said you put Miracle Gro in the water to boot. That stuff's nitrogen source is 5.8% ammoniacal nitrogen and 9.2% urea nitrogen (I looked it up);

I did learn something looking that up--their product especially for tomatoes has much less ammoniacal nitrogen.

Good luck with your current plants.

[timcunningham]

MsCowPea,

I did do that last year, but only at end of season. The plants had seem to have given out, there was very little new growth. At end of season I added Miracle grow to promote some new growth and I had tomatoes until late november. By december, I figured it was to cold so, I made a huge batch of fried green tomatoes.

I am not sure which post you are referring to directly, but I do know I do sometimes add miracle grow to the water. Last year I overfertilized in general, with the compost, fert strip, miracle grow and Seaweed / fish emulsion spray. That would explain why I had such incredibly HUGE plants, I mean massive Jungle Growth, but the yields.. not so much. I mean, it wasn't bad yields. But there was a lot more plant than fruit.

This year I am trying not make the same mistakes and applying what I learned from this Tomatoville Forum.

[clevelandguy]

Plastic container/tote prices are going up because of the cost of crude oil. Almost all plastics are derived from petroleum products, so if gasoline prices rise, so do plastic prices.

That's why containers/totes seem to be getting flimsier. Tote manufacturer's are using thinner wall thicknesses to conserve plastic in hopes of keeping costs down to appease Wal-Mart.

Rubbermaid lost its Wal-Mart business because Rubbermaid refused to absorb plastic resin prices that had doubled in 1 year. Wal-Mart refused any price increases in Rubbermaid products, and told them to hit the road.

Almost all LARGE plastic containers/totes that you see in stores, whether they are Rubbermaid, Sterilite, Sunshine, Cornerstone, ect. are still MADE in the USA. It costs too much to ship them in from overseas. Imagine how few totes it would take to fill up an overseas container. The going rate for a container from China to the port of Los Angeles is currently $14,000.00.

The collateral damage caused by Wal-Mart not agreeing to price increases caused by the rising cost of plastic raw materials was felt far and wide. Because Wal-Mart refused price increases, Target, Home Depot, and the other big box stores followed suit. This deciamated the USA plastics industry and caused hundreds if not thousands of companies to go belly up.

[timcunningham]

Cool.

How is your earthbox?

[Mantis]

Yep. China is taking over the world one container at a time. It used to be one McDonalds toy at a time but I think they have upped the anty.

[timcunningham]

Cool.

How is your earthbox Mantis?