[Cascadia]

Hello, I have been viewing ICmag for a couple years now, often I hear of growers dealing with droughts and dry climates, many places in the USA are experiencing droughts summer after summer.

I am originally from the Puget sound area in Washington state, growing a few plants each year was as simple as finding a Beaver pond, and planting in high spots in the backwater area. Now I live a bit further south, in Northern California, and after my first summer here last year, I can see that growing won't be as simple, I'm gonna have to provide lots of water for my plants.
What makes this more difficult, is the fact that my job can have me gone from home for 2-3 weeks at times, how the hell am I gonna water my plants?

A couple years ago, the wife gave me a Earthbox for Christmas, which I have used for growing salad greens year round(in a sunroom in winter). The Earthbox is a self-watering planter, it consists of a planter section that holds potting soil, and a reservoir section that holds water. The sections are divided by a baffle with only a small contained area which allows contact between the water and the soil, which allows the soil to draw water automatic as it is needed.





Here is a link to the original Earthbox manufacturer- https://www.earthbox.com/consumer/what_is.html



As you can see, the Earthbox provides a great environment for your plants to thrive, providing water as needed for the soil, but also air, meaning your plants cannot develop wet feet problems(water logged roots).

I was concerned about the soil capacity, and potential plant size, but looking around the net, I have found that the most popular plants to grow in these are Tomatoes, and let me tell ya, those plants are huge!

I have run into the name Ray Newstead often while researching these planters, he has created a variation on the Earthbox design(there are many around the web), that he calls the earthtainer, its basicly a larger version of the Earthbox. At any rate, if you want to see a good example of the size plants grown in these things, go to his webpage by clicking the link below-

https://earthtainer.org/Photo_Gallery.php

Those are some huge Tomato and Corn plants, no?

Here is a news story about Ray and his improved box- https://www.vvdailypress.com/articles...er_system.html

At any rate, these boxes can be built in many sizes from materials commonly available at Wal-mart, Lowes, Home DePot, or your local hardware store, and whats more, they can be built pretty cheap.

Here are a few websites with plans for DIY Earthboxes-

https://www.tomatofest.com/tomato-earthtainer.html - This link has great flash videos by Ray Newstead for building his larger version of the earthbox

https://www.seattleoil.com/Flyers/Earthbox.pdf -This one of my favorite pages on building Earthboxes, I'll be building Design 1(the single tub design) in 18 gallon totes.

And a couple others

https://www.josho.com/gardening.htm

https://www.instructables.com/id/Buil...own-Earth-Box/


One improvement I'll add is a external reservoir(see drawing below), connected to the reservoir in the Earthbox, to help keep the water level up during spaces between filling visits, although Ray Newstead says water usage can drop to 75% using the box over planting straight in the ground.




At any rate, I just wanted to re-present the Earthbox to this forum, the member Gantz was responsible for bringing the idea originally, and I just can't believe its been so underused here.

Thank you all for reading! I'll get pics up when I build my first one, but its so simple to build and use these and there are so many webpages with great info, its probably not needed.

I'll do a grow thread featuring these this next season, maybe others will as well?

[Cascadia]

Not much action here in the winter.....
Thats alright, I'll just twist another jay.....

I'm a Organic grower, so I'll need a good potting mix for the planters, I'm thinking I'll use this one-

LC’s Soiless Mix #1:
5 parts Canadian Spaghnam Peat or Coir or Pro-Moss
3 parts perlite
2 parts mushroom compost or home made compost
Powdered (NOT PELLETIZED) dolomite lime @ 2 tablespoons per gallon or 1 cup per cubic foot of the soiless mix.

And then to that I'll add-

Use all these items combined with one gallon of soil mix.
1/3C hi N Guano (Mexican Bat Guano)
1/2C hi P Guano (Jamaican or Indonesian Bat Guano)
1TBS Jersey Greensand
1TBS Kelp Meal

These mixes can be found in this thread from the Organics forum- https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=53792

I'll get these mixed up in January, and let it "cook" until planting time, by then I should have a potent mix to let my Earthboxes produce to full potential.

[spaceghost22]

Hmmm, very good post! These could really come in handy for people who grow in remote or hard to get to locations. I think I might customize some 5gal.s with this. Do you suppose if the box were to be buried it would impact watering times significantly in any way?

Thanks for the info!

[Cascadia]

I do believe you can bury these planters, but you will need to make sure you drill several drain holes instead of the one usually made on most Earthboxes, so that excess water(like from rain) can drain from the planter section and prevent drowning of the roots.

[hamstring]

I grow in the ground but the idea has great merits for those who use containers and there are many on this site. A little slow in the winter but welcome aboard glad to have you at the outdoor forum.
PEACE

survivorman is a great show, the real deal.

[BACKCOUNTRY]

You know, when Gantz first sugested these as a possibility a couple years(?) ago, I kinda Poo-Pooed them cuz I figured that growing in a container was only limiting your potential harvest, and increasing the amount and frequency of watering.
But after really looking at these again, I think this is one style of planter that may be superior to planting in the ground for some growers in some locations, especially if you are already looking for a way to extend time between watering, as it seems the system is very efficient in turning water into plant matter.

My problem is that my climate is so dry in summer, especially after a dry winter, which is like having a drought in a drought, since my summer is always bone dry. In this climate, plants in the ground need way more water to grow than is actually needed by the plant itself. This is because the native soil and plants around my holes are so dry, they actually steal much of the water before my Cannabis can use it.

With the Earthbox, only the plants planted in the box can use the moisture, there is no way for surrounding vegetation and soil to rob the precious water you bring. This efficiency of water usage is why I am so keen on them, along with the potential for long spaces between visits, which means I can space my plants out more and also increase my security. Less time at the plot gives less potential for getting caught, or having rippers and copters hunt down your weed.

Ive used the earthbox and swear by it.. Yeilds like a mofo in that thing. My biggest buds have come from earthbox grows.. Even used their organic potting mix and it kicked arse..

[phate]

i will definatly try some of these next year...

[Cascadia]

cway, were those indoors or out? Got any pics?

hamstring, survivorman is the man!

backcountry, I hope these do well for you, I have a feeling these will do the trick!

[whodi]

I want to grow 2 pound plants and was wondering how to modify an earthbox to go 7 days without having to water it. My summers avg around 87 degrees F. If you think 2 pounds per plant would be too big of a hassle.. i'd at least like to have a system for 1 pound plants.

Any tips or ideas would be appreciated.