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Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Sept 6, 2011 10:49:49 GMT -5
I'd like to start a discussion about self watering containers. I became intrigued by the concept when we went over to our friends' home for dinner and in late June they had a Costoluto Genovese plant that was a couple feet taller than me and loaded with fruit when my ground planted tomatoes were struggling with the heat and drought, despite constant attention and automatic irrigation.
So, I've got a design that I just finished for a self-watering container that I've built from Western Red Cedar fence pickets and a plastic storage tub. I'm writing up some step-by-step instructions on how to build this that I'll preview here, if this thread gets some legs.
I'd like to know the good, bad and ugly of container gardening. Whether you use real Earthboxes, other production models or home-made versions.
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Post by daylilydude on Sept 16, 2011 5:04:17 GMT -5
I've never tried a self watering container, but would really like to see some pics of yours jeffinsgf, if you have any?
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Post by w8in4dave on Sept 16, 2011 7:38:08 GMT -5
Hubbs and I both made one .. I will dig up the pics.. Not to big but they were fun!
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Post by w8in4dave on Sept 16, 2011 7:50:04 GMT -5
This is the one I made I cannot find the pic of hubbs container but will look it up...
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Post by daylilydude on May 1, 2017 10:35:25 GMT -5
I'm going to bump this old thread due to that I think we know someone here who uses earth boxes...
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 1, 2017 20:54:29 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL turned me on to the EB a few years ago. Now, I have 10 EBs, 11 homemade 18 gal SIPs, and 12 homemade bucket SIPs. I'll post a link to an album, showing you a lot of things that I grow in them.
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 1, 2017 22:06:20 GMT -5
Now I'm on my PC, and here is that link, showing 4 pages of photos of SIPs, the last page (#4, actually the first page, in chronological order) showing my setup for making them. s24.photobucket.com/user/pepperhead212/library/Earthbox%20-%20homemade?sort=3&page=1I don't even grow okra, cucumbers, or eggplant in the ground anymore, they grow so well in these! And I got so many cucumbers all at once, the first year, I now grow those in succession, planting them 3 weeks apart, and in the individual buckets. And for watering you need to set up an automatic watering system, otherwise, you'll be filling them twice a day. I have drip emitters on timers, filling them twice a day in the hotter part of the summer, but as needed now, before it gets hot, and the plants are not too large yet.
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Post by september on May 2, 2017 9:23:42 GMT -5
Great looking crops you've got there. Definitely the way to go if a person lives in town with limited lot space for a garden, or poor soil regions. If I didn't have so many existing raised beds already, I'd be tempted to try it. Do you think you have fewer disease and bug problems in the containers?
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 2, 2017 11:18:25 GMT -5
Of course pepperhead212 can speak for himself. But in my experience: 1. Bug problems are about the same, except you don't have to worry about cutworms or pillbugs. Most bugs have no problem getting to the plants in the containers. I usually don't have too much of an issue with slugs, but on occasion they climb the boxes and even live in the fill tube or reservoir. But a little Sluggo sprinkled around the boxes fixes that. 2. You can avoid soil-borne diseases entirely as long as you plant disease-free stock and don't contaminate the potting mix in your boxes with your garden soil via tools, your hands, plants grown in your garden soil, etc. Water splash diseases are reduced a bit since the plastic cover means you aren't splashing dirt on your plants when it rains. 3. Diseases that spread by insects or airborne spores are just as much of a problem in EBs as anywhere else. They can even be worse if you plant extra-densely in the EB. So if you live in a humid climate where leaf diseases are prevalent, you have to have a treatment plan. 4. One nice advantage of the plastic covers is that lettuce and greens get very little dirt on them. Washing them is a lot easier.
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 2, 2017 12:21:32 GMT -5
september I've had pretty much the same experiences as Laura, and one thing she noted especially - the dense planting recommended for the EB can result in problems with insects, or diseases spread by insects, or they simply are so dense that they are difficult to harvest. For this reason I don't plant as many of some of the things as they tell you to. They recommend 8 peppers, and this might work with small varieties, but even 3 is too many for the chinense varieties, and I stick with 2, as with tomatoes. But then, these are things you learn as you garden.
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Post by september on May 2, 2017 14:53:26 GMT -5
Hey, now that's a real benefit! I do love my lettuce, but washing can be tedious. Thanks to both of you, for the replies!
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 2, 2017 20:06:23 GMT -5
I just harvested some lettuce from one of my Junior EBs that I have around my deck. There are 8 leaf lettuce plants in it - probably would have been better with 6, but, like I said, this is how we find out!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 3, 2017 9:53:09 GMT -5
I actually plant 12 leaf lettuce plants per box. I mix just a little organic fertilizer in the top few inches of mix for this; I don't place a fertilizer band for this application. That lets me plant lettuces right down the middle of the box as well. As the lettuce plants grow, I harvest every other plant and use the baby leaves. This way there are 6 plants left. Then later when they are big enough to crowd again, I harvest the middle plants in each row, leaving the remaining 4 plants enough room to reach full size. This gets adjusted a bit in practice based on individual plant growth. If some plants are unusually vigorous (or wimpy) I alter the harvest pattern a bit to get rid of sickly plants and keep the others spaced as evenly as possible.
Those last four plants I harvest individually as needed if the weather is cool enough for the lettuce to hold for a bit in the garden. This way I get a lot of separate harvests instead of having planting the way the EB folks recommend and getting 8 (crowded and probably stunted) heads that mature all at once.
If there is enough cool season left, once all of the lettuce is harvested I can re-sow the whole box and repeat the pattern. If I have a few boxes on this planting setup with their sowing dates offset by a week or two, once things get going I can harvest all the lettuce I can eat every week. Some harvests will be baby lettuce and others will be mature lettuce.
Since lettuce grows so fast, weeds are rarely a problem in the empty planting holes. Soon after each harvest, the remaining plants' leave quickly shade out the open planting holes.
You could also plant the box densely if you want to use a "cut and come again" approach to repeatedly harvest baby leaf lettuce.
Here are some diagrams in case my text description isn't clear.
Initial planting (X = plant, O = fill tube, s = succession sowing): X__X__X__X X__X__X__X O_X_X_X__X
After first harvest: X__X__X
O___X_X__X
After second harvest: X_____X
O___X____X
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 3, 2017 10:45:29 GMT -5
This was a Junior EB, so 6 would be half the 12 that you plant in the regular sized EB. The 8 that I have seemed just a little too cramped, though it is growing great. I always plant leaf lettuce, and keep harvesting until they bolt, when it gets warm.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 3, 2017 10:51:27 GMT -5
Ah, I didn't realize you used Juniors for that. That makes sense.
I don't have any Juniors; since my lettuce and greens season is winter and early spring, I just use my regular EBs for that in the cooler months. Generally the stuff I grow in hot months won't fit in Juniors so I haven't had an interest in buying any yet. Maybe herbs I would grow through the summer in a Junior...but those I can grow in ground or raised beds. There is no need for me to spring for Juniors for those.
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 3, 2017 13:37:14 GMT -5
I only got the juniors to put around my deck - I replaced the windowsill boxes with the 4 juniors I got at a yard sale, and couldn't pass them up (two hadn't even been used). I had to build new supports for them, but that was fairly easy, since they were all one size.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 4, 2017 10:57:20 GMT -5
Nice yard sale score!
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Post by daylilydude on May 5, 2017 3:33:43 GMT -5
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 5, 2017 10:15:01 GMT -5
daylilydude The regular EB holds 2 cu ft of medium, while the junior holds 1 cu ft. The regular is 29"x14", while the junior is 23"x9 1/2", length x width.
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 8, 2017 0:40:32 GMT -5
Here is the lettuce in the junior EB, grown back after harvesting it 5 days ago! You can see what I mean about it being a bit cramped, but it doesn't seem to stunt it much. The green variety is stunted, due to the variety - not sure what it is - a mix of 2 types in one pack from Renées. From now on I'll only grow the red! I usually don't buy them like that, but it was a free pack, and they germinated better than some old packs I have.
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Post by daylilydude on Jun 13, 2017 5:44:05 GMT -5
I have noticed that there are a few of these gardeners here and was wondering if y'all would like to have a special area for this, so it wouldn't get lost? If so, which area would you like to see it in?
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Jun 13, 2017 7:11:32 GMT -5
Thanks for thinking of Urban gardeners but I honestly don't know if having our own section is necessary? We have the same issues as other gardeners on more land, just in a smaller space. Just means I only have room for 12 tomato plants these days instead of 150 or so. And if I raise fruit trees it uses up space that could be perhaps put to better use for many crops? But I think we can all relate to these problems just on a larger scale Or were you thinking more along the lines of groups in the city that find abandoned on under used fruit trees and offer to pick them to share between Charity, the landowner and the pickers?? Let's see what others think but I vote not necessary. Appreciate the thought though.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 13, 2017 7:57:27 GMT -5
I agree with bluelacedredhead - I don't think it would be used that often. There are occasional discussions about them, with those starting out, but after that, it's about what's being grown, not so much the pots they are grown in.
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Post by aftermidnight on Jun 13, 2017 9:03:39 GMT -5
I agree with the guys above, I'm on a city lot, I refer to my back 40 all the time which in my case is exactly 40 steps from our back door, kinda sounds good though . It's just that we on smaller patches grow in smaller numbers, Have to get creative at times when running out of space. Annette
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stone
Pro Member
Posts: 170
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Joined: December 2011
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Post by stone on Jun 13, 2017 10:23:28 GMT -5
Earthbox and other container gardening is very different from fencing off an acre and then hauling in manure by the truckload.
I really don't see the point of wasting all that space on turf and then trying to grow vegetables in a container... Dig out the turf... if there's enough sunlight for turf, probably grow tomatoes fine.
So... Yes, very different.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 13, 2017 12:53:03 GMT -5
First, I agree that there is not a need for a special section on Earthboxes and City Pickers and other SIPs in our forum. But thanks for thinking of us, daylilydude . stone , the reasons for Earthboxes and other containers don't necessarily have anything to do with wanting to keep a lawn. Very poor soil, areas with big boulders or solid rock just below the surface, caliche-type soils, severe nematode infestations, endemic soil diseases, and living in an urban location far from affordable sources of enough compost for an in-ground garden are just some of the reasons that in-ground gardening can be difficult or very expensive for some folks. Not to mention folks who are renters or have to move frequently for their jobs may not want to put lots of time, effort, and/or money into building soil only to have to move and start over. Containers and the potting mix in them can be moved allowing for an immediate garden start in the new location. Also some folks just don't have much open ground in the sun - sometimes the only sunny area is on a deck or patio, where containers are the only way to garden. If one is renting, subject to subdivision/HOA restrictions, subject to "tree sanctuary city" laws, or the shade is cast by the neighbors' trees (this is a problem for me on one side of my yard) it may not be possible to cut down trees to make a sunny garden area. Are there workarounds for most or all of these problems? Sure, but sometimes, as it is in my case, it is just easier and cheaper to use containers. I grow nematode-susceptible crops exclusively in Earthboxes, and my crops are far better than I ever got when I was growing in-ground. I also have a few raised beds for crops that are less susceptible to nematodes. My raised beds are small enough that it's not too expensive to enrich them with bagged compost. And I can haul bagged compost home without needing a truck or trailer. Just food for thought.
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Post by daylilydude on Jun 13, 2017 19:34:43 GMT -5
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 13, 2017 20:56:56 GMT -5
Yes, I've heard of them, and I knew what you were referring to. But I think there was some confusion that you were talking about urban container gardening more generally.
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Jun 14, 2017 8:23:32 GMT -5
I'm sorry. I've never heard of them. I don't shop at Home Depot and I've not looked at their gardening stuff online in several years. I'll go back to sleep now, LOL
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Post by september on Jun 14, 2017 12:39:56 GMT -5
I'd never heard of them either! I thought you maybe meant something about recyling/repurposing city curbside stuff, Ha Ha! I used to go to Home Depot more, but since Menard's came to town I usually go there first. Will have to go see what City Pickers look like now that I know!
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