Actively aerated organic ghetto beds on the cheap

This project was inspired by Soma's indoor organic beds. I found the idea of a huge root zone really appealing, and thought the passive aeration of the root zone was dope, but I didn't wanna build a goddamned thing and I have a badss air pump for my teas, so I thought why not make that aeration active.

Since I really don't know how this will go, I'll be transplanting 6 extremely rootbound (as in neglected in one gallons for over 2 months) and suffering plants into the system for the test run.

The Build ($20)

6 x 6" sections of 1" PVC
2 x 9" sections of 1" PVC
2 x T-joints for 1" PVC
1 x Cross-joint for 1" PVC

These get assembled, open ends covered with duct tape that is secured with zip ties.


Drill 1/2" holes. I drilled too many at first and had to cover most with duct tape. This is what I ended up with. . You'll notice the 1/4" air hose in the middle hole. I took a 1/4" irrigation line coupler (one of these) and poked it through the sticky side of duct tape, set it in the center hole, then threw a couple more pieces of tape over it.

That's the active air component - it sits in the bottom bin with or without rocks.
In that photo, it's hose side up, but when I added the soil to the second bin, it broke my airline connector. I ended up putting that side down and turning all the pipe so those holes were on top.

Now for bin #2. Flip it over and ventilate it thoroughly with a drill.

Lay a piece of weed-blocker cloth over the bottom of the drilled tub. I found a roll of stuff made of recycled soda bottles at the home & garden spot - tubs are recycled plastic, too.

Once the cloth is down in the bin with holes, I nest it on top of the air assembly in the other bin and add about 20 gallons of my soil mix.

To make sure my active air can reach my suffering roots, I added another couple inches of chunky perlite.

Then mix it all up...

Pics of plants tomorrow!

Here's the soil mixed with the perlite:



Once the two tubs were nested, I used duct tape to seal the gap between the bins to give the injected air no where to go but the root zone.

Here are the six suffering girls newly transplanted
As you can see, they're showing about a half dozen deficiencies between them. We'll check back in 5 days and see if we notice any improvement.

Interesting! How many cfm are u going to run through it?

My pump is rated for ~350 (will check actual when I get home) - I split that 5 ways off a manifold, so I figure I'm probably around 50 cfm/line (after loss & drags).

I have 1 line running to the tub. The airflow from each hole is not enough to feel with my hands, but noticeable against my face.

Picking up some worms to add today - i'll let the experts judge the environment

Sounds cool. I don't think you meant to say 50 CFM per line. 50 CFM would be a monster blower. I use a 95 CFM for a 1200 gallon brewer.

I friend of mine did something similar with a greenhouse fan blowing through a subterranean tunnel

You beat me to it MM - I was baked when I guessed that flow rate (which is the rate of my exhaust fan - not my pump!). - the pump's actually 110 lpm, which is 4 cfm - so figure about .5 cfm.

To keep it simple, there's about 22 gal of soil = ~83 liters. My air in is ~110/6 lpm= ~18 lpm. My soil mix is hopefully 50%ish air, so we'll say around 40 liters. Which means I exchange all the air every 2-2.5 minutes.

Interesting on the greenhouse fan - I was actually just thinking of running the exhaust from my bloom light in there to warm the soil...

this is a new idea to me.. never heard of anyone on here using this design

Just picked up a lb each of red wigglers and dutch clover seed. Worms and living mulch coming soon!

Lurking.......

This is gonna be a good one. Worms in the soil is a WIN.

Can't wait to see how it works out!

Ok - let there be life!

First I cleared the mulch from between my rows.


Next came 1/2 lb of red wigglers (they came in this mulch/bedding)

Covered the new residents, cleared the far end of one row & broadcast Dutch clover seed.


Then did the same to the other far end, gave it a few for the worms to settle in, then cleared between the rows and seeded there.

Here are pics of the girls right now to use as benchmarks in the future:

BTH C


BTH F


BTH E


BTH C #2


BTH C #3

cool man, i'll be watchin.

What a neat project..

organic soil bed x MPB... interesting, to say the least.

I almost bought dutch white clover seed yesterday, but I thought it was micro clover that people use, how big does dutch clover get? Do you chop and drop?

Dutch white clover gets fairly large, but not as large as red clover. I believe Mad was using microclover. You might check the living mulches thread; it might be a couple pages back by now.

Dutch White Clover supposedly grows 6-12" (I dunno from experience - this is my first try), but I do know that it's the specific type of clover Masanobu Fukuoka used/taught as living mulch.

I have a couple inches of bark mulch in there, so hopefully the clover doesnt mind.

This thing is pretty damn cool. I have always wanted to play around with a similar idea.

It is like the most complicated smart pot ever invented.