Earthboxes, and Earthbox clones, the answer for growing in droughts?

[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- http://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-

http://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- http://www.vvdailypress.com/articles/earthbox_7080___article.html/water_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-

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

http://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

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

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-your-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]

Potting soil

Potting soil

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- http://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.

 

[cway]

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.

 

[Cascadia]

I have not actually observed Marijuana growing in a earthbox, so its hard to tell how to judge potential harvest, I'm sure it depends on the quality of the soil/fertilizers you use.
That said, the Tomato plants I have observed were huge, the Original Earthbox website says that a original Earthbox should produce 30-40 pounds of Tomatoes per year in good climates, and the original version only holds about 19 gallons of soil, larger homemade versions could contain 25-40 gallons or more, and I imagine yields could be quite good there.

I'm pretty sure a larger Earthbox made from a 40 or 50 gallon tote could grow plants in the 1-2 pound range. Bigger than I'm interested in growing, but I bet it can be done. I'm going to shoot for 1/4lb to 1/2lb plants in 18 gallon totes, I'm pretty sure that will work.

This pic shows how to extend the time between visits, by connecting a external reservoir, the external cannot be taller than the internal one in the planter or it will flood your roots.

 

[whodi]

The original earthbox has drainage holes in the back i noticed. Does that drawing have drainage? Or does it jsut drain back into the res? And what are those 3 seperate blue things? Is that where the water wicks? I notied one DIY earthbox used coco or peat to wick.

I wonder how much water these things would use daily

 

[Cascadia]

That drawing is just to show the external reservoir in relation to the earthbox, and the level it should sit at, it is not a accurate representation of the earthbox, nor is it meant to be. In the drawing, the blue represents water, the brown is soil, but since it is a drawing meant only to show the external reservoir idea, I'll stop any further description.

Water use depends on the size plant growing from the planter, the temperature, the intensity and hours of sunshine, etc. Its just hard to tell, I'm going to have about 15 gallons of water to begin with, and I may add another 10 gallons if thats not enough to get me a full 2-3 weeks between visits.
If I was you, I'd start smaller, 2 pound plants are going to use a fair ammount of water no matter what.

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

For me, I see these Earthboxes not so much as a opportunity to grow bigger plants, but more as a opportunity to utilize the water I haul or store more efficiently, which could allow me to grow more plants and more bud with the same amount of time and effort spent.

 

[whodi]

hmmmm.

Do you guys plan on burrying these earthboxes.. they dont seem low profile above ground. What about covering the spout where you pour water in? is that necessary to keep pests away.. etc?

 

[whodi]

I don't have a lot of experience with outdoor growing but plan to start.

I can get pound per plant under 1000 watt's with a 2 1/2 month veg time.. LST in 10 gallon containers indoors. I don't see why we couldn't achieve this outdoors in earthboxes.. considering sunlight is much more powerful than any 1000 watt light.

 

[Cascadia]

You do that is soil huh? I don't have much experience indoors, but outdoors that would be a very good return for 10 gallons of soil. I think it can be done, I have a feeling I could probably go with a smaller planter to get the 4-8oz I am looking for, guess I'll find out this summer.

Good luck! Come share any of your experience you can with us, I think by summer 2010 there will be a Earthbox "revolution".

What size planter do you think you are gonna go with?

 

[whodi]

As long as you have enough water for the plants to drink daily and the right soil/fertilizer.. I think you could do very well with the earthbox. The external rez should be great. I was thinking a 50 gallon tote with 30 gallons of soil and 20 gallons worth of water for the rez. I shouldn't need an external rez. You can mod a 50 gallon rubbermaid tote to do this right? I'm willing to bet the 18 gal earthbox with external rez could pull in a pound easily if everything is just right.

Sure, bigger rootmass and room for roots to grow will yield bigger and grow bigger. However, even with a smaller container you can still get big plants and big yields as long as you have enough water for the plant each day... and of course good soil/fertilizer.

I don't know how well wick systems work so I'm not sure if that's a disadvantage or not.. but by the looks of the tomatoes and all... it doesn't seem to be bad

It'll be interesting to see how it all goes down. I got a feeling there will be an earthbox revolution as well. Good luck everyone.

 

[Cascadia]

Sounds good bro!

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

I'm thinking I'd like to try a couple sizes of these this season. A couple made from 5 gallon buckets, and some made from 18 gallon totes. I'd make two types with the 18 gallon, some with 50/50 water/soil ratio, and some with 75% soil and 25% water, just to see if it makes a difference.

I was thinking about making some from 30 and 50 gallon totes, but I'm affraid the plants would get so big I'd be too affraid to make visits, LOL.

If I could find a size that regularly yielded 4-6 oz a planter, I'd be happier than a pig in slop!