Planting Your Garden Systems

Planting your Earth Box/ bucket

This procedure is the same regardless of the type or size of system you use.

Start by preparing your potting soil, it will need to be very wet.

Begin filling the wicking cup, firmly packing the soil into the cup.  Make sure that the soil in the wicking cup is extremely wet as the wicking process will not function if it is not.

Install the wicking cup into the aeration plate, and begin filling with soil.

Make sure you lightly pack the soil in the container, and FIRMLY pack the soil directly over the wicking cups.

When the container is filled, mix 1-cup garden lime (dolomite) per 5 gal. Of container size into the top 3-6” of soil.  We got our lime at Lowe’s.  There is a link in Resources and Research. 

A few things you NEED to know about lime:

-         Add 1 cup per 5 gallons of soil. 

-         Dolomite (or lime) is added to the soil to lower the pH. It might be labeled as "Agricultural Lime", "Agricultural Limestone" or "Garden Lime". Check the ingredients label.  It must have CALCIUM & MAGNESIUM.

-         "Hydrated Lime" is not dolomite. Hydrated Lime is highly concentrated, highly caustic and dangerous to handle or breath.  Also, it contains no magnesium.

-         Dolomite can be sold in finely powdered, pulverized or pelleted form.  Buy the powdered or pulverized and avoid the pelleted form.  The finer the dolomite is ground, the faster it becomes available to the plants.  Talcum powder fine is best.

-         Price: For a 50lb bag the cost should be US $4.00 to US $6.00.

-         Acid loving plants, like strawberries or blueberries, only need 1/2 cup or less per 5 gallons of soil.

Next cut a small hole in a plastic trash bag and slide over the fill tube.  The purpose of the trash bag is to prevent any weed growth from the wind blowing weed seeds into your soil and to help cut down on water evaporation.

Now, pull the plastic tight and install the outer ring of the lid to keep in place. You can also use string or something to keep the plastic in place. Trim off the excess plastic.

Cut an x in the plastic large enough for the root ball of the plant to fit through and dig a hole for the plant.

When the plants have been placed, fill the reservoir with water until it runs from the drain holes.

Just about the only maintenance you will need to do during the entire growing season is to make sure your water reservoir stays full.  If the reservoir runs out of water, the wicking action will fail and your system will no longer water itself from the reservoir.

ten gallon earthbox

10 gallon Earth box

Materials used

10 Gal. plastic tote

1" (inside diameter) PVC tube:

    (*)  1 @ 20 in.

    (*)  6 @ 5 in.

"2 red Solo" party cups

24 small zip ties

1 med. zip tie

Approximately 1 cu. yard potting soil

1 trash bag

(*) Measurements may need to be adjusted based on container height

  

Tools List

Drill (electric or cordless)

5/32" drill bit

1/4" drill bit

1 3/8" hole saw

3 1/2" hole saw

Hacksaw

Utility (razor) knife

Permanent Marker

Measuring Tape

Diagonal side cutters (clippers for the zip ties)

Start by drilling the aeration holes in the lid using the 5/32 in drill.

Next drill the 2  3 ½”  holes for the wicking cups.

If you are making multiple systems at once, you can stack the lids together and drill them all at once.

Next, cut the inside portion of the lid out of the outer ring, this will create the aeration plate.

If you cut away too much from the inside, you can make a patch from an old soda bottle. (We had to do this on our first one, and it worked just fine.)

The next step is to trim off all the little plastic nerdles that are stuck in the drill holes of the aeration plate.  We added this step because we were concerned that the aeration holes might become clogged easily if we left the little plastic bits attached.  I just used a utility knife.

Now it’s time to make the legs, and fill tube. Start by cutting the PVC to size. You will need one piece 20” long for the fill tube, and 6 pieces 5” long for the legs.

Make a relief (wedge) cut on one end of the fill tube to allow water to flow out of the tube into the reservoir.

Using the ¼” drill, make 4 holes in one end of each leg, 90 degrees apart. These holes will be used to attach the legs to the aeration plate.

On the other end of each leg, make a V-cut. This will allow water to flow in and out of the legs, eliminating “dead space”, and increasing your reservoir size.

Next, mark where the legs will mount to the bottom of the aeration plate.

And drill 8  ¼” holes for the legs to attach.

Next, attach the legs using the small zip ties.

With the ¼” drill, make your drain holes 4” from the bottom of the tote. This will leave a 1” gap for the aeration of the roots. Make sure you have more than 1 drain hole, in case 1 gets plugged.

Drill a ¼” hole on either side of where the fill tube will sit, and attach the fill tube using the larger zip tie.

Now prepare the wicking cups. Using a utility knife, make 3 vertical slits evenly spaced around the cup from the bottom up, stopping about ½” from the top.

Place the wicking cups in the large holes of the aeration plate, and install the aeration plate in the container.

Now, you are ready to plant.  We will have pictures of the planting process in a separate post, but here is a picture of one of our planted totes.

cat litter earthbox

Here is our small container system made from a cat litter container.  It holds approximately 2 gallons of soil.

The first step is to drill the hole for the fill tube.  For this, we used a 1 1/4" hole saw on a standard electric drill.

The next step is to drill the aeration holes in the top of the cat litter container.  This will eventually become what we are calling the aeration plate.  We used a 5/32" drill bit to drill all the holes in this container.

Next, I used a utility knife to cut the hole for the wicking cup.  I cut the hole by hand because it’s smaller than all of our other systems.  I would trim a little at a time until I got it the size I wanted it.  You want to make sure that your wicking cup fits fairly snugly into its hole.  If you have any big gaps, soil will fall down into your water reservoir.

After I had all the holes drilled and cut, I cut the top of the container off.  The top is now the aeration plate.  The aeration plate allows the plant roots to get air, which they need to flourish.

The next step is to trim off all the little plastic nerdles that are stuck in the drill holes of the aeration plate.  We added this step because we were concerned that the aeration holes might become clogged easily if we left the little plastic bits attached.  I just used a utility knife.

The next step is to put the aeration plate into the container.  For this container, it is a very snug fit.  Turn the lid upside down and push it all the way into the bottom of the container.  You may have one or two small areas where it sort of bows out a little.  I drew a red line to show you where I made a little cut with a pair of scissors.  This alleviated the bowing, and allowed the aeration plate to lie flat against the inside of the container.  You want it to be very snug or soil will fall down into the water reservoir. 

Once you get the aeration plate where you want it, drill holes through the side of the container and aeration plate.  Drill two holes fairly close to each other, on each side of the container.  Put a zip tie through each set of holes and tighten it.  You can then clip off the extra piece of zip tie.  It just gives it a cleaner look. This will just hold the aeration plate in place and prevent it from shifting which will add more stability and keep the water reservoir clear of dirt. 

After you attach the aeration plate, you will need to drop down ½ - 1 inch and drill a drain hole in each side of the container.  Having the drain holes just below the bottom of the aeration plate prevents the plant from ever becoming over watered.

The next step is to insert the fill tube.  We used 1 inch PVC pipe cut into a 12 inch length for this container system.  At the bottom of the fill tube, we cut a wedge cut that allows the water to flow much easier from the fill tube into the reservoir.  When you cut a fill tube, just make sure that it sticks about two inches or so above the top of your container.  When I put the fill tube in, I made sure to push it all the way through the hole until it touched the bottom of the container.

Once the fill tube is in place, drill a hole through the container (near the top) on each side of the fill tube and secure the fill tube with a zip tie.  This step just helps to hold everything in place and add a little more stability.

The last step is making the wicking cup.  We used the plastic 18 ounce solo cups.   In our other systems, the wicking cup does not need trimming.  In this mini system, however, you have to trim it or else it sticks up way to far into where the soil will be.  Once you get the wicking cup trimmed to the height you want it, just make a vertical slit down the sides of the cup.  We made 3 slits in all of our wicking cups and spaced them evenly around the cup.  When you have the wicking cup finished, just put it down into its hole and push until it touches the bottom of the container.  The wicking cup has to sit down in the water reservoir in order to function properly.

The construction of this system is now finished and ready to be planted.  If you click on the planting link, you’ll see the steps we take to plant these systems.  The pictures and descriptions are done in one of our 10 gallon totes, but the methods are exactly the same no matter what system you are planting.

We have cucumber seedlings planted in these.  In less than a week, our seedlings have doubled in size.

Our Beginning

Hello everyone.  We are setting up this blog  in order to share our experience in gardening.  We have done a lot of research and hope to some day establish a community outreach program where we can help people who may have a need for these systems.  We believe these systems could truly meet a need.  We are just starting the blogging process, so more information will be added.  Right now, I am just getting the blog set up.  I am in the process of gatherring my information into what will shortly become an easy-to-follow list.