Wondering How Those Earth Box's-Gardens Are Doing

Grandpas Grub · June 2008

Thanks to the forum folks posting earth boxes and such I decided to give some things a try.

Mine are still little. My hanging salsa pot is getting interesting. 14" pot with 3 tomato plants, 2 jalapeño, 1 or 2 soprano, 1 bell, cilantro a couple of and a few other things. I hope I kept info stakes.

It will be interesting to see if I have too much planted in to little of space. I will get some pictures as soon as more growth comes along.

Along with the hanging salsa pot, a tomato earth box, 2 hanging strawberry pots, a 20” x 12” pepper planter box and a couple of other things in an attempt to do some above ground planting.

Two problems. I can’t keep basil alive and I am having a dickens of a problem with cilantro. Both keep going brown and die. I have tried a lot of water, little water, full sun & partial sun. Any ideas.

GG

Rascal · June 2008

Here's some tips for growing basil: http://www.gardeningpatch.com/herbs/growing-basil.aspx

Fluffyb · June 2008

We also invested in an Earthbox after reading the positive posts. I live in the Palm Springs area, so it is triple digits for us the next few months! The 2 tomatoes we planted in the EB are doing fabulously. Planted on Memorial Day and they have tripled in size and already have one tomato on the vine. Will have to stake soon. One of the tomatoes varieties was called "Heatwave". It was cultivated for warmer climates.

My hubby decided he could build an EB, so with directions from the internet he did. The pepper & tomato planted in there are not doing so well. Although we did not have dolomite to enrich the soil and we had a really bad wind storm the day after he planted that beat the poor little guys up.

I will post pics later on how they are all doing. My herbs do really well in partial shade, outside, watered every day. But again, it is HOT here!

Best of luck.

Cpt'n Cook · June 2008

My Three boxes are just kickinbg into second gear. Peppers, Cukes, and eggplants are all looking very healthy.
I did lose a couple of pepper plants, I think from over heating. I am using black plastic on the boxes and we had a few days in the upper 90's and bright sun, I think they cooked.

Herbs are generally not that fussy. Maybe too much fertilizer? It can burn out young roots, have done that several times myself.

Ross in Ventura · June 2008

Kent,
Most of these are red.
My Best,
Ross

Grandpas Grub · June 2008

Thanks Rascal, very informative. I think it's my watering, we will see with this next batch.

I am going to take the ones in the ground out and put in pots so they will be more portable.

Kent

Grandpas Grub · June 2008

Another 20 days or so and we will get hot and soon into triple digigs. Right here we will go form 118° for a week or so and in the winter as low as -32° +- for a few days. Kind of interesting.

What kind of herbs are you growing and how are they planted?

I purchased 1 earth box and started to get the stuff to build some. From what I can find it is going to cost about $25 - $30 to build. another $20 or $25 I could have earth boxes. I will probably return the parts and just get earth boxes - not sure yet.

Watering the basil, for me every day doesn't work. So I am going to follow the instructions in the above post.

Tomato in earth box. I planted 2 large tomato's and 1 cherry tomato bush in the earth box (I know 2). Mine are starting to grow good. I bought one plant that had 2 small tomato's on it already.

I didn't want to pay for the EB stake adder-onner so I grabbed some of my old cages. Putting the down throught the lower rack wasn't too hard. The problem I had was trying to get the established plant with tomato's up through the cage.

One orange tomato fell of and I broke a stem with 3 medium tomato's. Note to self, if using a cage get it over the plant sooner. The other 2 plants were not to big so they worked out ok.

All looks well with the 3 cages in the EB. I am concerned about the one largest plant. I broke anoher stem, aarg!!!

I will take some pictures when I have some color coming out.

GG

Grandpas Grub · June 2008

On my herbs, I have been using all purpose mirical grow (powder to liquid sprayer) once every 7 to 9 days.

My rectangle planter box looks pretty good, I have lost one serenno plant.

My over crowded salsa hanging basket looks pretty good, but it is crowded.

The hanging strawberries so far are producing about 1 strawberry a day. Grandma and I have to run out and eat the one each (we share)before the grandkids get here.

I keep telling the grandkids it takes a long time before the fully ripen up. I am going to have to go buy a cup and put it in the top of the planter where the kids can't see. Then act like I am picking them.

Had to do that with a watermellon plant several years ago. The watermellons got to about the size of a deflated soccer ball. I went out and picked up 3 22#
watermellons and put them in the garden before the grandkids came over. I cello taped some stems on the store bought mellons to try an fool the older kids (4 & 6 at the time). Worked like a charm.

They now think I am the greatest watermellon grower in the world.

Of course they couldn't figure out the corn grew bananna's, but what the heck we are up here in the high desert, they haven't seen a bananna tree anyway.

The magic corn also grew some pre-packaged strawberries also. That sort of worked and I decided to stop while I was ahead.

I call it grandpas creative gardening.

Thanks for the tips Cpt'n.

Kent

Grandpas Grub · June 2008

Damit Ross, that's just not fair. You Cali folk can grow anything and it's always great. I think you need to go with out using that CI grid for a month as a penality.

Looks great!!! What did you use for the 'stake' and what material are you using to hold the plants up?

From what I can tell it looks like 3/8 pvc pipe and some kind of thin green plastic strap.

And, with all that weight what are you using to hold the vertical poles up and keeping them stable?

Shoot, forgot to ask, what and how many is in the box.

Kent

Grandpas Grub · June 2008

"Most of these are red."

come on, update the picture. I will get some pictures of my scrawney stuff up soon.

Once a year the city brigs out dumpsters for tree triming and junk - tomorrows the day so were pretty busy getting ready. The containers are usually full by 10 am the day of, so this isn't a project we want to begin tomorrow.

Kent

Ross in Ventura · June 2008

Kent,
You can only put two Tomato Plants in a Earth Box. The green plastic holding up the vines are Plant ties they come in a roll.
My Best,
Ross

Ross in Ventura · June 2008

Kent,
You can only put two Tomato Plants in a Earth Box. The green plastic holding up the vines are Plant ties they come in a roll.
My Best,
Ross

Grandpas Grub · June 2008

Ooops! I've got three.

Possibly I will be doing some thinning.

Thanks Ross.

Kent

Wondering How Those Earth Box's-Gardens Are Doing

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