Anyone do an earthbox?

[The Soft Underbelly]

I just wound up constructing raised bed from landscape timbers and piling the dirt atop the grass w/o uprooting or killing it. My soon to be brother in law did similar beds years ago and told me i'd be cool.

 

[Bobby_M]

Yeah, there's no way grass will survive a few inches of soil on top of it. No light = Dead. I just did my veggie garden boxes like that.

 

[Jonnio]

Well, I figured I would report the progress so far. Under a week since planting and my Willamette popped their heads up today (as did most of my corn and beans in case your wondering )

 

[BrewinRob]

I'm using some half oak barrels. I drilled several 1/2" holes in the bottoms to allow for drainage (I have them sitting on bricks so it drains properly). I've seen hops do pretty well in these so I decided to give it a go. At the moment they are up about a foot tall and I only planted them a few weeks back.

 

[Jonnio]

I updated the first post with some pictures. Overall I have been very pleased with my first year hop performance in these boxes. Next year I might even add a couple more varieties.

 

[Joe Camel]

Bump

Hi Jonnio,

I'm very interested in knowing how your plants are doing these days. I have some Cascade hops planted on the side of my house but want to move them next year to grow on a pergola I'm planning to build. These types of containers look ideal for growing them as there is no where to build a bed. I like the plan since I can pop a lid on at the end of the season and lug them into the garage for overwintering.

Are you happy with the design, would you change anything?

How happy are the plants? do you have any update pics?

Cheers

Joe

 

[Jonnio]

Joe - I am very pleased with the containers. All of the hops are doing quite well IMO for first year plants and less than ideal growing conditions. I have even started getting cones on my Cascade plants. The only thing I am going to change for next year is a better way for them to climb. I had thought the fence would work, but it just didn't cut it. I am also going to look at the root structure and see if one box can support 2 mature plants. I think it will be able to, but I want to make sure.

I will try and post some update pics next week for you.

 

[Joe Camel]

One more bump!

Hi again Jonnio,

Now that winter is here, what are your thoughts on how the earthbox fared? Do you think you need to go bigger on the container as the rhizome grows or just trim it a lot in the off season? Did you dump the soil and store the rhizome or just stack the containers with dirt and all for the winter.

I think I'm still going to make at least one of these this spring. I was kicking around the idea of using a float valve from an old humidifier to automate the watering.

Cheers

 

[Jonnio]

One more bump!

Hi again Jonnio,

Now that winter is here, what are your thoughts on how the earthbox fared? Do you think you need to go bigger on the container as the rhizome grows or just trim it a lot in the off season? Did you dump the soil and store the rhizome or just stack the containers with dirt and all for the winter.

I think I'm still going to make at least one of these this spring. I was kicking around the idea of using a float valve from an old humidifier to automate the watering.

Cheers

I think they did pretty well, so much so I am building 3 more for additional varieties this year, so I will have a total of 5 different varieties going this year.

I ended up just covering them and leaving them out in the cold all winter long. I was afraid that the garage would get too warm and the hops would think its time to pop back up.

I think that at the appropriate time this next year I will "dig" out the root structures and see how they are doing and trim as needed. I don't anticipate ever going to bigger boxes, but I do have an experiment where I only have one Williamette plant in a box due to a non-starter last year, so if the yield from that one is significantly better than the Kent Golding then I will go ahead and move to a one per box solution. I doubt that will be needed though. I figure occasional trimming to send off rhizomes to other people should keep the roots to a reasonable size.

 

[WortMonger]

Any news on this for this year?

 

[Jonnio]

This year I added more earthboxes of hops. My second year hops aren't really thriving all that well, so it's a little hard to gauge the success of this venture. I am not sure what exactly is going on with them (well, except one that got eaten by bugs), but I am wondering if they are just slow growers compared to my first year.

My first year cascade and zeus are going gangbusters. A few of them have reached the top of the second story of my house and are still growing. They all have lots of cones on them also.

 

[WortMonger]

Built me a box and waiting for another clone to take off my Cascade to swap for the one in my AP system. I can't wait, and man what a good idea these boxes are.

 

[Jonnio]

let us know how they work out for you!

 

[WortMonger]

Will do. I am still having a nitrogen problem in my AP setup (imagine that), so I may be moving one of the AP cuttings into the box earlier than I thought. Maybe it should hold more than one cutting? I dunno?

 

[Holter]

let us know how they work out for you!

Jonnio

I am growing hops in "earthbox" like planters as well. I struggle with the soil at my house here in Los Angeles, so this year for my vegetable garden I bought 2 EarthBox's for tomatoes and have been BLOWN AWAY at the difference they make. I had planted 3 cascade rhizomes in the ground, but two of them died off and one of them had stunted growth. Towards late may I decided to purchase new rhizomes and plant them in home made sub irrigation planters modeled after EarthBox's just like you have done above.

My results so far have been just as fantastic as the tomato results. The cascade plant is around 5 feet tall right now, and my mt. hood is around 3 feet tall.

To make my sub irrigation buckets i just used two 5 gallon home depot buckets (trying to keep within budget here) and a solo cup I drilled around 30 1/4" holes in as my wicking container. I have yet to place a plastic cover on top of the buckets, and at this point i may never do that anyway.

I think they are working really well, and should work well for a few years.

How often did you have to water the planter over the offseason?

 

[david_42]

I am so tired of my hops' poor growth that I'm seriously considering building a raised bed. The bridge over the creek is being re-built, so I can get a pile of 12x12s free.

 

[pilotdane]

My soil is so bad that I have in-ground soil boxes (sort-of). For my hops I used the excavator to dig big holes/pots which I filled with composted cow maneur and leaf mold. Up front I made (hopefully) my excavation big enough to accommodate any and all growth of the hops. Placing them on a hillside and planting the rhizomes on hills helps prevent them from getting water logged. So far it seems to be working.

All of our garden areas are raised beds. Our soil is so poor that it is really the only way to get any production.

 

[winstonofbeer]

Question,
I like the rubber tub idea.
What is the pvc pipe for?
Plastic bag?

 

[WortMonger]

The PVC is the fill tube. It goes all the way to the bottom of the bucket. The plastic bags are for moisture retention, and to eliminate rain getting in. You want the water to wick up not go down. Gravity is already fighting against you, but the water wicks up perfectly without over-watering when you fill the PVC and reservoir.

 

[pen25]

gypsom and gypsite will always fix all your soil woes. depending on the need clay or loam. also turning the soil mixing in compost helps as well. takes a couple years but you can get the soil to the right spot pretty simple. start composting all your leaf and grass clippings as well as all your kitchen scraps from vegis.

Improving Clay Soils - Fine Gardening Article

 

[WortMonger]

Charcoal is really good to amend soil, and breaks down very slowly. See terra preta.

 

[sharpstick]

i made a small one from an empty cat litter container. it has slightly tapered sides and is perfect for small plants. i have dwarf bananas in two of them now.
this might be good for first year growing or giving them a head start in the spring in northern climates.
litter bucket earthbox

 

[newtonjason]

any update on this hops in earthboxes bit? Im growing some this year and want to know what to expect from years 1 through 4

 

[Jonnio]

any update on this hops in earthboxes bit? Im growing some this year and want to know what to expect from years 1 through 4

I got a really good yield out of them, but then started traveling too much and have abandoned hop growing. The key in future years will be soil testing and amending to make sure you keep the nutrient levels up, and lots of watering. As the plants get bigger and bigger they will start requiring more upkeep.

I was very pleased with the results of the experiment and will likely do it again once I am sure that I will be around to tend and harvest my crop.

 

[benzy4010]

What exactly is an earthbox?

 

[Jonnio]

It's a water regulating self fertilizing container to plant vegetables in.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/anyone-do-earthbox-65389/index3.html#post678101

 

[newtonjason]

It can also be known as a sub-irrigated planter. the "Earthbox" title is just the brand name from a company that sells them

Most people just make their own. I've been trying to keep it up to date but I have some photos on my hop growing page here:

http://brewbot.ca/growing-hops-on-a-balcony.html

 

[newtonjason]

thought I'd give a quick update on how my hops panned out in the first year of my earthbox growing hop garden.

From 12 plants, (1st year growing) I harvested 43lbs wet hops, 9.54lbs of dried hops. so average 3/4lb dried hops per plant.

I purposely trimmed most plants to only one bine so that may have limited harvest. one of the plants I left go to two bines and it produced twice the cones with no issues seen.

I'll keep posting updates, but in Vancouver, BC I am starting to get shoots coming up so the season has officially begun

Fuggles (2 vines) - 4.8 lbs wet - 18oz dry
Willamette (1 vine) - 2.4 lbs wet - 9.5 oz dry
Centennial (1 vine) - 2.4 lbs wet - 9 oz dry
Cascade (1 vine) - 4.8 lbs wet - 17 oz dry
Sterling (2 vines) - 9.5 lbs wet - 33 oz dry
Goldings (1 vine) - 3.5 lbs wet - 9.3 oz dry
Galena (1st vine)- 1.9 lbs wet - 6.4 oz dry
Mt Hood (1 vine) - 3.4 lbs wet - 10.7 oz dry
Galena (2nd vine) - 6.3 lbs wet - 23 oz dry
Chinook (1 vine) - 4.6 lbs wet - 16.7 oz dry

http://brewbot.ca/growing-hops-on-a-balcony.html