Tomato Earthtainer

Today, I went to Hyams to get some fertilizer and a few other things and stumbled upon some Heirloom tomatoes. They were $1.95 each and looked very healthy. I got one Cherokee Purple and one Gold Medal. Of course my raised bed is already full, so I had to get another container or build another raised bed. As we are renting, I didn't want to spend $$ on another bed that we will not see that much benefit from, so I did a little research on building containers and found a couple of interesting articles on self-watering containers or sub-irrigation containers.

You can buy complete kits from Earthbox, Organic Tomato Success Kit and Garden Patch Grow Box but I found a guy who had built his own and decided to use his method as it appeared to have a better caging support system for all those delicious tomatoes I am expecting. Complete plans are available at EarthTainer. Total cost of materials was about $80 including soil and fertilizers. I didn't have a power saw like the author used, but ended up using a small pointed saw that worked well for the Rubbermaid container, but was not ideal for the PVC. With those difficulties it took a little over 3 hours to build, fill and plant. But it should be fairly maintenance free for the season, other than water. Here are some pictures of it alongside the raised bed. Cherokee Purple on the left and Gold Medal on the right.

I used plumbers sealant to add a small strip of cloth to the overflow hole in order to stop mosquitoes getting into the water in the base.

I also added a strip of cloth of the fill tube in order to keep mosquitoes out. I will build a flag to indicate when the water gets low soon.