I posted about the “earthtainer” concept in this post and built myself a crude ‘bucket’ earthtainer as a ‘proof of concept’. Despite having made some elementary mistakes I believe the experiment is an unqualified success.
The chilli plant originally planted
I placed seeds just under the soil, see how well they have taken
So what did I do wrong? The most important is I did not have holes in the container bottom on which the soil rests to ensure the plant roots have some aeration. Also, my wicker does not reach to the bottom of the water container meaning that I can never use up the water and the water is now getting all green and ‘mouldy’. Maybe not such a big deal actually.
Encouraged by this result I decided to take the experiment a step further.
I purchased two buckets of different sizes, as well as two small buckets to use as wicker baskets.
Two buckets like the above which I had to tie together after removing the bottoms
I also drilled holes in the sides ….
And cable tied the two small buckets together to form one long wicker basket. I cut a hole in the center of the one bucket lid and drilled numerous small holes in the lid. To this I attached the wicker basket. This will form the base of the growing medium.
Base and Wicker
I cut another hole in the lid to thread a pipe through. This pipe will be used to feed water into the base. I lowered this lid and wicker into the bigger bucket until the taper of the bucket stopped the lid from going lower and the wicker basket was at the bottom of the bucket
From the above picture, one can see that I then removed the bottom from the bucket and turned it upside down and placed it on the original lid… perfect fit. This will then become the ‘plant pot’
awesome colors…hopefully stimulates the plant growth..lol
I then decided to avoid the use of conventional soil and see if enough nutrition can be provided through the water. I filled the wicker with coconut peat and the pot with coir.
coconut peat
coir and the original soil which compacts the roots of the Cape Gooseberry plant
To provide some stability I added some dry soil around the base of the plant. I filled the base container with water (through the white pipe) until the water dripped out the ‘overflow’ hole (circled in the pic below)
I already feel sorry for this poor plant as I think I may have sentenced him to die… or at the least a very difficult existence
What am I hoping to achieve by all this? I want to develop a means to grow optimal organic crops in a small area. I want it to be suitable for patios, balconies and such likes.
Thanks for reading!!
