EarthBox
 

Does anyone have any experience? I'm grasping at straws trying to find the best bang for my buck for apartment growing.

I've got a couple. They work well, but in the heat of the summer (especially in Texas) once the plants are huge you'll have to fill the water reservoir at least once a day.

I only use them because my grandma purchased a bunch several years ago and I found a couple complete sets after she passed away.

If I was in the market to buy self-watering containers, here's what I'd do:
One of the members here (rnewste aka Raybo) has created something that I believe is much better than an Earthbox, called an Earthtainer. You can find instructions for those via Google, and there are several threads on this forum that talk about them. I think they'll offer a much better bang for your buck than the Earthbox.

Indoors or out? The Earthbox is UV protected and made of materials you can recycle. I have Earthbox and I have self watering 5 gallon buckets I made. Both work well but I can grow two determinate tomatoes in the Earthbox and only 1 in the 5 gallon buckets. I don't know how much space you have but the Earthbox is all the same size so it makes lining them up easy and spacing them too. They have a new half size one made for indoor gardening too.

Raybo's plans are great too but you have to have the space for his. He designed his to have the room to grow things like corn that have deeper roots.

Hands down self watering container gardening is good for apartments because you can control how much water is being let out around them. If you're real good at adding the water you won't have any spillage.

I am on the Texas Coast and only about 1/2 mile from the intercoastal waterway which makes us have very hot weather with high humidity. I grew Homestead tomatoes last summer and only gave about 1 to 1.5 gallons of water per day leaving plenty in the reservior, they never went dry.

If you purchase the regular sized Earthboxes without the wheels in bulk at Earthox.com, you can get them for about 28.00 each. I don't know if they have bulk pricing on the new Juniors or not.

When I made my buckets using three buckets it cost me about 16 or 18 dollars for each set because I purchased my buckets and supplies at Lowe's. I used three buckets per setup because I cut the third one at the rim to allow it to sit between the outer bucket and the inner bucket to give a larger water reservior.

If I had to do it over again I would just buy the Earthboxes in bulk and know that I will still be using them at least 8 or 10 years from now. They are that good. I can't see my Lowe's buckets standing up more than a couple of years in the sun here.

Agree with Rockporter. I have quite a few Earthboxes and I live in a hot, dry climate. I like to grow large indeterminate heirloom tomatoes and in the middle of July I am watering at least once a day but watering can be automated. I think Raybos EarthTainers "might be" a next step for some, but I would certainly encourage you get out the door with a few earthboxes to get your feet wet. They are a very good product and well worth the $$$.

For an apartment application where you typically have a modest sized balcony, I too would recommend the EarthBox. I would get the version with the wheels, as you can then easily move them about for best exposure to the Sun.

The 31 gallon EarthTainer which is about twice the size of the EarthBox, is better suited to decks and other areas where you have more surface area. If you are relatively new to gardening, the EarthBox is an easy to use and maintain SWC solution.:yes:

Raybo

There is a woman bdank or dbank that posts here as well as the EB forum. She has over 30 EB's look over at the EB forum she has photos. She grows 10 ft tomatoes with huge yields and six foot peppers with tons of peppers on each plant as big as a mans hand. Her results are amazing.

She is super nice I have emailed her with questions and she was really helpful. She started out with some earthtainers.

It's bDank and she is definitely a very nice person over there on EB forums. She has some beautiful tomatoes for sure. Her whole garden photos are just really gorgeous.

I would agree with the others that an EarthBox might be a good option if limited in space and making your first foray into SWCs... Or if you are comfortable using some basic power tools (drill, jigsaw), a 5-gallon bucket SWC is very easy to build and relatively inexpensive.

I always planted in the ground until this year. This year I got 5 earthboxes, then loved them so much i got 5 more. Still planted in the ground too, but i have to tell you, the plants in the earthboxes totally "ate their lunch". I think it is not an exaggeration to say they grew about twice as fast, less disease, and I have had the best season ever in terms of productivity.
They are still alive and I have never had tomatoes past the end of April before. (Our reverse growing season here has us start seeds in late August)
I am going to buy 15 more this year, mostly because I am OUT OF CONTROL now:))
I would say, just do it, you only buy them once in many years.