My EarthBox Design with Self-Supporting Tomato Cage System

[rnewste]

Here is my EarthBox design including self-supporting tomato cage system. After the first one, about 45 minutes to assemble the base unit, and about an hour or so to fabricate the cage system. I'll be writing up the plans in a week or so. (Sorry I don't have a way to post all the pictures in the one thread).

Ray


Removed dead photo links 7/3/12 - M.

[dcarch]

Very nice work.

Will you be adding casters?

Nice shirt

dcarch

[amideutch]

Ray, I'm really impressed. Nice work and sanitary. So, when are you accepting orders. Ami

[epiphanista]

Wonderful, Ray! It's obvious you are blessed with attention to detail and patience. Those units look very stable and well made.


~Thalia

[NCTIM]

Excellent work Ray. I’ve made some in the past too and I hope that I didn’t post any pictures. Yours make mine look shameful. You have really done a great job.

Tim

[kygreg]

Have you ever seen the home made EB plans that use only one containeer; the lid is used for the insert mounted on pvc supports; I use the 2 container plans and havent tried this one myself, so dont know how well it works.

[rnewste]

Thanks for all the positive comments, guys. I only wish I could have the photos all appear in the post, but I don't have snapfish, or whatever Hosting photo site is necessary.

dcarch: Believe it or not, I got the idea to "square up" the top hoops of the 2 tomato cages from your square tomato Avatar!

As I plan to just spin each container 180 degrees on its axis every month or so to get more uniform sun exposure to each side of the plants, having the self-supporting cage system makes that easy to do. PVC trellis systems (like Bing's shown on another site) are difficult to move, and require time consuming stringing, etc.

amideutch: It was some of your beautiful photos of your EB garden in Germany that motivated me to do an EarthBox type design. In terms of "accepting orders", I plan to write all the instructions with photos and convert to a .pdf file, free for anyone to use. I'll just need to find somewhere to host it, like josho's EB instructions.

epiphanista: By "locking" the two tomato cages in 4 places (the base of the two legs, and at hoopsets 3 and 4) the cages are very stable "fore and aft" in ship's terms. The guy-wires "port and starboard" keep the cages from leaning to one side or the other. If I do need to adjust the balance of the cages as they get loaded with tomatoes, a simple adjustment of the clamp locking the guy-wire on hoopset 3 can allow for more tilt to port or starboard (see photo below) to keep the entire system in perfect balance.

kygreg: Regarding use of the top for the aeration "bench", since I wanted a strong platform on which to support the 2 tomato cages, using an inverted Rubbermaid cut off at 6" gave me acceptable structural strength. The lid cutout does not have any rigidity at all. I am going to cut the remaining lid section to use as a vertical divider to keep the root system of the two plants separated, when I fill the system with Potting Mix. Not wanting to waste anything, I took the remaining 10" section of the Rubbermaid, and fabricated a Plexiglas top to now have a cold frame, for either use on ground plants, or some of my EarthBoxes that will not have the tomato cage system. (see photo)

Next Step: I've just ordered the Automated Watering system (AWS) from the EarthBox folks, so now I need to figure out how to compensate for the on-off differences used in their EarthBox (2.5"), and the increased depth (6") in my water reservoir.

Fun stuff,

Ray

[kygreg]

good ideas and improvising; waste not, want not.

[rnewste]

kygreg,

Yep, I will have a very small amount of scrap left from the 2 Rubbermaid containers when all is done.

The duct-tape of the Plexiglas "roof" to the container does NOT meet the W.A.F. (Wife Approval Factor) at the moment , so I need to come up with a more "attractive" way to attach the Plexiglas permanently to the container.

Anyone with ideas??

Ray

[kygreg]

paint the duct tape and let her choose the color? lol

[dice]

[duct tape replacement]

Tape it on the inside, so she can't see the
tape?

Some kind of adhesive caulk should work. The
only issue is the slipperiness of the material that
the container is made from, which affects how
well caulks adhere to it. (Not a porous material,
from the look of it.)

Made you could take a small scrap piece of container
material and a small scrap piece of plex and caulk
them together with whatever you have around the
house, then trying pulling them apart after a week
or so. If they come apart, not good. If you need a
knife to get them apart, that is the right stuff.

[rnewste]

Dice,

Thanks for the suggestion. The Rubbermaid container is a synthetic plastic compound of some sort, so many epoxies won't adhere. I've had good luck in the past using Gorilla Glue where others failed. Think I'll give that a try. If that doesn't work, I'll take kygreg's suggestion and just paint over the duct tape (of course, letting her pick the color).

Ray

[amideutch]

Ray for your plexiglass lid why don't you get some metal "L"
brackets about 1 1/2" long and attach them (screws or nut and bolts) on all 4 sides of the plate on the edge and set it on top. And if you want it permanent, attach to the sides as well. Don't need the 100 mph tape and your wife is right, it do look a little tacky.

Is there a limit as to how many images you can attach to a post?Ray, just use the manage attachments in the additional options block to transfer the images from your computer to your post. Unless I missed something. Ami

[dice]

Gorilla Glue is a polyurethane glue, should work. Epoxy and
plastics also have the issue that epoxy gets hot as it cures,
which may be hot enough to melt the plastic.

The little L-shaped brackets are a good idea.

[gardenwife]

I know this thread's pretty old, but do you have your photos posted somewhere else now that AOL Pictures has been shut down? I'd love to see how you made these cages! Last year I limped along with my homemade boxes, tying everything into one big mass along a T made of galvanized pipe. NOT at all ideal! LOL