Homemade XXL No Leak "Earthbox" Style Planter

[DrFeelGood]

Homemade 27 Gallon XXL No Leak "Earthbox" Style Planter

I had to make one of these for an ISS mother plant we sent into flower, she was extremely root bound in an Earthbox. I thought this was a cool upgrade with improvements, and its an inexpensive easy DIY. I hope you guys like it :-)

Equipment list-

2 Home Depot Strongboxes
1 brass pipe coupling 1/4 " FIP Watts A-732 (I could not find a suitable plastic piece)
1 nylon hose barb to MIP elbow 3/8 " X 1/4 " Watts A-295
1 foot clear vinyl hose 1/2 " OD and 3/8 " ID
4 zip ties- one tiny, one large, and two medium sized
20" of 2" PVC- the one I used that fits my hole-saw is rated at 280 psi
29.5" of 3" PVC- the one I used that fits the hole-saw is not pressure rated

Tool List-

drill with 1/2 " bit, 2 1/2 " hole-saw, and 3 5/8 " Hole-saw, and whatever bit makes a good size hole for your 2 medium sized zip ties to go through
two adjustable wrenches
a handsaw or chop-saw
permanent marker
tape measure
scissors

I will start posting steps and pictures tonight and post the rest of the steps and pictures tomorrow when I can run my drill with the hole-saws without waking my neighbors.

 

[DrFeelGood]

Homemade 27 Gallon XXL No Leak "Earthbox" Style Planter

This is the coolest improvement over a Earthbox in my opinion. I thought of it one night while really medicated. This mod allows you to never spill water out of the overflow hole and onto your floors, and you no longer have to find a tray of some sort to put on the floor to catch said spillage. The first thing I would do is take your half inch bit and drill in three inches from the side nearest where you are going to place your watering tube. Make sure to make the hole near the bottom and on a flat part of the box so there is a good seal when you are done. Then take the elbow and thread it through the hole you just made in the strongbox. Now put the brass fitting on the inside and carefully tighten with the two adjustable wrenches so that you don't break the elbow. I found it necessary to tighten a few turns and then back it off several times so that I could get it tight enough. Once it is in slide the clear vinyl hose over the elbow with the elbow and the hose pointing up. Now take your small zip tie and measure 4" up off of the floor and zip it tightly around the vinyl hose as a marker. I went over the zip tie with a permanent marker on mine so I could see it better. Now cut a slight amount off the vinyl hose at the end near the top of the box so that you can tuck it into one of the little squares under the lip of the box. Now go about halfway up the side of the box and drill a hole on both sides of the vinyl hose, and a hole near the top on both sides of the hose. Now run your medium sized zip ties through the two holes. The outer box is now done. If you tighten the brass fitting well it will not leak even without a gasket. Now you can see how much water you have added and if you accidentally put a little too much in you still have a dry floor.

 

[DrFeelGood]

Homemade 27 Gallon XXL No Leak "Earthbox" Style Planter

Now I would cut your PVC. You need one 20" piece of 2" PVC, Four 4" lengths of 3" PVC, and three 4.5" lengths of 3" PVC. Take the 20" piece and cut two notches about two inches in from one end. Take the three 4.5" pieces and cut four two inch notches in them but try to keep these ones more narrow. This is all the PVC you have to cut.

 

[DrFeelGood]

Homemade 27 Gallon XXL No Leak "Earthbox" Style Planter

Now it is time for the hole-saws. Take the 2.5 " hole-saw and cut one hole as close as possible into the corner where the water level meter is located. After this is complete take the 3 5/8 " hole saw and cut three holes that are along the center line of the box and equally spread out. You are now done with the hole saws and you can take your drill with a half inch bit and put lots of holes into the bottom for drainage.

 

[DrFeelGood]

Homemade 27 Gallon XXL No Leak "Earthbox" Style Planter

Now you can insert your 4" lengths of 3" PVC, they are just risers.

 

[DrFeelGood]

Homemade 27 Gallon XXL No Leak "Earthbox" Style Planter

OK now you are ready to insert the top box. Make sure you put the hole for the watering tube near the water level meter. Next insert the Watering tube and the three 4.5" lengths of 3" PVC making sure that all of the ends with notches you cut in them are facing down. The 4.5" Lengths will just barely be flush with the bottom of the inner box but once there is dirt in there it will weigh itself down to where they pop up a little bit. At this point you are basically done assembling the box. I drilled two more holes through the strongbox near the top of the watering tube and secured it with the large zip tie. This is really not necessary once the dirt is in there it will hold the tube in place.

 

[motherlode]

awesome DIY man - well done - been waiting all day for you to finish so I could comment without interrupting you - lol

5 stars - Id give you some rep but I gave all I had to give in the last 24 hours

peace

 

[DrFeelGood]

Homemade 27 Gallon XXL No Leak "Earthbox" Style Planter

Now you are done assembling the box and it is time to fill the three 4.5" lengths with coco fiber or you can use some of your potting mix if you do not have any. Insert your root-bound soon to be tree, some soil, and enjoy! I hope this is useful to some of you. I have learned a ton about how to build and run RDWC thanks to this site and DoubleDs in particular. This is just my way of saying thanks and trying to give back to the site.

DR FG:harvest:

 

[DrFeelGood]

awesome DIY man - well done - been waiting all day for you to finish so I could comment without interrupting you - lol

5 stars - Id give you some rep but I gave all I had to give in the last 24 hours

peace

Thank you Motherlode! I am glad someone has found it and found it enjoyable and useful. I am not even sure if this is where the thread belongs but it seemed the most appropriate.

 

[motherlode]

word man - seems like a good section to me - there is a diy forum though too - Im sure a mod will see this and move it if its appropriate

would love to see a grow log using these if you have one planned

would this setup work just as well with just coco or a coco/perlite mix?

 

[DrFeelGood]

word man - seems like a good section to me - there is a diy forum though too - Im sure a mod will see this and move it if its appropriate

would love to see a grow log using these if you have one planned

would this setup work just as well with just coco or a coco/perlite mix?

Motherlode I put Coco fiber in the three 4.5" lengths to wick the moisture up from the bottom bucket. The rest of what I put in there personally is Roots Organic soil. I think it would work just as well with the perlite / vermiculite mixtures some of the guys like to use in the Krusty Buckets. It may work well with Coco or Coco / Perlite as well. I started a grow thread on the forums using a less fancy version of this that does not have the water meter on it. I got really baked after making the first one and came up with this revision / upgrade. Look up Skyscrogger to follow the grow.

 

[DrFeelGood]

awesome DIY man - well done - been waiting all day for you to finish so I could comment without interrupting you - lol

5 stars - Id give you some rep but I gave all I had to give in the last 24 hours

peace

What is "rep" and how does it work on here?

 

[motherlode]

you can give a user positive rep points by clicking the scale at the bottom left corner of their post

the more reputation points the member has when he/she reps you - the more points you get for it (or lose)

its generally considered bad forum etiquette to neg rep somebody - I had never done it myself until 2 days ago - but that one kinda felt good - lol

 

[DrFeelGood]

Motherlode did you find the Skyscrogger? Here is a link to it in case you haven't found it-

 

[leadsled]

Sweet

Cool diy, thanks for sharing. I made a earthbox/hempy style container and running it for the first time. (pics etc is in the diy section of the forums)

fyi:
I was going to use the same tube (to show water level) but other reported it was growing algae. The fix was to put a pvc pipe over the tube to keep light out

Because of the algae, I ended up using a cork and flag in the pvc fill tube. That way no leaks or algae. (got the idea from another member, tykaycha)

My other thought was "what if". What if the container got overwatered and I needed to remove the excess. No way to do so.

used a ebb and flow fittings with ball valves, that way can flush em out and also keep the runoff going where I want. Can connect 1/4" lines to the ebb and flow fittings and pump put the overflow. (for a flush or change out of nutes from grow to bloom)

Motherlode did you find the Skyscrogger? Here is a link to it in case you haven't found it-

Thanks for the link! I was searching for the username skyscrogger.

 

[DrFeelGood]

Leadsled- You may be right about the algae. If you ever need to remove some water you could pull the hose out of the two medium twist ties and hold it down to drain the water, and then put it back into the ties, given that they are not too tight that is.

DR FG

 

[DrFeelGood]

fyi:
I was going to use the same tube (to show water level) but other reported it was growing algae. The fix was to put a pvc pipe over the tube to keep light out

Because of the algae, I ended up using a cork and flag in the pvc fill tube. That way no leaks or algae. (got the idea from another member, tykaycha)

My other thought was "what if". What if the container got overwatered and I needed to remove the excess. No way to do so.

I gave the algae issue some thought and remembered a similar water level meter I had seen which is in the first picture. I never observed an issue with algae in the water level tube or in the bucket. Now the second picture shows the only difference between this hose and the hose that I put on the strongbox is that the one in the bucket is white and the one on the strongbox was clear. I went out and bought a piece of white poly that would fit the fitting and you can still see the water level through the tube. The hose is attached with twist ties this time instead of zip ties so if for some reason as you said you need to be able to drain water the hose is able to be bent to the side.

Dr FG

 

[soopy]

Thanks man! I have been contemplating building a bed for my 3x3, but this gives me more root room (deeper than my plan), and will be mobile. I think two will fit next to each other, or I can modify if need be. Awesome contribution, just made my day!

 

[DrFeelGood]

Thanks man! I have been contemplating building a bed for my 3x3, but this gives me more root room (deeper than my plan), and will be mobile. I think two will fit next to each other, or I can modify if need be. Awesome contribution, just made my day!

No problem Soopy glad to be of service :-)

Dr. FG

 

[DrFeelGood]

I have been using the box for a month now and there are no algae issues whatsoever to date:-)

Dr. FeelGood