Over my years of gardening I have seen many grow boxes for sale in gardening centers and online gardening stores. I use a simple design to build my own grow boxes, and I have had a lot of fun and success growing in my homemade boxes.
You can use any type of plastic container that will hold water – this will serve as the water reservoir. Find or make a panel that will fit in the bottom of the reservoir – this will serve as a tray to hold the soil up. Drill holes in the tray so that water can be absorbed up into the potting soil to reach the plant roots. You can use rocks, bricks, or wood blocks to hold the tray up off the bottom of the reservoir. Drill a weep hole in the reservoir, even with or just below the bottom of the tray so that excess water will spill out rather than soaking the soil. Insert a piece of pipe or tubing in one corner, straight to the bottom of the outer container – this is where you will water the container. Using this method it is easy to add fertilizer along with the water to make sure your plants are getting enough nutrients. I have found that plant roots will eventually grow down below the tray, in to the water reservoir below.
These boxes can be used in direct sunlight or under artificial lighting. The boxes can be as big or as small as a person’s imagination. Using this simple design I have had great success growing my vegetables in a very limited amount of space. Good luck!
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COMMENTS(7)
I like the above article, and it will be very useful to me in the near future. But, please, can you make the artlcle printer friendly, I need to follow instructions as I replicate the use of it. Some of us (ME) still have computer jitters, and need all the help I can get!!!!!!!THANK YOU! LANA D.
Hi Lana,
You know, the feature of being able to print articles has been requested before. let me see what we can do to get that functionality. I am striving to have this site be the most useful site on the web for producing, preparing, and preserving your own food and medicine.
I know what you mean about exact details and measurements. I highlight, copy and paste the bits that are most important. If we printed all the wonderful things Marjory puts on our site we would run out of trees printing them or we would have to buy more external hard drives or storage disks than we could keep up with! lol
I have six locks on my door, three locked and three unlocked. When burglars try to pick the locks they are always locking three of them.
I’d like to see pictures. I’m having a little trouble seeing it in my head from the description.
Yep me too. I don’t get it.
This method of plastic container can be useful for potatoes. I like your thought and tip for growing vegetables. https://www.bestbloombooster.com/best-fertilizer-for-potatoes/