Grow Box

GROW BOX
08/09/2009
The reasoning behind this experiment is to address the need for good drainage in the growing medium. By constructing a grow box placed on top of the ground and putting a custom mixture for a growing medium, the idea is to improve drainage.

I obtained a trailer load of chipped tree limbs from the Tree Doctors at no cost. I knew the chips were not going to be small enough so I purchased a 5.5 HP chipper shredder and ran the material through the chipper. That is where I lost the concept of the “Poor Man Garden”.

Getting back on track of the “Poor Man Garden” I constructed a box using plywood that was laying around and cut it to 6” wide x 8’ long pieces. The sides are held in place by short pieces of re-bar laying around. I also built two other boxes using 4x8x16 blocks I had laying around. They were simply placed on the surface of the ground.

Level the ground, build the box, sprinkle the top off the ground with gypsum to improve drainage, and then fill the box with the custom soil.

The custom soil in this case is 50% shredded wood chips and 50% manure and then turning over one shovel depth of native soil to create a chip, manure and soil combination.



Pictures!

CUSTOM SOIL:
75% chips, 25% sand, mix in some Ammonium Nitrate, Ammonium Sulfate, and various other fertilizers including one bag of steer manure per box. I wasn’t too scientific about it because they just don’t sell things the exact way I was looking for. Mix and moisten and pout into the box.

You have to add the fertilizers because the chips haven’t decomposed, therefore any nutrients they have will not be readily available to the plant. As natural bacteria do their job, there will be nutrients available. In the meantime, you have to feed the plants. Eventually the plants will send roots down into the soil beneath the grow box to pick up an trace elements they need.

At this point, I am not so sure this experiment is going to be successful and has been a LOT of work! We will see what happens.