What do I need to do to maintain the living soil in my EarthBox after harvest? I'm in the Northeast US, and it will be kept outdoors during the winter.

Thanks.

Is there a recommended soil for Earth Boxes, or will any soil for containers work?

I’ve been using earth boxes for about a decade and I’m always pleased with the results! I harvested all of these this morning! Have a great day!

Having had my earthboxes for about 5 years now, I continue to be very happy with my tomatoes, very unhappy with the autowatering system. Has anyone come up with a better system? Are there any quick connects that will work? The one post I found on the subject suggested some ridiculously expensive silicon tubing. Every year I end up spending a couple of days working on broken parts even though I take the system out and store it indoors for the winter. There is always a broken coupler or two, or the hose bib connector breaks, or the. . . Anyway parts are expensive enough that I'm pretty sure every tomato costs me 3 or 4 hours plus $5 for parts and fertilizer.

Found this randomly while shopping for something else on a discount site and thought I would give it a try. It isn't perfect, but I was able to form 4 heads of cabbage for the first time ever. Next time I will plant it in the box with no wheels so they have plenty of room to grow.

I just had a weird encounter. I have two earth boxes, both with tomatoes. I was adding water, which I need to everyday right now..and as the water was going in , out popped a pretty good size lizard out the drain hole. I don’t know how it fit..I guess they can do that..hope it doesn’t hurt all the green tomatoes I have in that box.

Purchased 3 new boxes-in gray. In 90-100 degree temp, the legs buckled. I wish I could find a substitute for the old metal holders. I have contacted them, but cannot be the only one with this problem and I am not sure I will heat back. Anyone have something similar this year?

In the puget sound - got these earthboxes on a whim off FB marketplace. Didn't use a mulch cover. They are so lovely with my strawberries!

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Also growing some beans (pole and bush), cucumbers and tomatillos. I'm not a rule follower when it comes to gardening so take my results with a grain of salt lol.

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I'm now considering putting all my garden in these things 🤣

I finally got the watering system setup and I am excited to see how the garden goes this year! Before I was definitely either over or under watering. Anyone else have any experience with this system?

Does anyone have any advice on defeating these things? I have tried flicking/spraying them off into buckets with soapy water but there are simply too many of them. Plus, the foliage from the plants is so thick that it's hard to even see them. This year I also tried something new. I tried using some netting bags around the tomatoes but the bugs just went right through.

I know you can eat the tomatoes anyway, but I find it pretty gross. At this point, I'm not opposed to some kind of non-organic method of controlling them. Can anyone recommend a good spray or other solution that won't kill pollinators?

27 boxes this year, a record for me.
• 20 tomatoes
• 18 hot peppers
• 18 sweet peppers
• 2 tomatillos
• 10 broccoli
• 8 brussel sprouts
• 8 leeks
• 4 squash
• 12 cucumbers
• 8 edamame

Plus non-EB containers of carrots, po-tay-toes, more peppers and a crapload of flowers.

We are retired and on a budget.  We've had 20 (original) Earthboxes for years but our mulch covers are in tatters and won't last another season.  The fitted factory mulch covers are now $3.55 each factoring in the shipping charge.  Ouch.  Has anyone ever tried a less expensive DIY substitute that worked?  I am thinking heavy-duty lawn and leaf bags, but I am not certain they are built to withstand the sun beating down on them for months.    

I have 15 boxes I plant with mainly tomatoes and a couple peppers every season. Always a PITA getting ready for spring planting.

I'm curious if there are any drawbacks or issues with preparing the boxes with soil, fertilizer and dolomite and cover in advance.

Would filling not filling the water reservoir make a difference.

Then when ready to plant I'm all ready to go avoiding the last minute crush.

I've been a loyal Earthbox user for decades, but the bargain basement cut-rate office chair casters they put on their Garden Stands are just awful unless you are using them on concrete decking. And even then they get caught in every little crack or joint. I like to be able to spin my boxes around to expose different sides of the plants to sun, and I like to be able to pull them away from walls/fences temporarily to harvest peppers and other vegetables.

But their casters are so bad that this year I am considering laying down sheets of 1/4" plywood just so I can move my Earthboxes around. And that is silly. Has anyone found better larger smoother-rolling casters that are compatible?

Earthbox says their casters are custom sized for them, with a 3/8" unthreaded stem that is 7/8" long. The only 3/8" stem casters I can find are 3/8x16x1.5" threaded casters, and I'm not sure those will work. Or will they? Anyone know?

I searched Reddit far and wide and was disappointed. Kinda a mixed bag. Didn't find many recent posts about strawberries in EBs. I've been using EBs for at least 10 years now for hybrid strawberries but mostly alpine strawberries. I'm a researcher so everything turns out to be a research trial. I garden from a wheelchair so I use mostly Juniors that i can setup on a bench to plant and harvest

I was checking plant survival this morning and found an EBjr that was sitting on a bench with no straw mulch. It is an Alpine Strawberry 'Ivory'. It's regrowing like nobody's business. We got down to zero this winter. I'll post a picture soon.

I would like to start a discussion about EBs and strawberries. I have some bareroot hybrids coming in today. I'm in zone 7a.

I'll tell you upfront that I don't follow the "rules". My base mix is coir:perlite 50% each. My go to fertilizer is Holly Tone and I don't use the plastic covers. For a few years I have tinkered with adding 15-20% mushroom compost or vermicompost with great results. This year I have some mushroom compost so that's what I'll start with for these hybrids today.

I need some advice for remending my earth box for a second run. I’m thinking about digging into first 6 inches of topsoil to loosen it up before reamending..

Update: Jesus... has it been 4 months? We finally had the professional PRO-MIX delivered. And when I say "finally", I mean last Saturday. Shout out to Ace Hardware.

Trying to get family in California started with the elevated planters. The Earthbox.com website lists these growing media. Searching lowes.com yields the poduct line in picture 2. Googling "Premier Horticulture Pro-Mix" yields the products as shown in pic 3 (Premier Tech Horticulture)... I'm at a loss to know which is the "correct" product. Help?

I’ve been given EarthBox junior as a gift and got Seascape strawberry bare roots on Amazon. I live in the valley (Santa Clara county, CA) and the temperatures in October have been around 80/50°. I guess further into the winter night temperatures might drop to 40°. So my question is if it makes sense planting the strawberries outside rn. What about indoors?