Today, we are going to tell you about an American farmer and the unusual device he developed. People around the world have been buying his invention for nearly twenty years.
Blake Whisenant and his family are farmers. They live in Florida, USA. For almost a century, the Whisenant family has grown fruit and vegetables and sold them to businesses around the world. The warm weather in Central Florida is ideal for growing crops, especially tomatoes. This is the crop he grows most of on his eight hundred hectares of land.
In 1992, Mr Whisenant had some bad luck.
It began to rain. And it rained. And it rained some more. Nearly fifty centimetres of rain destroyed the tomato crop that year.
Blake Whisenant was not a happy farmer.
“I just thought there’s got to be a better way!” he said.
So, he began looking for a way to ensure it would never happen again. He wanted to develop a system that would provide the plants with water from below. He thought that some kind of cover would keep the rain away while keeping the soil warm. He also wanted the plants to be grown in a box that would take up minimal space. He became obsessed with the idea, thinking about it day and night.
Blake Whisenant said, “I told my wife that before I die, I wanted to see if I could build a box above the ground in which to grow tomatoes.”
After years of work, he knew what to do. He found a company in Pennsylvania that agreed to make the box. It would be made of thick plastic and measure about one metre long by half a metre deep. Inside the box, there would be a plastic tube for pouring in water and a plastic screen with many holes in it.
A substance similar to peat moss, but not soil, would be placed in the box on top of the screen to hold it above the water at the bottom. A thin plastic cover would fit over the top of the box to keep out rain and harmful insects. Blake called it the ‘Earthbox’.
Frank DiPaolo is the general manager of the Earthbox Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He says that growing vegetables in this way — container gardening, as some call it — makes it easy for Blake Whisenant and other farmers to quickly solve common growing problems.
Frank DiPaolo explains, “When he spotted any diseases or issues with the plants in the field, he could simply grab the box and remove the affected plants before the disease spread.”
He adds that normal soil will not work for this type of container gardening. Instead, a potting mix is used. This is mostly peat moss with a few other ingredients added to help air reach the plants’ roots.
Frank DiPaolo explains, “One of its responsibilities is to wick the water up to the plants. When you put a small seedling in, its roots are not deep enough to reach the water reservoir, so we need to bring the water up to the plant.’
The box can hold up to eleven litres of water. There is a small hole in the side to drain out excess moisture and prevent the plants from drowning. Since the potting mix soaks up the water, more water needs to be poured down the tube every day or so. This type of container gardening uses much less water than growing plants in the ground. It is also designed so that you can never give the plants too much or too little water.
The plants in the box also need two other things: a small amount of fertiliser and dolomite, a powder-like substance made from limestone. The fertiliser feeds the plants and helps them grow. The dolomite reduces the acidity of the potting mix. Many farmers say that dolomite is the secret to growing tasty tomatoes.
It is also an inexpensive way to provide calcium for young tomato plants. This protects the plants from a disease known as ‘blossom end rot’.
Frank DiPaolo: ‘That’s where your tomato plant will start setting fruit. They look beautiful, and when you come back a couple of days later, they’ve grown to a pretty nice size. But then the bottom of the tomato turns black. That’s called blossom end rot.’
Before the plants are placed in the Earthbox, one final step must be completed. A thin plastic cover is stretched over the top of the box. This protects the potting mix, fertiliser and dolomite inside the box if storms bring large amounts of rain. The cover also keeps weeds and harmful insects out of the box. However, there is one other reason why the container must be covered. It is important to keep the potting mix warm, but not too hot. Frank DiPaolo recommends using either a white or a black cover.
Frank DiPaolo says, “The covers that we ship with the box are black on one side and white on the other. If you live in a similar climate to us in north-eastern Pennsylvania and want to maximise the amount of heat in the container, plant the plants with the black side up. But if you were in Florida, where Blake lives, he’d plant with the white side up in the summer. You can achieve a soil temperature difference of about fifteen degrees Fahrenheit just by using the white side versus the black side.’
Some research has also been done using other colours for the box covers. One study found that red covers produce better results for vegetables such as tomatoes and red peppers.
Frank DiPaolo says that if you prepare the box correctly, nature will do the rest.
Frank DiPaolo says, “The plants know what they need in terms of nutrition and water. So if you put the necessary materials within reach, the plant will take what it needs when it needs it.’
So, having prepared the box, how many tomato plants should you use? The answer is… only two! And why is that?
Frank DiPaolo: ‘The reason is that those plants are going to get so big that if you put three, four or six of them in, they’re just going to crowd each other out and underperform.’
Putting the plants in the box is easy. Blake Whisenant cuts a small, round hole in the cover with a sharp knife. He then takes out a small amount of potting mix with his hand. He puts the plant into the hole, presses the roots down slightly, and replaces the handful of potting mix.
Many people who have used Earthboxes say that it is possible to grow over twenty-two kilograms of tomatoes from just two plants.
Growing crops in containers is good for the environment. Not only does it use less water, but little fertiliser is needed and it all stays in the box. There is no risk of chemicals running off into nearby waterways. The same potting mix can be used for five or six years. In countries where potting mix is unavailable or too expensive, growers can use coconut coir instead. This comes from the outer shell of coconuts and is inexpensive.
Coconut coir is also a renewable resource. Every new coconut that grows provides some coir. However, the peat moss used in many potting mixes can take thousands of years to grow. Gardeners can use up peat moss much faster than nature can replace it.
Since the Earthbox went on sale in 1994, it has been used by many people around the world. Others have made their own vegetable-growing boxes. Some use two large plastic containers to make a ‘Global Bucket’. One bucket has holes in the bottom and sits inside the other. Potting mix or coir is placed in the top bucket and water is fed through a tube into the bottom bucket. A plastic bin bag is then used to cover the top container.
A variety of fruits and vegetables can be grown in containers like these. Some people think that this type of gardening will become important in poor countries where hunger is a problem. A lot of food can be grown in a small space for a small amount of money.
The people who make Earthboxes are interested in educating young people. They have developed a programme aimed at teaching science and agriculture to students from pre-school through to high school. Using an Earthbox in the classroom, even the youngest children can learn about seeds, the different parts of plants, how gravity affects plants and the uses of sunflowers.
When children first enter primary school, they learn about water, soil, light and nutrition. In secondary school, they conduct experiments and collect information. At high school level, students learn how to use mathematics and graphs to better understand the processes involved in plant growth. The learning programme includes written materials for teachers and students. It uses an Earthbox in the classroom as a small laboratory for experiments.
Molly Philbin is the Education and Community Garden Director at the Earthbox Company.
“Kids really get engaged in science in the garden,” says Ms Philbin. “It’s a fun activity where they collect data and see how different temperatures affect the amount of water needed by a crop, so the science concepts come easily.”
Ms Philbin also says that growing food locally in containers helps reduce pollution caused by burning fossil fuels such as oil. Often, food travels thousands of kilometres from the farm before reaching the dinner table. A lot of fuel is needed just to deliver the food. Farmers who use growing boxes do not have to plough the land before planting crops. This saves on fuel costs and pollution from farm machinery.
Blake Whisenant, the man who started it all, still lives near his farm in Florida. Health problems and his advanced age — he is over eighty — now prevent him from working in the fields. However, he still visits the Earthbox store almost daily and enjoys teaching visitors about agriculture. He says he likes the idea of passing on his knowledge to the next generation. He says that helping to educate children has been a blessing.
