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JIM TEDDER: The box holds about eleven liters of water. There is a small hole in the side to drain out extra moisture and keep from drowning the plants. Since the potting mix soaks up the water, you have to pour more water down the tube every day or so. This kind of container gardening uses much less water than is needed when growing plants in the ground. And it is made so you can never give too much or too little water to the plants.

The plants in the box also need two other things...a small amount of fertilizer and dolomite, a powder-like substance made from limestone. The fertilizer feeds the plants and helps them grow. The dolomite helps to reduce acid in the potting mix. Many farmers say dolomite is the secret to growing good tasting tomatoes.

Dolomite is also a low-cost way to supply calcium to young tomato plants. This helps to protect the plants from a disease known as "blossom end rot."

FRANK DIPAOLO: "That's where your tomato plant will start setting fruit ...and they look beautiful and you come back a couple of days later and they've grown to a pretty nice size...and the bottom of the tomato is all black. And they call that blossom end rot."

JIM TEDDER: Before the plants are put in the Earthbox, there is one more thing that must be done. A thin plastic cover is stretched over the top of the box. If storms should bring large amounts of rain, the cover protects the potting mix, fertilizer, and dolomite inside the box. This cover also keeps weeds and harmful insects out of the box. But there is one other reason that the container must be covered. It is important that the potting mix be kept warm, but not too hot. Frank DiPaolo says you should use either a white or a black cover.

FRANK DIPAOLO: "The covers that we ship with the box are black on one side and white on the other. If you live where we live in northeastern Pennsylvania and you want to drive as much heat as you can into the container, we plant the plants with the black side up. Say, if you were in Florida where Blake lives, in the summer he'll plant with the white side up. You get about a fifteen degree Fahrenheit change in the soil temperature just by using the white side versus the black side."

JIM TEDDER: There also has been some research done using other colors for the box covers. One study found that a red cover produces better results for vegetables like tomatoes and red peppers.

Frank DiPaolo says that, if you prepare the box correctly, nature will do the rest.

FRANK DIPAOLO: "The plants know what they need from a nutritional and a water sense. So if you put the materials within reach of the plant, the plant will take what it needs when it needs it."

JIM TEDDER: So after preparing the box, how many tomato plants do 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 were to put three or four or six plants in, they are just going to be crowding each other out, and each plant is going to underperform."

JIM TEDDER: Putting the plants in the box is easy. Blake Whisenant uses a sharp knife to cut a small round hole in the cover. He then uses his hand to take out a small amount of pott本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。