Gbiota boxes

Gbiota boxes, as their name suggests, are enclosed and separate from any parent soil.

They do not have the benefit of access to the life forms which live naturally in soil and they are also limited in size.

They do have a theoretical advantage that there is no loss of water to the surrounding soil as is inevitable in an in-ground bed, but that is largely just a theoretical advantage as it is easy to plant around an in-ground bed to use up any water which does wick out from the main bed.

If you have a garden and want to grow a reasonable quantity of food then in-ground beds are really the way to go – if you are not convinced by the technical arguments they are simply a lot cheaper and easier to build.

But it is just a reality that in the conventional scene wicking boxes are far more popular than beds.

But Gbiota boxes definitely have advantages – the outstanding advantages are that you can grow plants for gut food even if you live in a flat with no garden and, if you use a small box, you can bring it inside in the winter and either put it near a window or use growing lights.

Beds and boxes are complimentary

Everyone does their own thing but I use both together for different jobs. I use the in-ground beds to grow the nutrient-rich soil (Wickimix) teaming with microbes and other weird creatures. I can then use this soil in the boxes.

I live in the subtropics and our best growing season is actually in the winter while the summer is too hot and dry with masses of insects.

But the boxes are really useful to me for trialling different plant varieties I may want to experiment with and it is just much more practical to grow some herbs – like Fenugreek – which requires specialist treatment.

Baby greens

They are also an excellent way of growing baby greens – that is plants which have passed the microgreen stage (which are essentially using the nutrients from the seeds). They have put down a root system so they are taking up the microbes and nutrients from the soil.

With some plants you can use tipping – just cutting off the tips of the plants and letting them regrow. This is an incredibly effective way of having a steady supply of fresh greens.

See video ‘food for health’ in videos.

They are often more nutritious than mature plants and many plants are soft, tender and digestible as baby greens but are just not edible when mature – the grasses (like oat grass) are classic examples and are the easiest plants in the world to grow – just sprinkle on the seed, wait a couple of weeks then nip out with the scissors and cut off the tips – again and again.

Nip down the road

If you don’t have a garden then by far the easiest way of getting into baby greens in Gbiota boxes is to find someone down the road who has a garden and can set up the Biobox for you. You can grow a lot of baby greens in a small box which is light enough to carry so just buy a box from your local grower, water and pick and when the plants are getting a bit old just swap for another box.

I expect at some point in time this will become a flourishing industry but we need more growers – but it will come and we are pushing for it.

Setting up a Gbiota box

Gbiota boxes are set up in a similar way to Gbiota beds.

A simple irrigation fitting is installed at the base of the bed with a swivel tube to act as a variable drain.

I used to just bend the ag pipe up to the surface but now I use a separate large pipe; this allows me to check the moisture level at the base just by looking or poking my hand down. I have also used the pipe as a compost tube.

The very bottom layer is filled with some porous material. Vermiculite is really good for this as it is so light and cuts down the overall weight of the box. I also use grass cuttings as the bottom layer, then a layer of manure with a top layer of Wickimix for the bulk of the root zone.

If you are buying from a local Gbiota grower they will probably fill the box with soil from their in-ground bed (Wickimix) and plant the seeds.

Wickimix is already loaded with the microbes, worms and general soil life plus the trace minerals essential for health.

You add the layer of organic waste – followed by the layer of manure and rock dust and Wickimix from your local grower.

Then just seed and pick and eat.

But what happens at the end of that cycle?

Refurbishing a Gbiota box

You can’t keep on taking goodness out of the box without replacing it.

I use boxes which are small enough to manhandle and just empty them and refill with fresh mix. It is so simple and only takes about 20 minutes to refill and the soil seems to benefit from the aeration as the plants grow really well.

But if you don’t want to do that – possibly because you have a box which is too big to manhandle – then you will need a way of refurbishing the soil.

The simplest (and a bit crude) way is when you come to replant just dig a hole down to the base of the bed, reload with the classic organic waste, manure and soil mix and spread the soil you have dug out over the bed.

You can dig a hole in different areas at each reload. As I say, a bit crude but it works and is real easy.

You can get a bit more sophisticated and install a compost bin – this is just a container with holes that you fill with food waste and let the worms do the work of distributing the nutrients around the box. Works fine – the only disadvantage is that the bin takes up quite a bit of room in a small box.

The other method is to use the fill tube as a compost bin and pour the water through the mix.

In a bed I use the fill tube to inspect the moisture level in the base but in a Gbiota box you can alternatively simply use the swivel tube to check the water level. I prefer to use the fill tube as there may be plenty of moisture in the soil but no liquid moisture. A day or two without liquid water will kill off all those pesky anaerobic microbes.

Quick and dirty

I know many people go to great lengths to use their boxes to recycle waste organics using waste bins etc. If you only have boxes then there is not much option but I like to use a combination of beds and boxes. Just grow Wickimix in the beds then simply tip the boxes upside down so they are completely empty, then refill the boxes with organics, manure, rock dust and Wickimix.

It only takes a few minutes and the plants really grow well in the fresh soil.