Props to @Old-Ron, this was a great topic and read. I love all things SIP (earth boxes, city pickers, octopots), which is what led me to read back through this whole thread to begin with.
But I’m kind of surprised no one here really branched-out on the DIY path more…
By recycling some materials that you may already have, you could assemble your own “Earth Box” for less than $20 with double even triple the volume.
2 plastic totes (18 gallons totes were $6 at my local Menards)
Plastic container (recycle an old yogurt container or similar)
PVC pipe, long enough to span the depth of the tote + some.
Zip ties
Tool(s) of choice to poke and cut with
Based on the size of your tote, first determine your desired reservoir size (I went with 5 gallons). Fill a 5 gallon bucket and dump it into the tote, mark the water level on the tote.
Measure that water level from the bottom, add an inch and cut one of your totes to that height.
Insert the cut tote into the uncut one, inverted. Should be a nice tight fit. (If it’s not, ensure you’ve got totes that nest together without tapered contours)
Take the cut tote back out because now you have to cut holes for your wicking columns and punch more holes for air.
Find a plastic container the same depth as your reservoir (the tote you cut in half) and cut a hole out of your res the same size as the opening of the container. (reference image)
Secure the container to the res with zip ties (inverted, like in the image). This creates the main wicking column.
Take your PVC pipe and cut a hole in the corner of the res the same diameter. Then insert the pvc and cut to desired length. (this is the fill tube)
Now punch a crap ton of tiny holes all over the top of the res. (I personally don’t like the size of the holes pictured in this particular example, they’re too big. Should be small enough that nothing falls through easily) Also punch tiny holes in the container. (reference image)
Last thing is to drill the overflow/drain hole through the side of the totes. Same concept as the EB, the hole should be at the appropriate height to ensure an air gap is present in the res. (not in the image, but here’s a cut-away image of the same concept)
