Colin Austin © 14 March2024 This document is published under the Creative Commons system which means that it can be copied and republished without further permissions but the author Colin Austin @ gbiota.com must be recognised.
Gbiota boxes – made easy
Why?
Developing a simple Gbiota box for people living in apartments has been the focus of my development work – Why?
The world is very different to when I was born. Back then infectious diseases were the biggest health issue. We were obsessed with germs, they had to be eliminated at all costs and adopting a chemical approach, swapping manure with chemical fertilisers, toxic sprays and antibiotics we have been successful in killing them.
What we failed to appreciate at that time that we were also killing of the beneficial microbes in our gut which form part of our in intelligent control system which has resulted in non-infectious or chronic diseased being the biggest health problem across the globe.
The first technical challenge was how to control the harmful germs without harming the beneficial microbes.
Nature has taught us the principle of Eco-balance, simply create the right conditions so the good microbes out compete and out breed the harmful ones. That is the essence of the Gbiota technology.
For people with a garden and some growing skills this is easy and is already widely adopted but the epidemic of chronic disease affects everyone, particularly the majority of people living in cities, probably in an apartment.
In the future I can see a system where people living in an apartment can just order on line a Gbiota box, with plants already growing and have them delivered to the door and requiring little effort other than watering.
But we are not there yet, these local growers need to see a demand so I need to develop a user base of city dwellers. Once there is a user base with these early adopters, there will be a clear demand for growers.
So here is the simplest way of making a Gbiota box which is perfectly practical for anyone with a bit of pioneering spirit, or not wanting to have a foot amputated from diabetes.
Selecting a box
There is nothing magical about the box, I know there are many Wicking boxes on the market, often at high prices, but what matters is the soil not the box – almost any box will work fine.
The main considerations are depth and size.
About the minimum depth for a box is 200mm and I doubt if many people will be growing a giant red gum in a flat so I see no point in making it deeper than 300mm. Most of my boxes are just 250mm and even then I don’t fill right to the top.
There is a lot of nutrient in the Wickimix (the soil in the Gbiota box) so there is no need for a massive root system.
Many people make large Wicking Beds (and Gbiota beds are just a version of Wicking boxes) but the reality of life is that the box is a closed system and the soil will deteriorate with time . This is much easier done with a small box than a large box (see gbiota 101).
My preference is for a 30 litre box and leave an air gap of about 50mm from the top which I can lift with a level 1 grunt, but it depends how strong you are.
There is nothing special about the box but it needs to be UV resistant and reasonably tough. You can buy a suitable box and fittings from from any hardware store.
Drill a hole as low as possible in the centre of the box
Clean the hole to make a good seal.
Insert the grommet
Apply a little ‘oral lubricant’ to the fitting
Note there is a small and large ridge, the small ridge goes into the rubber grommet
A little wriggle and a big push and she is in.
Fit the swivel tube assembly, make sure the swivel is rotating from the plastic pipe and not the grommet.
Cut a length of slotted ag pipe so it fits neatly into the base of the box.
Drill a large hole for the vertical filler pipe.
I used to just bend the pipe but this way you can see the water level in the box, this is important for irrigation scheduling.
We are going to have two filler pipes, one for water the other compost. I tried all ways of handling waste that could be used in a flat but the flies beat me so I went back to the old compost tube system.
I put a layer of organic waste in the base, grass clippings are great, but use whatever you can lay your hands on.
Now I load the nutrient mix, this a combination of manure, rock dust and trace minerals.
Next job is to add Wickimix which is the growing medium where the plants will put down their roots. Wickimix is made by microbes converting dirt into living soil.
My aim is to encourage local growers to produce Wickimix for sale but in the mean time people can initially fill their boxes with commercial potting mix which will be converted into Wickimix by the microbes. More details in the articles on soils and inoculants.
The box is then seeded in the normal way but as the soil is full of nutrients seeding can be more dense than normal.
Initially I top water so the seeds germinate but later most of the water will be applied from below.
The key to the Gbiota system is controlling the moisture level. If it is left full of water for any length of time harmful microbes will breed.
The swivel tube is used to drain the box. We call the liquid that drains out ‘soil blood’ as it does the same job as blood does for us, circulate nutrients and oxygen around our bodies.
If you look at soil blood under a microscope you see it is full of microscopic creatures.
As the soil blood drains out it suck fresh air into the soil but to ensure there is no stagnant water the box is left for a period after draining.
Organic waste is loaded into the compost tube and capped with Wickimix (or soil) and if needed worms then flooded with soil blood which pushes the nutrients into the base of the box.
Soil blood be applied to the plants as nutrients and microbes will be absorbed by the leaves.
We apply a fixed volume of soil blood at every irrigation typically 15% of the soil volume. We use a highly sophisticated device for this called on old milk bottle.
We are into recycling.
We control the amount of water input by varying the irrigation times. If I am at home I will drain shortly after irrigating but if I need to go away I can leave the draining until I return which increases the time between irritations.
Controlling the moisture and nutrients levels is the core of the Gbiota system, there are many articles on this website on this topic and I am always writing fresh articles.
You can always contact me at colin@gbiota.com