I am new to gardening, started in concrete blocks late fall, built an elevated box. Then SWC's were mentioned on a post and I had to ask what the acronym stood for. Tom Mobley clued me in and gave me a site to see how to make them. Tried a couple of boxes, but really liked the idea of recycling 5 gal buckets. Collected some drywall paste buckets and make some single bucket ones, ie use lid to make a false floor (screen) with 1/4 inch holes in it for air to get to "soil".

Bought Ed Smith's SWC book and looked at the container forum where I learned about Al mix. Decided to comparison test the the two mixes. It is too early to give a definitive answer.

I put a bonnie big beef plant in Ed's mix and had not located pine fines so it has a jump start over my later side by side testing.

Here is a 2 pics of the Bigbeef at 4 weeks and almost 8 weeks. The plant is really impressive when you consider that there is probably less than 3.5 gal of soil. It now has over 25 tomatoes on it and is blooming and growing like heck. It consumes over 2 gal of water per day!

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this pic was at 4 weeks.

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this pic is at 8 weeks (do not be confused by the plywood, it is front of the BB in first photo, but is to the left of it in next one.

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Some of the BB's near the bottom, there are actually larger ones up in the growth, but hard to make a pic of those.

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Have now started to use the two bucket SWC exclusively. Tom M brought me some BK pickle buckets and I collected some more dry wall buckets. They provide more water and soil volumes and are much easier and quicker to make.

A side by side comparison of Al's mix 5 pine fines, 1 peat, and 1 perlite with 1/4 cup of 14-14-14 CRF mixed in along with some lime. I gave the new brandywine plant a shot of MG since there is some time period until CRF will take effect. Some folks use the lid with a plant hole in it, but I prefer to mound the dirt up and put a black plastic cover on it.

For comparison an Ed Smith mix ( 45% peat, 45% cow compost,10% perlite) was planted with a sibling brandywine into a 2 bucket also with 1/4 cup of CRF and lime. No MG was added to it since the cow compost is immediately ready for use until the CRF kicks in.

Here is a pic of the two 10 days after xplanting to the SWC from 6 inch clay pots.

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The Ed's mix on the right got out of the chocks quicker and has a significantly larger stalk and larger greener leaves. Too early to really draw a final conclusion.

Have a couple of earlier comparisons, but not nearly as controlled at the one above. In one with Big beefs, Ed's is clearly the winner and in one with the romas, Al's has the advantage, but not nearly as large as the difference in the Roma's.

Will post a follow up as things develop.

bernie