My Tomato Jungle
 

For my first year of both indoor seed starting and tomato growing, I am conducting both a side-by-side comparison of different types of growing vessels (EB, 5-gal shop buckets and an 18.5 inch decorative container) and ten different red tomato varieties - for a total of 11 tomato plants and 10 vessels.

I have two EBs (set up as containers only) holding a total of 4 plants with a mature height of about 3 feet; there are 6 5-gallon shop buckets, each with one plant (max. heights vary from 18 inches to 5 feet) and 1 5-gal shop bucket with two plants (max. height roughly less than 12 inches); the decorative container contains one plant with a maximum height of 4.9 feet.

This is a picture of my Tomato Jungle.

Very nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice! You went all out on the EBs, even their trellising system. I think you are going to have a great harvest.

Nice set-up!

I finally see what an Earth Box is. cool setup

Looking good! Keep us posted. Best of luck!

They look extremely healthy and happy-I'm sure you'll get a great harvest!

Thank y'all for your kind compliments. . . but I'm afraid they're undeserved.

This evening, I was struck by the sight of unhealthy leaves in my little domain. At first, I thought it was just ONE plant, but the closer I looked it's THREE plants! Bottom ones in 2 shop buckets were mottled yellow and one of those buckets also had "pebbly" / goose-bumpy leaves on the bottom & on the top (the other leaves on that plant are flat and green). In addition, most plants were a light-er green for their upper third.

:o

Here's some pics; I'll also post in the Q&A forum for HELP!!!
:panic:

HERE'S the pics!!:o

I'm going to keep an eye on this thread. I'm curious as to what this might be. Maybe something really simple? The 4th and 5th picture shows leaves discolored that I haven't seen before.

are the buckets selfwatering? then its not a fair competition with the EBs. :)

I think interveinal chlorosis is an iron deficiency.

I found this link on an older TV post. Good pictures and description of tomato nutritient deficiencies.
[URL]http://www.haifa-group.com/knowledge_center/crop_guides/tomato/plant_nutrition/nutrient_deficiency_symptoms/#{2F8FBEB6-D2D1-42A1-A01A-956B741717D4[/URL]}

The buckets are NOT self-watering. May 1 was plant out: the first day EVERYTHING was planted outside in their final place.

You REALLY wanna talk "fair" re watering??

ALL vessels (EBs included) require watering twice a day. The shop buckets and the decorative container have 1" red rubber mulch on top of the growing medium and are top watered: May 1, they took 1/2 cup and yesterday, 4 cups (that's for EACH watering). The EBs started out (May 1) taking an eighth of a gallon twice a day; yesterday, they required a few ounces short of 1/2 gallon: both in the morning and again, in the evening.

I EXPECTED that the EBs would NOT require twice daily watering like the shop buckets and decorative container, so watering was to be a factor NOT included in my experimental design.

For my career (I'm retired now) I designed, conducted and statistically analyzed experimental results. For more information regarding this experimental design, please send me a private message.

Thanks, ginger...and Miller for the link to nutritional deficiencies...I'm going RIGHT NOW!