Are 5 Gallon Grow Bags Big Enough or Sq FT garden?
 

Hi All,

I have seeds from a few smaller varieties. I would like advice on where to plant these varieties:

Epoch
Puck
New Big Dwarf
Latah
Sophie's Choice

I have room for these varieties in my sq ft garden and in 5 gallon grow bags. I am leaning towards the sq ft garden because last year many of plants died in the grow bags due to the heat here in Sacto.

In the square foot garden, can I dedicate only one square to any of these varieties? I would definitely be interplanting other types of plants (possibly bush beans basil, nastursiums, etc) between the tomato plants.

Also, any opinions on Epoch and Puck would be great.

Thanks.

Angelique

Angelique=Puck is a very small plant, dwarfish. Sophie's is the same, even smaller than Puck.

Angelique- One square should be big enough for Puck, New Big Dwarf and Sophie's Choice. The only one of those three which might be a problem is NBD; sometimes it gets bigger than expected. I'm just ordering Epoch this year so I don't know about it, but it is supposed to be a bush type (per the Sandhill catalog), so it should be OK . Sandhill doesn't specify a size for Latah, and I'm not familiar with that variety. i would plant something short in the square next to the tomatoes for ease in harvesting.

Elizabeth

Latah is a compact plant.

Angelique, No way NBD is going to grow in a square foot. I grew it last year and it was as big as Neves Azorean Red and Chucks Yellow beefsteak. No Joke. Ami, doin it on the other side of the pond.

Thanks for all of the valuable information. Any opinions on taste would be great.

Michael- Have you ever grown Latah? How was it?

Elizabeth

Elizabeth-I did grow it, but it was started very late for my fall garden 2 years ago-started in September or a little later and it produced, but I cannot say I gave it even close to a fair shake. It was a small plant, determinate I think, but didnt get appropriate sun and didnt do much for me.

By the way, I sent you an email last night about seed.

All the best, Michael

New Big Dwarf gets pretty big, but I grew mine in a 5 gallon bucket. Taste was great. I really like this one and will grow 2 or 3 plants of this year. Same for Sophie's Choice. Very good tasting, good size and production for so small a plant.

Just curious, can citron compact, lime green salad and stick be grown in my sq ft garden? The bed is only 1ft deep so I think that I might have problems with stick (roots).

Angelique-Never grown in a sfq-but surely lime green salad can easily. CC, I think. Never grown stick.

Stick should do great in a SFG. I grew three in a row at the end of a 4 ft wide bed. Very ornamental and lots of tomatoes, but I wouldn't grow it for the taste, if you're trying to get the most out of your SFG.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v163/MizTortuga/Tomato%20varieties/stickPole.jpg[/img]

Super. I might give Stick a go. I had about 10 seeds left from last year. I started them yesterday. Depending on how many emerge, I'll keep a couple for myself. Last year, Stick was a big hit w/DH's coworkers.

Thanks again. So far, I plan on planting the following in my Sq FT garden:

lime green salad
citron compact
stick
epoch
sophies choice
puck
latah

Should I also add Kootenai?

I also plan on growing, Dwarf Cherry Rose Nasturtiums, 5 varieties of bush beans (9 per sq) and edamame (??? per sq) in the Sq Ft garden. Hopefully, they can all coexist happily.

Since, I have 27 squares are should I add any other short growing veggies/flowers?

In addition to having the sq ft bed, I also have:
1. 4x30' zukes and cukes this year

2. 7x4' (nematode problems/ will try tomatoes again. I added a lot of composted to this bed over the year.

3. 9x3' allium bed (will be used for cukes)

4. a few grow bags (5 gal for peppers, 12 gal for tomatillos)

5. DH will be making me 6 homemade earthboxes for tomatoes.

I hope this info. helps for suggestions.

My tomatoes did horrible in the grow bags last year. I don't plan on giving them another try. I think that I will be brave and try miniture white cukes, Minnosota Midget, Charentais (seeds wer free/why not) and sakata sweet melon in the 12 gallon bags.

I have my Sophie's in two-quart pots. Because I wanted to see what's the smallest pot I can put them in.

They seem to do OK, I have gotten a few nice fruits, the only thing: I need to water then at least once a day.

dcarch