My Cave on Nov 26, 2013
 

Here's a shot of my cave as of today.

The plant on the far left is a Celebrity I salvaged back on Aug 11. [URL]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=29691[/URL] It is in my "Multifunctional PVC SWC" that is still cranking out gobs of mediocre (I consider Celebrity to be a mediocre tomato) Celebrities, but they are fresh and better than the grocery store's. :lol:
The 2nd from the left plant is a Black Opal that continues to kick out delicious Black Cherry types.

The 3rd is a Yellow Pear that is prolific, but many of the fruits are mealy. I'm trying to figure out how to make delicious Yellow Pear tomatoes before the plant succumbs (if ever).

I attribute the hardiness of these 3 plants to Texas Tomato Food (TTF). TTF covers a multitude of sins against tomatoes.

The 3 orange buckets on the right side are my rendition of the Alaska Grow Bucket system. They are interconnected and have a reservoir that is just out of the picture. The 2 buckets on the left side are growing 2 varieties of snow peas, and the one on the right is just now going to receive a Tommy Toe sucker I pruned on Oct 30. I also have a Box Car Willie sucker I am trying to figure out how to incorporate into the cave.

I wish I had dwarfs instead of these big ones, but my planning was off.

I'm using Sunblaster T-5's with Nanotech reflectors and Incandescent Gro lights. I rigged up light stands out of PVC for the Sunblasters.

My short range goal is to have fresh tomatoes for Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Charley

[QUOTE=Salsacharley;381826]"You Quote"
The 3 orange buckets on the right side are my rendition of the Alaska Grow Bucket system. They are interconnected and have a reservoir that is just out of the picture.
Charley[/QUOTE]
Could I ask for information regarding your Alaska Grow buckets? You say "my rendition"? Could you explain please? What differences have you made to the originals?

The only significant differences between my rendition of the Alaska Grow Buckets and the originals are that I don't use colanders inside the buckets, and I incorporated a bit different plumbing.

Instead of colanders I use the top halves of Costco's rotisserie chicken containers. I drill a hole in each side of them and put them upside down in the bottom of the buckets to act like the colanders do. I didn't want to have to buy colanders for each bucket and since I had the containers (I used to feed my wolf Costco rotisserie chicken and I saved the containers...I use the bottoms for trays...I've got dozens). I used Target's reuseable shopping bags and they fit very snuggly over the Home Depot buckets. I am going to test a bucket using no bottom support at all with the Target bag because I think that it is so tight that it can support itself it.

My plumbing is a take off of LDS preppers SWC's. I would have used his "in-line" plumbing and eliminate the need for elbows and T's, but I originally had this system outside before it got too cold, and my space in the original configuration required the reservoir to be off-line from the grow buckets, thus requiring elbows and T's.

Here's a shot of my plumbing.

Charley

Nice setup you have there Charley, does it really get that cold in New Mexico? I've never been out West so I have no idea.

Tonight's forecast is 27 degrees F, today's high was 48. We had snow for 2 days this past weekend. My house is at 6,000 ft so it gets a bit cool in the winter. I'm in zone 7.

Nice set-up...how many tomatoes are you getting from the plants?

Thanks FaithHopeLove and Alfredo.

Since transplanting the Celebrity into the container on Aug 11, I have harvested 6 perfectly round, red tomatoes that weigh about 6 oz average. I only harvested them because I left the container outside back in October and the wind blew it over. Those tomatoes broke off the plant, so I just put them on the counter and they ripened over the next couple of weeks. The plant still has about 30 tomatoes on it and none had shown any ripening until I brought it inside last week. Now there are 5 ripe ones and many more showing blushing. I expect I'll be getting a pound or so per week for a while from the Celebrity. It is still flowering and putting on new growth like an indeterminate. The bottom of the plant has now got about a foot of new growth.

The Black Opal has about 60 tomatoes on it and it continues to flower and set fruit too. It has some issues now with a funky wilt that turns leaves crispy. I just take them off and new growth and flowers continue to show up. I get about a half pound of tomatoes off of it per week. They are really tasty.

The Yellow Pear produces much like the Black Opal. I get about 1/2 lb of tomatoes from it per week, but they are mealy if I don't use them as soon as they get yellow.



Charley

Cave Update
 

Here is an update on my cave since Nov 26. The temperature in my cave gets no higher than 65 degrees so I decided to enhance the climate for my plants by enclosing the three SIP's in a growing chamber. I simply expanded the light stand by raising the top 2 Sunblasters to about 6'4", and expanding the sides to create a 2' depth.and incorporating 3 more vertical Sunblasters in front, then surrounding the entire 3/4" PVC cage with Enerflex Reflective Thermal Barrier.

Now the temperature at the bottom of the chamber is 83 degrees, but the top of the chamber is 100 degrees if I leave the top covered, so I vent the top to get the temp down to 90 degrees. I need to install a fan or something to lower that temp more.

So far all the plants love the light. I stuck in a Yellow Pear sucker I took a couple of weeks ago, and I added a Valerian sprout I just sowed, plus I stuck a couple of Spider Aloe's I just transplanted and will give as Christmas gifts.

The Tommy Toe is looking pretty good, flowering and growing well. The snow peas also look good, but there is some yellowing on their leaves, probably due to too much fertilizer.

I think Tommy Toe is one of the toughest tomato plants ever.

My 3 big plants (Celebrity, Black Opal and Yellow Pear) are pretty much done in. I got 5 1/2 lbs of absolutely perfect Celebrity tomatoes last week and it still has more ripening, but I'm done trying to maintain these plants because they've got spider mites and who knows what else.

Charley

Your plants look great Charely! Very healthy.

nice work

NICE!!!

Greg

SWC?
 

"My plumbing is a take off of LDS preppers SWC's."

I know about LDSPrepper but what is SWC? How is his and how is yours?
Thanks.

Nice plants

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

Thread from the dead 4 years old.