Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Newbie here with deep horse trough container. Can it work?

squirrel789 · May 20, 2015

Hello all,

I copied and reposted this from the "townhall" page, I hope that's OK because I wasn't sure how to move the thread (if that's even possible). I also edited a little.

Anyway, I'm a newbie to serious container gardening and am very curious to hear any feedback on my tomato method this year because it's a totally new experiment for me. Sorry for the long post, but I thought I should explain as many details as possible.

First of all, I love good, home-grown tomatoes more than any other vegetable. I've helped my dad grow around 120-150 tomato plants per year on his farm for the past 5-ish years (trying lots of different varieties). He always used his own, pretty standard methodology of trench planting, 2.5' to 3' spacing, cattle panel supports, and lots of cow manure and straw mulch. He didn't ever stray from his methods (which probably include a few superstitions too) because that's what he had always done, and he usually had pretty darn good yields. Unfortunately, now he is in his 80's and just can't keep up with the big farm gardens anymore, and I just can't do a big 100+ plant garden at his farm hours away by myself due to work and time restrictions... so I am stuck growing tomatoes at MY place this year.

I live in a space without a "real" garden spot. I have a big yard and land, but very little light as most of the place is all forest, and the only place I get the required amount of sunlight (6-8 hours) is on the back patio. I have successfully grown all sorts of flowers, interesting plants, herbs, greens, indeterminate cherry/salad tomatoes, and one or two patio varieties in big pots (usually around 6-8 gallons) the last several years with decent to good success. I used a vegetable MG potting mix and occasionally supplemented later with slow release MG tomato "shake n feed" with calcium added.

This year I am trying something completely different - my own tomato garden with the big indeterminate varieties I've always loved, but in a container on my patio. I've seen some excellent setups with buckets and string, but I had already bought the containers I'm using, so I'm trying to make them work.

I acquired two new 170 gallon Galvanized horse troughs, drilled a ton of good sized holes all over the bottom, and added heavy duty castors for (relatively) easy movement on the patio. As the patio is partially shaded, I figured making them movable could help them get the right amount of sun or shade, as needed, to grow but also avoid the sunscald that hot MO summers bring to plants with light foliage. Being 2' deep by 2' wide and 6' long, I am hoping I can grow the nice big, indeterminate vines my dad and I used to grow. The real experiment is whether I can grow the number of plants I want in this small space (again 170 gallons), and whether the 2 foot "soil" depth can provide adequate root space for the big double or maybe triple-vined plants I hope to achieve.

For the "soil" I made a growing medium from roughly 2 parts good, local nursery compost, 2 parts store-bought peat moss, and 1 part vermiculite, and mixed it pretty well. It's light, loose, and doesn't feel even remotely compacted like regular soil, even when drenched. Oh, and there's a thin layer of river rock on the very bottom to aid in drainage and a layer of weed guard to help prevent loss of the growing medium when I water. Also I mulched with cedar chunk mulch from the nursery, as I was told straw could cause weed issues.

So, here's the question. Given the details above and the planting strategy I will describing below, is this a viable project? Can I finally get a good yield of great-tasting indeterminate tomatoes from a giant container on the patio? Here's the basic strategy:

I planted a total of 8 plants in one container (varieties include cherokee purple, ultimate openers, better boy, jetstar, pink lady, and a golden jubilee). I planted them offset, meaning the plants aren't directly across from each other, but planted in a zig-zag pattern thinking it would give the plants a little more space. They are spaced pretty tight with plants not much more than a foot apart in this zig-zag pattern. I bought tall, healthy young starters grown at a local nursery, stripped off all the bottom leaves/branches and planted them straight down into the "soil" a good 14+ inches, with a nice healthy-looking 4 inch top sticking up out of the ground.

With with enough really good fertilizer, like the Urban Farms Texas Tomato Food I have read about here, a soaker-hose irrigation system on a timer, and meticulously careful pruning to keep them to two well-supported vertical vines per plant, is it possible I can hopefully make this work and actually get a good yield?

I have read about the square foot garden folks that grow huge single-vine plants in a single square foot, but most I've seen online look like they have barely any foliage. So, for greater yield and to reduce the chance of sunscald from sparse foliage, I was planning on two vertical vines (or more if possible).

I've installed what I hope is a good, stable vertical support system. I have what is basically a hog panel zig-zagged between the plants, some stakes stabilize the panel, and a network of twine. Also, I put one very tall stake around the middle, thinking that if this actually works and the vines grow tall, I can run more strings or attach some sort of additional support up higher. It's not the prettiest thing to look at, but all I care about are good tomatoes

I am pretty well-practiced at proper pruning techniques and have grown plants with usually 4 main vines (in the big garden at the farm), as well as some not pruned, crazy-tangled-all-over plants before, so I do have some experience with that part of it. Am I crazy, or can these bigger varieties grow so tightly packed together if fed and watered well enough, and with very careful pruning and support?

Any thoughts, criticisms or advice are very much appreciated. I have already learned much from reading through the forums, and I feel lucky to have Tomatoville as a resource! I plan to have these planters for while and so I hope to tweak the system over the coming years. Thanks!

I am taking lots of pics and would love to share if anyone is interested.

May 20, 2015	#1
squirrel789 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2015 Location: SW Missouri Zone 6b Posts: 121	Newbie here with deep horse trough container. Can it work? Hello all, I copied and reposted this from the "townhall" page, I hope that's OK because I wasn't sure how to move the thread (if that's even possible). I also edited a little. Anyway, I'm a newbie to serious container gardening and am very curious to hear any feedback on my tomato method this year because it's a totally new experiment for me. Sorry for the long post, but I thought I should explain as many details as possible. First of all, I love good, home-grown tomatoes more than any other vegetable. I've helped my dad grow around 120-150 tomato plants per year on his farm for the past 5-ish years (trying lots of different varieties). He always used his own, pretty standard methodology of trench planting, 2.5' to 3' spacing, cattle panel supports, and lots of cow manure and straw mulch. He didn't ever stray from his methods (which probably include a few superstitions too) because that's what he had always done, and he usually had pretty darn good yields. Unfortunately, now he is in his 80's and just can't keep up with the big farm gardens anymore, and I just can't do a big 100+ plant garden at his farm hours away by myself due to work and time restrictions... so I am stuck growing tomatoes at MY place this year. I live in a space without a "real" garden spot. I have a big yard and land, but very little light as most of the place is all forest, and the only place I get the required amount of sunlight (6-8 hours) is on the back patio. I have successfully grown all sorts of flowers, interesting plants, herbs, greens, indeterminate cherry/salad tomatoes, and one or two patio varieties in big pots (usually around 6-8 gallons) the last several years with decent to good success. I used a vegetable MG potting mix and occasionally supplemented later with slow release MG tomato "shake n feed" with calcium added. This year I am trying something completely different - my own tomato garden with the big indeterminate varieties I've always loved, but in a container on my patio. I've seen some excellent setups with buckets and string, but I had already bought the containers I'm using, so I'm trying to make them work. I acquired two new 170 gallon Galvanized horse troughs, drilled a ton of good sized holes all over the bottom, and added heavy duty castors for (relatively) easy movement on the patio. As the patio is partially shaded, I figured making them movable could help them get the right amount of sun or shade, as needed, to grow but also avoid the sunscald that hot MO summers bring to plants with light foliage. Being 2' deep by 2' wide and 6' long, I am hoping I can grow the nice big, indeterminate vines my dad and I used to grow. The real experiment is whether I can grow the number of plants I want in this small space (again 170 gallons), and whether the 2 foot "soil" depth can provide adequate root space for the big double or maybe triple-vined plants I hope to achieve. For the "soil" I made a growing medium from roughly 2 parts good, local nursery compost, 2 parts store-bought peat moss, and 1 part vermiculite, and mixed it pretty well. It's light, loose, and doesn't feel even remotely compacted like regular soil, even when drenched. Oh, and there's a thin layer of river rock on the very bottom to aid in drainage and a layer of weed guard to help prevent loss of the growing medium when I water. Also I mulched with cedar chunk mulch from the nursery, as I was told straw could cause weed issues. So, here's the question. Given the details above and the planting strategy I will describing below, is this a viable project? Can I finally get a good yield of great-tasting indeterminate tomatoes from a giant container on the patio? Here's the basic strategy: I planted a total of 8 plants in one container (varieties include cherokee purple, ultimate openers, better boy, jetstar, pink lady, and a golden jubilee). I planted them offset, meaning the plants aren't directly across from each other, but planted in a zig-zag pattern thinking it would give the plants a little more space. They are spaced pretty tight with plants not much more than a foot apart in this zig-zag pattern. I bought tall, healthy young starters grown at a local nursery, stripped off all the bottom leaves/branches and planted them straight down into the "soil" a good 14+ inches, with a nice healthy-looking 4 inch top sticking up out of the ground. With with enough really good fertilizer, like the Urban Farms Texas Tomato Food I have read about here, a soaker-hose irrigation system on a timer, and meticulously careful pruning to keep them to two well-supported vertical vines per plant, is it possible I can hopefully make this work and actually get a good yield? I have read about the square foot garden folks that grow huge single-vine plants in a single square foot, but most I've seen online look like they have barely any foliage. So, for greater yield and to reduce the chance of sunscald from sparse foliage, I was planning on two vertical vines (or more if possible). I've installed what I hope is a good, stable vertical support system. I have what is basically a hog panel zig-zagged between the plants, some stakes stabilize the panel, and a network of twine. Also, I put one very tall stake around the middle, thinking that if this actually works and the vines grow tall, I can run more strings or attach some sort of additional support up higher. It's not the prettiest thing to look at, but all I care about are good tomatoes I am pretty well-practiced at proper pruning techniques and have grown plants with usually 4 main vines (in the big garden at the farm), as well as some not pruned, crazy-tangled-all-over plants before, so I do have some experience with that part of it. Am I crazy, or can these bigger varieties grow so tightly packed together if fed and watered well enough, and with very careful pruning and support? Any thoughts, criticisms or advice are very much appreciated. I have already learned much from reading through the forums, and I feel lucky to have Tomatoville as a resource! I plan to have these planters for while and so I hope to tweak the system over the coming years. Thanks! I am taking lots of pics and would love to share if anyone is interested. Last edited by squirrel789; May 20, 2015 at 03:39 PM. Reason: typos...