How I'm growing in buckets - and a garden (pic heavy)

[KathyDC]

Hi Tomatoville!

First, a huge thanks to all the fine people here for sharing your knowledge, sometimes your seeds, and always your good cheer. Every time I visit, I find something interesting and informative and I have really enjoyed my time here.

This season is my first really attempting to grow tomatoes. I had one plant last year, Aunt Ruby's German Green, grown from a seedling that a friend gave me. This year I'm growing 14 different varieties, all but one of which I grew from seed.

Our backyard is terrible clay soil, filled with brick, rocks, glass and who knows what else. We didn't have the time to build up an amended bed for growing, but I didn't want to miss a growing season for tomatoes, so my solution was to use 5-gallon buckets with holes cut out of the bottom, inspired by this (http://annieskitchengarden.blogspot....ole-in-it.html). My reasoning was that way they'd get good amended soil inside the bucket, but hopefully not be stunted by being able to root down through the hole.

I've just set the buckets down on top of the ground, though, they aren't sitting on top of a raised bed. And their method of anchoring was a little too intense for me, so instead I have screwed eye bolts into the sides of the buckets, and pounded 6' round resin and steel poles down through the eyes to keep them from tipping over (a tip from a thread here on Tomatoville). I'm using two tomato cages per bucket, lashed together with zip ties (I've only got about half of the second cages in place at this point, though.)

I have 10 tomatoes in 5-gallon buckets, with the rest being determinates and dwarfs in 5-gallon grow bags.

For my growing medium, I'm using a mix of potting soil, vermiculite, leaf compost and peat moss, with TomatoTone scratched in. I also feed weekly with Texas Tomato Food.

So far, five plants are fruiting: Valencia, Greek Domata, Sprite, Dingwall Scotty and Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye. Here are a few pictures of my plants and my setup.

Buckets with cages and supports.

Good look at top cage, and bags.

Dingwall Scotty fruit

Sprite fruit

Greek Domata fruit

Valencia fruit


Kathy

[nolabelle]

Hi Kathy,

Nice set up you have there. Mine is somewhat helter skelter with two tomato plants in 20" pots on a table next to the carport. My yard has heavy clay soil and more grasses than you can shake a stick at. Insects abound. Hence the reason I'm moving my garden to the cement.

I had luck on the carport with herbs (first time) so I figured why not tomatoes? We were late planting the two that I have, only last Saturday. So far so good. I haven't fertilized anything yet. I'll give them a week or so to settle in. I've been watering in the wee hours of the morning because I leave early for work.

Great pictures too! I'll take some pictures if my container tomatoes are successful.

Also, since I'm new here, I'd like to thank everyone for the wealth of knowledge there is in this place. It's amazing how much there is to know about tomatoes. I've only begun to scratch the surface! Good luck!

[KathyDC]

Thanks! I'm guessing from the name that you're from NO. One of the tomatoes I'm growing this year is Creole, and looking forward to seeing if it tastes as good as it does down south. (My other half is from New Orleans so this was a must-grow.)

Kathy

[nolabelle]

I'm actually in a suburb of N.O., but close enough to call it home.

Since I started late this year with tomatoes, I picked some sturdy looking seedlings that might survive, including Big Beef and Husky Cherry Red.

Stepson planted a Creole by the back fence about a month ago. It has a couple of small fruits on it and plenty of flowers. Not sure what they'll taste like in your neck of the woods... hopefully just as good as they do here!

Good luck!

We lived in Southern Louisiana for about fifteen years. I loved it, but I had to plant my tomatoes by mid February or the summer heat would kill the plants before I got any tomatoes. The high humidity also promoted every fungus you can think of. When anyone in southern Louisiana said they were growing Creole tomatoes, they only meant they were growing varieties which would live and produce in the severe summer climate. I was once watching chef John Folse prepare a dish and he said he would be using some "Creole" tomatoes in the dish. He held up some tomatoes of various colors and varieties.

I miss all the great New Orleans restaurants. It was also pretty standard that any little roadside restaurant usually had some really great food.

Ted

[nolabelle]

Hi Ted,

I love Chef Folse and I agree that anything he calls "creoles" are heat tolerant Louisiana grown tomatoes. However, the big box stores sell plants specifically labeled as "Creole". They produce a medium sized, fairly dense tomato with a purely tomato flavor. I admit that I like other varieties as well for growing, but I'm game for any good tasting tomato!

[KathyDC]

Yes, I noticed that in some cases anything grown there can be "Creole" tomato -- but, there actually is a Creole variety tomato in the USDA seed bank that was developed by LSU Baton Rouge as a heat and humidity resistant variety.

My other half tells me that the creoles are already in grocery stores down in New Orleans at $.99/pound. That's enough to hurt my feelings -- we have two fruits setting so far, and they're just in the early stages. Grow, grow!

Kathy