Growing large plants in containers

[AKmark]

Hi everyone; I have switched to growing tomatoes in containers, versus raised beds in my greenhouse here in Alaska. The results have surpassed my expectations, however, I think I could do even better if I could remedy some problems.
It has been a scorching summer for Alaska, more than 30 days, or so, of 70-90 degree temps, and inside the greenhouse even hotter. Watering 8-10ft plants in containers has been daunting, especially when trying to determine each varieties needs when they are in the same house(different thread in need to discuss) The first problem was blossom drop with some heirlooms and Brandyboy, most hybrids hardly affected. The hybrids, however had more blossom end rot, where most heirlooms got very little, and to boot some heirlooms had severe fruit cracking after my watering correction.
With that said; I did try and smooth out my watering, less more often, added Cal-Mag., then came the fruit cracks, especially on Caspian Pink. Can this be attributed to the severe heat alone for so many days? I understand the dry medium, wet, then the growth spurt skin elasticity thingy, but my medium seemed fine even moisture-wise.
I'll post some pics later, my yields are huge, in my world anyway, but I hope to smooth out technique or learn some new tricks to make my project better. Thats why I am here.
Mark

[rnewste]

Mark,

You might want to do a quick read of the EarthTainer Construction Guide, especially the Automated Watering System (AWS) section.

http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/pd...tion-Guide.pdf

While I recommend the Lowes 31 gallon containers, you can easily adapt the design to virtually any size container.

Raybo

[tlintx]

This is my first year growing in containers, but on the watering issue, have you looked at the various SIP/SWC options? I'm pretty blown away by how much simpler just filling a reservoir is.

Or the Larry Hall gutter system. That is just about the neatest way to water a lot of containers consistently that I've seen.

[AKmark]

My problem; 1884 no cracks, Caspian Pinks has cracks, but Caspian taste better to me, other varieties have cracks, some others do not, mediums the same. I just wonder about origin of strains and the environment they are tailored for, thought maybe Caspian does not like heat.

[amideutch]

Some varieties are more prone to cracking. Once you get your watering regimen down that should also help with your cracking problem.

Ami

[TomatoDon]

I planted 6 in a raised bed in my back yard, and 24 more in 4 raised beds at the farm. The ones in town were planted a little earlier, and some of the plants were larger, but the growth and production has been amazing. The ones in town are pumping out the tomatoes, and the plants are so big and lush they've taken up the whole bed. Usually if there is a size difference in the early going, by the middle of June here they all are about equal. Not so much the case this year.

The ones in town have produced 47 plump tomatoes, and are loaded and ready for picking again. The ones at the farm haven't produced a ripe tomato yet. It's true, some varieties are different, but there shouldn't be this much difference in production.

I now wonder if the ones in the country were planted just late enough for the heat to be a factor, while the ones in town had started baby tomatoes before the heat got bad. A buddy in Oklahoma says he's not getting any blossoms now due to the heat.

I planted 6 more at the farm this week and have 6 more to plant. I'm thinking about putting them in large containers here at the house, in partial shade to help with the scalding temps, and hope to be able to bring the best ones inside in October when the others are conking out.

I've gone 100% raised beds the past few years. They have some advantages over containers, but containers can be moved, and can be started earlier and can last longer. I haven't done containers in a while, but I think now is a good time to try some more.

FWIW, Raybo here has really helped the world of container grown tomatoes in recent years by his work, experiments, and posts here. I doubt the organic soil people, the fertilizer people, or the container people (manufacturers) have done as much meticulous work, testing, and documentation as he has.

And I still love that shirt Ray! haha....remember that pic from a few years ago?

[AKmark]

I really think most of the problem was the heat, nearly 100 in the greenhouse for many days, and think I should buy a shade cloth in case that ever happens again. I have never experienced that kind of heat in AK in the 30 years I have lived here, and this is also my first real attempt at container gardening after growing in raised beds for 20 years, so I am dealing with an uncertainty factor.
I am getting much larger yields in containers,10-20 gallon, but am not sure why the cracks appeared on certain varieties. I harvested a 2.975lb tomato off a Caspian before the warm spell, that had no cracks, and got rather annoyed by the cracks when they started appearing.
I will make an update on the issue in a couple of weeks, the weather has changed, and will press on to the next topic, pruning.
I used to grow indeterminates like vines, but in the last few years allowed forking of the stem, now up to 4 times, because I want fruit asap in AK during a season. However... I had a few that were monsters, few tomatoes, just tree-like plants(a particular Mrs Maxwell's comes to mind). The plant would not stop dropping its flowers, whole trusses empty, and it was a healthy, just massive plant, I called "the great tree," but the tree only had 5 tomatoes. Anyway, I finally just chopped the tops, and planned on letting a sucker from lower on the plant take over as the main growth. Instantly the plant set more than 50 tomatoes since I stopped upward growth, and the sucker is now 3ft. Anyone else do this, other than fall time, with results?

I have also began training big plant tops back down towards the container to see if they out produce those growing continuously upwards, which if bound by gravity requires alot of force upwards of nutrient and water to reach 8-10ft. I also have let some grow to 5ft or so and then are letting the plants grow horizontially, unpruned, hoping the many tops will produve tomatoes on shorter stems. What pruning tricks have others done? What were your yields?

[AKmark]

I gew Brandywine Red, Heirloom, Sudduth's, OTV, and BrandyBoy side by side this year and this is my two cents. Heirloom and Sudduth's taste seems interchangable and are my favorites, BrandyBoy is as good as the other two but the yields are insane.
A pic of a Sudduth's, left, and BrandyBoy, right, going into some Cassarole tonight.

[SharonRossy]

I'm impressed! I always grow mostly in containers and have better results. Cracking can be a problem with container growing because of moisture levels. I had a lot last year with a scorching summer and then if it rained, cracks started. That's why I don't prune leaves to help protect the fruit. This year all we have had is rain and now high humidity. Finally getting some fruit but its going to be a late harvest the way it's going.

[kenny_j]

Many varieties split as they approach full ripeness and get a good rain or watering. I always pick anything close ahead of rain to avoid splitting, they finish ripening on the counter and taste is just as good as fully vine ripened. Water sparingly when ripening.

kj

[rsg2001]

The last 10-15 years I have grown tons of large tomato plants in SWCs, but when it is very hot you have to be very consistent about checking the water, as I've found on the hottest days a mature plant will use most of the water in the reservoir.

I have found certain varieties don't do quite as well in the large containers as others, but varieties such as Eva Purple Ball, Marizol Purple, Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green, have done very well in them. Most of the gigantic cherry tomatoes like Sungold, Black Cherry, Honey Drop, Green Zebra Cherry also do well but again you have to be aware to not let them get dry. Black Cherry tends to get early blight when its in the midst of heavy bearing, but I continue to plant them in this manner because I still get great yields. Last year, Golden Jubilee looked like it was going to bear out the wazoo, but it had such terrible blossom end rot issues that I lost dozens of tomatoes. I do find they do better with some dolomite mixed in with the soil before you plant.

The only other challenge is getting a cage tall enough to contain the growth. I use some sturdy cages from the catalog Gardeners Supply, for which you can buy extensions. I am not handy like many of the people on the board with building my own.

[AKmark]

Here is my Blk Cherry in a 20 gallon SP, my kids call it the "Jack and the beanstalk plant."

[amideutch]

Mark, what types of ferts are you using on your containers and how often do you apply.

Ami

[AKmark]

Amy I use a continuous feed fertilizer called Flora Nova Bloom, besides the obvious it has 4 percent calcium and 2 percent magnesium, more than cal-mag supplement. The results have surpassed anything I have tried in 20 years of tomato gardening, but I also greatly improved my environment. In AK everyone always tries to tailor tomatoes to work in our environment with our 50 something degree nights, forget it, adapting environment to suit the tomatoes needs is easier.
BTW I moved my thread to the container section and will continue to report there.

[TomatoDon]

My problem with the garbage-can type plastic containers is that they won't last long in the sun. I bought a lot of them a few years ago and by the third year they were getting brittle and breaking apart. I probably had 30 of these and now they are all unusable.

I'm guess you can probably make a burlap blanket to wrap around them, and this would protect them from direct sun and heat. It would also help keep the temps in the soil from overheating.

Contrasted to the old tried and true black plastic nursery containers there is no comparison. I recently pulled out some 15-30-40 gallons containers I've had for at least 20 years. They are still as strong and in tact as they were when I got them.

We need to get a manufacturer to make tomato containers.

DS