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Member discussion regarding the methods, varieties and merits of growing tomatoes.

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Old June 10, 2018   #16
AKmark
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We know exactly what is in the containers, we also can feed them a near perfect solution. I eat the best tasting tomatoes I have ever had since I changed. I think I can contribute that to controlled watering and plant health. I also get more yield than ever before.
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Old June 10, 2018   #17
nctomatoman
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I am moving toward straw bales (as long as I can get a source that is confirmed to NOT have used herbicides - I got bitten by that last year in a few bales). I straw bale, which costs 5 or 6 dollars, is the equivalent of 2 20 gallon containers - think of the cost of potting medium for that. They start out sterile. You can drop them wherever the sun shines in your yard. Last year I got at least 20 lbs of fruit per plant from my Cherokee Purple and Cherokee Chocolate in bales (2 plants per bale). This year I've got 8 bales for 16 indeterminate varieties - also growing a handful of dwarfs, potatoes, beans, squash and cukes in 8 additional bales.

I use containers and bales because my side garden no longer gets sufficient sun....live somewhere for 26 years and the trees get pretty tall!
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Old June 10, 2018   #18
Worth1
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NicolasGarcia View Post
Thank you SueCTposus cometarios.
Worth1 thanks also to you for your comenatarios, I learn a lot from all of you.
Starting from that I am a novice and I have not been long with tomatoes, I have always asked farmers in the area to learn. tomatoville is teaching me a lot, apart from meeting wonderful people who share such a beautiful hobby in different parts of the world.
I try to make a hole in the ground and bury the fruit peels, vegetables, egg shells, sheets of paper, dry boil and ash from my chiemea, I also add cow dung to the ground and I try to disinfect the earth with hydrogen peroxide
I hope you understand me since I work under the translator.
Nico
I understand you perfectly.
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Old June 10, 2018   #19
zeuspaul
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I grow mostly in the ground because it is less work for me. I plant them and then drip water about once every five days (sandy loam soil). Then I pick them when they are ripe.

This year I planted one in a 25 gal container because it was an extra plant. I was hoping for an early tomato. It started of well but the ones in soil are now doing better.

Zucchini is a different story. In the garden either the critters get to them or?? They do well in containers for me so none go in the garden.
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Old June 10, 2018   #20
clkeiper
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I have lived in the same area all my life. four distinct seasons. hot summers cold winters. soil in my area can be anything from dark black humus to rocks and shale and sand or clay. you name it we have it somewhere close. all of us have an abundant source of water. I can turn on my water and let the hose run all. day. long. never notice it. the neighbor has a spring fed pond. we can water our corn from his pond (as it is across the road not within watering distance of our well) and it never drops. we grow an acre of corn... that is a lot of water. I plant 200+ tomatoes along with 200+ pepper plants and fruit trees, brambles and other vegetables on another acre of garden.... we have water and where there is water there is life. we also have the best tasting field grown tomatoes in the country... I have heard. I never understood this until we took a vacation a couple years ago and drove across this nation. there was nothing for vegetation to speak of. We went to the grand canyon where the leaves on a tree were the size of my thumb nail. the petrified forest, the painted desert, to Phoenix Az... all the way to San Diego California... that was approximately 2500 miles... there was no water west of the Mississippi like there is here. along the interstates as we drove it was rocks... piles and piles of rocks. mountains of rocks. hardly anything was green. If this was what I had to work with I would grow in containers too. I can't imagine watering what I grow.... well, I wouldn't be doing what I am doing.
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Old June 10, 2018   #21
NarnianGarden
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For me it simply is the only practical solution. Without containers, I could not have any tomatoes at all (and many other vegetables as well, as carrots)

I don't have huge farmland to use, nor a greenhouse, so utilizing the warm sunny patio and balcony is the option. No worries about the soil quality, as it is new every season. Container gardening is just great!

In the small flower / veggie bed, there is hardly space for all the lettuce and strawberries, as there are many perennial flowers growing there too. Thank God for containers!
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Old July 11, 2018   #22
IronPete
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In my last residence I had both in-ground plants and container plants. When the landlord sold the house and I moved to the townhouse I am now in I was left only with a deck and no soil in site that I could use. I have a variety of containers for a variety of crops. There are negatives but lots of positives too. As the deck is wood my landlord insisted that I have a barrier between the deck and the pots so I have plastic trays with curved sides under a lot and that seems to keep slugs out. I do a lot of companion planting so I have crops like carrots, basil, geraniums, chives and so on in the posts that contain tomatoes which is working well. The end result is to have good food that I have grown so no matter what the approach that I use as long as I get a good result I am happy. I would love to try straw bales like Craig suggested above (I have his book on the topic - good read) but alas, they work better on his driveway then on my wooden deck!

The biggest problem I find with the containers is that I often get more incidence of Blossom End Rot than I did in the ground. I am trying different things to counter that. Also, when the plants get big, if they are indeterminate, the containers will happily fall over in any kind of a wind and as I live on an island there is lots of that, lol!

Always learning, Peter
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Old July 11, 2018   #23
slugworth
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poor soil,lack of space,vermin.
getting to the can't bend over too good time of life.
and you don't have to weed.
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