New tomato strategy: all containers. Thoughts?

[Scooty]

What was the verdict? You like MG or Pro Mix?

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by Scooty

What was the verdict? You like MG or Pro Mix?

All brands produced the same results which were good. That's why I mixed them together this year.

[zipcode]

Container growing certainly requires more work, that's the biggest downside. But if you got better results, go for it. The mix should have a fairly long fiber peat to keep structure a longer time.

[Dewayne mater]

I grow in some of Raybo's earthtainers and in the ground. The earthtainers soil medium warms faster, so I get larger plants and production faster as compared to in soil tomatoes- a major plus in a hot climate like Dallas. I am a bit concerned about the two plants intertwining at the top - interesting. Want to see how that works.

I would suggest that if you need to travel, you will also want to have a video camera on your containers. When it is hot and the plants are larger, they can easily need refilling on a daily basis. You'll know if they run dry because they immediately start to wilt.
Also, see if you can find a way to shade the containers themselves from direct sun. When it is hot and the sun is hitting them directly for hours, the roots will heat up enough that nutrient uptake is limited and you end up with a significant amount of BER. But, if you shade those roots and keep them watered, BER is not an issue. Good luck!

Dewayne mater.

[GoDawgs]

We grow tomatoes exclusively in containers set on pallets now to avoid bacterial wilt in the garden soil. The pallets seem to keep the fire ants from invading the buckets.



We use 10 and 15 gal nursery pots and get a nursery mix type potting soil by the cubic yd from Bricko farms for $40/yard, which fills the back of the pickup. It's so easy to back up to the pallets, fill the buckets right off the back of the truck and handtruck them to the pallets. The tops get mulched with leaves.



The soil drains well so once the roots fill the buckets they require daily watering. My sister Pickles is in charge of growing the tomatoes and she gives them Miracle Grow once a week or every other week.

Wow, quite the operation.
Haven’t had fire ants get into my grow bags ... keeping a really close eye out.

How do you keep the cages from blowing over? Are they anchored somehow?

[Tomzhawaii]

Go Pickles. That looks awesome. Keep diggin find the gold.
Aloha, Tom

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by GoDawgs

We grow tomatoes exclusively in containers set on pallets now to avoid bacterial wilt in the garden soil. The pallets seem to keep the fire ants from invading the buckets.



We use 10 and 15 gal nursery pots and get a nursery mix type potting soil by the cubic yd from Bricko farms for $40/yard, which fills the back of the pickup. It's so easy to back up to the pallets, fill the buckets right off the back of the truck and handtruck them to the pallets. The tops get mulched with leaves.



The soil drains well so once the roots fill the buckets they require daily watering. My sister Pickles is in charge of growing the tomatoes and she gives them Miracle Grow once a week or every other week.

Great way to do things. I am always saying containers with a barrier under them make all the soil borne issues go away.
Are your cages made from concrete reinforcing wire? How do you keep them from toppling in a high wind? We drive firring strips through our cages but outside the container, and very deeply into the soil. Sort of a footer.

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Great way to do things. I am always saying containers with a barrier under them make all the soil borne issues go away.
Are your cages made from concrete reinforcing wire? How do you keep them from toppling in a high wind? We drive firring strips through our cages but outside the container, and very deeply into the soil. Sort of a footer.

The cages are each made from 5' of field fencing, 6" x 6" mesh, 40" tall which makes cages about 18" in diameter. Two cages are stacked on each other per bucket and tied together in about four places where they meet.

There are two 8' poles run through the cages down each side of the row and the cages are tied to the poles. Then the poles are tied down to the pallets on each side of the row. There are also several places where the two poles are tied together. Note lots of orange baling twine tie points everywhere!

There's nothing driven into the ground but this rigging has yet to blow down. It would have to be a gale force wind to upend the whole thing including the heavy pallets as everything is tied together making one big unit.. I don't expect that to happen as there are trees around that area acting as a windbreak. Never say never, though!

[Koala Doug]

Nice!

I battle the wind each and every year.



FYI: I always lose. Ha ha ha

[Shrinkrap]

I grow dwarf project tomatoes in Earthboxes, because I live on a clay slope with lots of tree roots. These are about six week after planting out. They HAVE reached 4 to six feet tall (including container and wheels) and they HAVE blown over if I let them dry out. Last year I added the automatic watering system, which was a bit of an investment, but I think it saves water which is important here in California. I had them on twice a day drip irrigation on a timer before that, and some boxes would spill from the overflow, while others ran dry. I arrange them in afternoon dappled shade. It is often triple digits here in the afternoon, from May through October.

For most of the last eight years I followed the Earthbox instructions and used Tomato Tone, but recently I've been reading about the perils of organic fertilizer in containers, and using liquids or both. Still struggling with this, so I'm interested to hear others results.

Good luck and keep us updated!