Containers Growing ?

[korney19]

Yeah, it makes you wonder if it's worth growing them or just buying them!

[Nan_PA_6b]

My sister digs fresh soil from her back (wooded) hillside each year, mixes in some dead leaves, and grows. I give her plants that have a little eggshell & Osmocote in their 4" pots. Period. This year, she got fancy and added some Tomato Tone to the dirt. I suppose she's getting a lesser harvest than you guys, but it can be done. Price & quality are a tradeoff.

[zipcode]

But you can use the container for like 10 years and the medium for like 5. And the drip irrigation also (which is not mandatory).
If you go inorganic it gets quite cheap especially if you buy those haifa/yara 25 kg sacks. Organic is probably more expensive (getting cheaper lately).

[GrowingCoastal]

Originally Posted by korney19

Yeah, it makes you wonder if it's worth growing them or just buying them!

Depends on how much you would need to pay for the same quantity and quality of tomatoes you get. I come out ahead if I compare what I would have to pay and I get much more variety than I can buy here where heirlooms cost at least $4.00/lb.

Anything like a drip system or pots is a one time only cost.

Time? Well..... but I enjoy growing plants.

[AlittleSalt]

If I would have bought everything needed at the same time - the cost would have bothered me a lot. We have been buying what is needed over the past year of time (July 2017-now) We also use coins saved and aluminum cans recycled as a way to pay for gardening. I can't tell you how many times I have seen younger people at the grocery stores and Walmart saying "Keep the change, I don't want it." to the cashiers. They don't get that coins start adding up quickly. We have a piggy bank that my wife and grandchildren counted out over $400 the other day and none of it is paper money.

[Nan_PA_6b]

This year I asked for gardening supplies for my birthday. Very fun & no guilt about the expense.
Nan

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

If I would have bought everything needed at the same time - the cost would have bothered me a lot. We have been buying what is needed over the past year of time (July 2017-now) We also use coins saved and aluminum cans recycled as a way to pay for gardening. I can't tell you how many times I have seen younger people at the grocery stores and Walmart saying "Keep the change, I don't want it." to the cashiers. They don't get that coins start adding up quickly. We have a piggy bank that my wife and grandchildren counted out over $400 the other day and none of it is paper money.

All the scrap wire off the job goes to my millennial co worker.
Probably got enough to buy a jon boat here at the house.

Worth

[Worth1]

Oh by the way this is why I said let the soil rest.
This allows the tomato roots to rot and go away.
In my humble opinion I see nothing to gain from trying to grow more tomatoes this summer.
Wait and put some tasty cool weather treats in this fall.
In other words just chop the plant off at the soil.

Worth

[SueCT]

I throw all my change in quart plastic container. When it gets near full I have over 100.00. It sure does add up. I never pay with change, I pay with bills and throw the change in the container. It is a nice little bit of change at least a couple times a year.

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Oh by the way this is why I said let the soil rest.
This allows the tomato roots to rot and go away.
In my humble opinion I see nothing to gain from trying to grow more tomatoes this summer.
Wait and put some tasty cool weather treats in this fall.
In other words just chop the plant off at the soil.

Worth

Chopping the plants off at the soil is what I did basically. I left a few inches of the stalk which makes them look like a 5 gallon bucket with a pumpkin stem sticking out at the top

I know the roots will decompose - especially because they are so thin compared to RKN contaminated roots from in-ground plants of years past. Letting them decompose will actually prove to be beneficial (In my mind) because if I tried to remove the roots now - I would lose some of the mix. (I'm still trying to learn not to call it soil or dirt.)

Marsha also wrote about solarizing containers which combined with what you wrote... Moving those containers out in heavy sun and putting 13 gallon trash bags on them sounds like solarizing and root decomposition all-in-one.

If this summer proves to be like May and June - it's going to be a hot one. Accuweather is on behind me. NOAA is saying upper 90s for the week ahead. Accuweather is saying 100+F every day. Both are saying humid, and it is.

[korney19]

Originally Posted by Nan_PA_6b

My sister digs fresh soil from her back (wooded) hillside each year, mixes in some dead leaves, and grows. I give her plants that have a little eggshell & Osmocote in their 4" pots. Period. This year, she got fancy and added some Tomato Tone to the dirt. I suppose she's getting a lesser harvest than you guys, but it can be done. Price & quality are a tradeoff.

That sounds great, I'm getting tired of doing container mixing every year, but I don't have a wooded hillside---I'm in the city and there are many limitations, even composting's restricted. I have about a 15x50 strip that was originally lawn, and the garden now spread onto the driveway where there's actually more plants there than the raised beds on what was the lawn.

Each year I make multiple trips to the suburbs for compost and horse manure. I even sold my Blazer to get a pickup to get compost! Then I added a Loadhandler to make it easier to unload when I got back home. Now the place I used to get a load dumped into the bed 'til it was overflowing for $15 got sold to a topsoil company that sells a cubic yard for almost double now! Heck, I might as well sell the truck & buy a Blazer again! Must be nice to have trees to get humous & leaves or lawns to get grass clippings!

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Marsha also wrote about solarizing containers which combined with what you wrote... Moving those containers out in heavy sun and putting 13 gallon trash bags on them sounds like solarizing and root decomposition all-in-one.

Robert, Barb_FL did an experiment with both clear and black plastic for solarizing, The black got the inside contents to 109F, the clear got the temp up to 132F. Much better with the clear. The black absorbed the light, the clear let it pass through. Classic greenhouse effect. I never use black plastic anymore. Also no white, that would just reflect the light.

[Worth1]

So clear trash bags it is.

Worth

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Robert, Barb_FL did an experiment with both clear and black plastic for solarizing, The black got the inside contents to 109F, the clear got the temp up to 132F. Much better with the clear. The black absorbed the light, the clear let it pass through. Classic greenhouse effect. I never use black plastic anymore. Also no white, that would just reflect the light.

Originally Posted by Worth1

So clear trash bags it is.

Worth

Marsha, I do pay attention Barb's experiment with the different colors of plastic is a proven fact. Remember that I did solarize the 45' x 45' garden with clear plastic. I did a whole lot of research along the way.

Worth, now where am I going to find clear trash bags? Everyone wants to hide the fact that they are human.
I had already written clear plastic for solarizing on our grocery/household shopping list for this week.

There are some links out there where it says to paint the clear plastic...? Some that say to leave the plastic on until it deteriorates ...? No, I'm not going to paint plastic nor am I going to leave it there to grow in.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

...Worth, now where am I going to find clear trash bags? Everyone wants to hide the fact that they are human.

https://smile.amazon.com/Hefty-Recyc...c+garbage+bags