Container Gardening Update, End of September

I've been eating cherry tomatoes every day for a few weeks now.  The plant that produces the most fruits is the one in the indoor 5-gallon bucket described in a previous post.  The biggest problem indoors is positioning the bucket/plant so that the 8-10 foot high vine can grow and still get sun from the window.  So far, so good.  The plant grows up the window, winds over the curtain rod, and heads back down.  :)

The "bush" (determinate growth) tomato plants are looking good, but producing very few fruits.  None of them are in 5-gallon buckets; the largest container is a 2.5-gallon bucket.  So again, it looks as though five gallons is the minimum size container for tomatoes...unless, like me, you don't really care if you get only a few fruits at a time from the plant.

The strawberries were raised from seed, and frankly, I didn't expect to get fruit this year.  [There's no need to bury the tiny seeds when planting; watering buries them sufficiently.]  To my surprise, they are fruiting...not yet ready to eat, but on their way.  Most of the plants are in an old cat litter box/tray/whatever it's called.  There are no drainage holes punched in the bottom, so I have to be very careful with watering.  A few plants are in much smaller containers (e.g., a large Miracle Whip jar with the narrowing top cut off) with holes in the bottom and a catch basin for drainage.  All the plants are thriving on the back porch.  They'll be moved inside in a few days because of upcoming freezing nights.

The garlic plants are looking great, and are in a variety of containers on the back porch.  Primarily they are in the small dog food bags described in a previous post.  The drainage catch basin (secondary containment) is the bottom half of a gallon milk jug...that can be cut using ordinary scissors.  Use any knife with a sharp point to make a starting slit in the side of the jug.  The 3.5 pound dog food bag appears to be the perfect height/depth for planting and raising garlic.  Harvesting & curing garlic is explained in numerous video clips on YouTube.  Mine aren't yet ready to harvest.

The basil grows well in almost any size container, and indoors or outdoors.  I raise it strictly for its aromatic quality...I don't cook at all, but love the smell of the plant.  My basil plants are both indoors and on the back porch, and they're all doing great.

The spearmint plants are growing, but slowly.  They are in a wide variety of containers on the back porch...soon to be moved indoors.

Still eating sunberries...what an easy plant to raise.  Just remember---if the berries are still a shiny purple, they're poisonous and shouldn't be eaten.  Once the fruit has a dull purple color, it's ready to eat.

Still have a total of 50+/- containers...believe me, it's great fun!  My next post here will be about composting...am using a formula that should produce spectacular compost in a pile in the backyard.

Happy Container Gardening, and Be Well

Cherry Tomatoes Have Arrived, an Update

I've been eating sunberries for some time now (they grow like weeds), and about a week ago the first cherry tomatoes (the fruits) arrived.  They're not yet big enough to eat, but it won't be long.  The best ones are on a plant in a 5-gallon bucket that has a half banana and coffee grounds buried about halfway down in the soil.  That half banana includes the skin, but it wasn't cut up or crushed.  I also lightly sprayed the surface of the soil once a week, starting when the plant was about three feet high, with a solution of greatly diluted white vinegar---about 20 parts water to one part vinegar.  That was done to:  control some tiny, little bitty black flies (a tad bigger than a gnat) that appeared on the soil & the plant; and, to acidify the soil just a bit.  It seemed to work on both counts.

Most of my other tomatoes are on the back porch (a long, open, covered structure with a railing made of 2 X 4s), but several have remained indoors in my "sun room"...including the plant in the 5-gallon bucket.  It has never been outside, is not under any special lights, and was the first one to fruit.  As an experiment, that particular 5-gal bucket had no drainage holes punched in the bottom.  I was very careful with watering... and it worked out fine.  [Probably dumb luck.]

The garlic, strawberries, basil, and spearmint---all in much smaller containers---are coming along very well.  Half are on the back porch, and half in the "sun room" (which only has direct sunlight about four hours per day).  With all the plants, the container total is a little over fifty.

I tried to post a photo here of the cherries, but the Tech Whiz Kids who designed the editing template for this venue don't know how to give directions to a No-Tech guy.  :)  I just couldn't make out how to do it.  There is part of a photo at the top of my YouTube Channel page.  It shows one cluster of five fruits out of a total (so far) of four clusters.  That's all I could fit in the available space.
https://www.youtube.com/user/ScottHaley12
They look great; have a gander.

Happy Trails, and Be Well

"PART 3: Container Gardening"

I finally made and posted the video, "Part 3:  Container Gardening"---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBQ2neI3p3g .
It contains transplanting tips, a few unusual containers, and more.  Enjoy, and garden on.

Happy Trails, and Be Well

Loaded With Gardening Information

Below is an email thread, a conversation amongst myself and two people I consider to be Master Organic Farmers.  They were responding to my last post here, "Progress Report", and to my comments.  I think you'll find the discussion valuable in relation to gardening in general.  [I suppose it makes sense to start at the bottom of the thread, but either way, you'll get it.]
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Thanks, Dixie, for your thoughtful reply...as usual, a treasure trove of info.  You and my friend, Alex (in CA), are Master Organic Farmers in my eyes.

My plants (not just tomatoes) definitely are not under-watered; however, your guess about being "babied" is right on the mark.  [Blog readers:  "babied" here means grown indoors.]  The tomatoes have not been properly hardened...that's a big part of the problem.  Although, in my various experiments, it's not really a problem.    [Blog readers:  for those who may not know--- "hardened" or "hardening" of plants is explained at the end of this post.]

As to container size, a couple of those you saw in the photo (coffee can & small cup) are not the final homes for those plants.  Also, on a few plants, I'm going to see if the plants will produce any fruit when they are basically rootbound.  As I mentioned to Alex, I don't really care if my 'maters produce poorly...not even if it's only 1 - 3 fruits per plant.  The ones in the dog food bags and small buckets are in their final containers...just to see how they do.  I have only one in a 5-gal bucket...it was the first one to fruit.  I consider that the minimum size container for a tomato plant.  But the challenge for me is to find some combination of sun (indoors), organic fertilizer that's homemade, and watering schedule---all in a smaller container---that will produce a modest amt of fruit.  For me, that's the fun part of indoor gardening.  Essentially, I'm trying to discover a new way to raise tomatoes on a very small scale.

As to winter, you're right...that will be a challenge beyond all challenges.  Although, in the 3 winters I've been here, there was a lot of sun in my one "sun room".  We'll see what happens.  If it can't be done yr-round, I'm betting it can be done at least 3/4ths of the yr.

Thanks again for taking time from your busy schedule to reply.

p.s.  Kudos to your Hubby for building a greenhouse.  Am trying to convince my son in CA to do that.  We had one in the State of WA; that's definitely the way to have a small garden.  

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Hi Scott,

The sun is probably hard on your tomatoes because they are in containers and using up their water faster than you can water them. Looking at your pics, your containers are pretty darn small for tomatoes.Tomatoes are thirsty plants!  When you think that a healthy tomato plant’s roots can go down 4 feet deep in the right soil, then your tomatoes are going to be limited by how far their roots can reach. Tomatoes like uninterrupted growth. When their roots hit the pot that contains them, they stop or slow down growth; the roots have to go down for the stems to go up. When I am starting tomatoes in the greenhouse in spring, I will transplant into bigger pots as soon as I see the roots have hit the bottom of the pot. Having too small of a pot will limit how much water they can drink and of course they will wilt in the sun.

 

I grow everything under the sun! Literally! A half acre of veggies all in the direct sun at 7600’. I do put shade cloth on things right after they are transplanted  to prevent shock and some cool weather lovers( lettuce, kale) enjoy shade beyond that time, but tomatoes are certainly not shade-lovers! They need all that intense sun to do their thing. Hours and hours of it. The high elevation sun has never been a problem for my tomatoes, but then I have not often grown in containers. I would never use shade cloth on tomatoes.

The problem here is more the cool nights, especially after the monsoons set in. It’s hard for them to set fruit when the temps are in the 40’s. So I have gone to indoor growing for my ‘maters. They grow 8 feet tall and put on loads of fruit in the little greenhouse that Sunny built. I’ve got about 75 plants in there , determinate and indeterminate, cherries and paste and huge heirlooms. I do also have some outside, in direct sun for 10 hours,  but they do not do as well as the indoor ones by far. But my “indoors” gets about 10 hours of sun right now.

 

If your tomatoes are wilting in the sun, then they either have not enough water or they are being too babied and havent been hardened off enough to take the sun. Anything that spent most of its life in the shade would wilt when exposed to the high elevation sun here.

 

If your plants are not getting enough light in the middle of summer, I wonder how you will grow through the winter???? We grow tomatoes in a greenhouse in winter but it’s a stretch. You would definitely need grow lights and even then......questionable.

 

Enjoy your experiment!

Dixie

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I hear you, Pard, & mostly agree; however...

1.  I don't care if they produce much.  I have about 30 tomato plants (only a small portion were in the photos), with more seedlings popping up every week or so.  Am shooting for almost yr-round tomatoes.  No weeds, insects, birds, or wind indoors...except for a tiny black fly that's on the soil surface in most of my containers.  Am killing that with much-diluted white vinegar.

2.  Most of mine are vine, not bush 'maters; they're kinda spindly anyway.  [As I said before, when I planted mostly Cherry tomatoes, I had no clue that Cherries mostly were indeterminate...or that "vine" tomatoes even existed:]

3.  The closest thing I have to a control are the 'maters on the covered back porch...about 4 hrs of direct sun per day.  So far, they're doing about the same as the indoor ones.  Although, at this altitude (7600 ft), the sun is so intense that it plays hell with them...not beyond the wilting point, but right at it.  I have to shade them as best I can, usually by moving them farther back, closer to the wall of the house.  Even then, they need gobs of water to prevent wilting.  When in direct sun outdoors, they get limp as a wet noodle...even with max water (but never over-watered).  I don't know how my friend, Dixie, can have tomatoes in the sun for 8 hrs here...even if she has a shade cloth (or whatever they're called).  Compared to say, 5,000 or 6,000 ft, the sun here blisters (not literally) plants like crazy.

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Healthy tomatoes require adequate light.I'm sorry to harsh your mellow, but the tomatoes are spindly,and will not produce much.If they were outside, in a window box, they could do so much better.Your nutrient sources are adequate for the low demands of low light plants, in a real world test, things could get interesting;)

We just canned 11 gallons of juice for my 12 Oz daily glass of mater juice.We can 50 gallons of juice made with a Victoria juicer powered by a 1/2" variable drill.The quality of the Roma tomatoes this year is like paste. It just piled up on the collector under the strainer.Very little juice, just solids.Making sauce will be easy this year:) 

I wish you had an outside test for a control, for quality, size, and flavor.

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For anyone reading this Blog who may not know:
1.  The "control" in an experiment is the NORMAL situation; and,
2.  "Hardening" of plants simply is gradually acclimating them to a new habitat or situation.  [So, for example, when moving seedlings outdoors, the first day leave them out for perhaps only an hour or two, the next day a bit longer, the day after that even longer, and so on.]

Happy Trails, and Be Well 

Progress Report

See the 1st two photos in the left-hand column here---

[Google keeps moving them around, so one might be in the left column & the other in the right column; in any case, it's the 1st two posts not counting the Art at the top of the page.]

https://plus.google.com/u/0/106763144425245415836/posts

The 1st one shows a dog food bag planter & various vine (indeterminate growth) tomatoes.  The 2nd one shows my 1st two fledgling tomatoes (the fruit) of the season.  Be sure to read the Description above each photo.

Container gardening is fun & rewarding...& all you need to augment the potting soil is a banana, coffee grounds, Epsom Salt, and a little diluted low-fat or no-fat milk.  Those five items plus some plant litter on the soil surface should supply all the nutrients your plants will need.  A little compost is good, too, but not particularly necessary if you use potting soil.

I haven't yet made & posted the YouTube video ("Part Three...Container Gardening") mentioned in the previous post on this Blog... am working up to it... it's a genuine hassle for a No-Tech guy like me.  :)

Happy Trails, and Be Well

The Dog Food Small Bag & a Note Regarding This Blog

In a previous post, I mentioned the use of a dog food bag (a small one) as a garden plant container; the bag should have a mylar lining, some other waterproof lining, or be made entirely of a waterproof substance.  I now can report that such a bag (3.5 to 5.0 pounds of food, or so) works very well, especially for garlic or tomatoes.  Punch holes in the bottom for drainage, fill the bag to about 2 inches from the top with potting soil & a little mulch, and place it in the bottom half of a gallon milk jug for secondary containment (to catch excess drainage).  The 3.5 pound size fits perfectly into the bottom half of a milk jug.  For larger bags, you'll have to find some other secondary containment.  That setup gives you some nice container depth for a transplanted seedling.  For garlic, I think it may work as the final container...am running a test to see if that might be true for tomatoes as well.
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IMPORTANT note regarding this particular blog---
We've been up & running here for about a month and a half.  This is the seventeenth post, and thus far, there has been very little interest.  Consequently, I'm forced to cut way back on posting here...just don't have the time for something that appears to be going nowhere.  I'll still do it now & again, and I thank all of you from North America and Europe (primarily) who have been visiting.
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Within a week or so, I'll be posting a video on my YouTube Channel showing more plant containers (& their residents:)...including a few dog food or dog biscuit bags.  Will let you know with a link.

Happy Trails, and Be Well

Part Three: Gardening Containers... and Fertilizer Tips

End of Gardening Containers---

6.  Any suitable plastic jug... following the instructions on previous posts, simply cut off the top, cut holes in the bottom for drainage, and supply a catch basin (saucer, tray, lid, or a slightly larger, shorter container) for excess drainage.  We've used everything from empty coffee cans---including metal ones---to various empty cleaning fluid/liquid containers.  With something like a vehicle windshield washing fluid jug, be sure to rinse thoroughly.

7.  Plastic tubs of varying sizes... the Dollar Store, Family Dollar, and other stores have fairly inexpensive tubs.  With the larger ones (they range up to 18 - 20 gallons), you'll have to drill holes for drainage.  Often the plastic is either too thick or too hard & brittle to cut with a knife.

8.  Galvanized metal tubs... a bit pricey when new, but often used ones can be found at yard sales, on Craigslist, or at Swap Meets (Flea Markets) at very reasonable prices.  If they don't have holes in the bottom, you'll have to drill some.

9.  Buckets/pails...from 2.5 to 5 gallons...like large tubs, these too are the final homes for your plants.  My organic farmer friend in California, Alex, thinks that three gallons should be the minimum size.  I'm experimenting with 2.5 gallons and so far, things look good; but Alex is probably correct.  We have to be careful that the plants don't get root-bound from lack of space; if they do, usually they don't die, but production of fruit is greatly reduced.  If the bucket is smaller than 5 gallons, usually you can cut the drainage holes with a knife.

10.  The very best containers, of course, are the old terra cotta clay plant pots...all sizes.  Unfortunately, there are some HUGE disadvantages:  the cost; plus, these pots are relatively easy to break; and, in this day & age, they are somewhat difficult to find.  The main advantage is that they breathe...air goes in & out of them through the sides.  If you can find some used ones that aren't cracked or broken (at a reasonable price), grab them up.

Beginning of Fertilizer Tips---

Potting soil is very rich in plant nutrients, but it's somewhat limited because it's isolated in a container; in other words, there's no source of additional nutrition coming into the container naturally.  So as nutrients get "used up" (incorporated into plants), there's no animal waste, very little, if any, green manure from dying/dead plants, no runoff from hillsides, etc. to replace what's gone from the soil.  Therefore, depending on the size of the container & how soon the plant will mature (& other variables), it's often a good idea for us to add certain nutrients to our container soil.  It's best to stick with natural fertilizer whenever possible, as follows.

Just before you plant seeds in a tray or cup(s) for germination, add the following to the soil (bury these things) in your largest containers...the ones which will be the final homes for your plants:
1.  ground up or crushed eggshells (a source of calcium);
2.  used coffee grounds (a source of various nutrients, including calcium); and
3.  a sliced up banana with the skin on it (a source of various nutrients, including potassium).
Work all that well into the soil.  In a 5-gallon bucket, that won't take more than five or so minutes at most.  By the time your seedlings get large enough to be transplanted into the large containers, the organic fertilizer material you added to the soil should be at the point of becoming humus.  The nutrients then will be released slowly to your plants.  [Depending upon a bunch of variables, some unknown amount of these nutrients may not be plant-ready until the next season; therefore, preparing these final buckets 6 - 8 months in advance isn't a bad idea at all.  Another option is to bury a whole banana and a whole egg about six inches down in a 5-gallon bucket...8 or so months before germinating in different containers.]

More on fertilizing next time.  Happy Trails, and Be Well