Vegetables in a pot

Has anyone grown a tomatoe in a large pot that is sitting in a tray of water? That way you would not have to water it. Also, my grandmother would put rocks in the bottom of the pot for drainage.

There's a paid section on Dave's Garden about container gardening, but there's tons of free info on the web. We grew copious amounts of tomatoes, and I mean fruit, in containers last year. All Cherokee Purple. Which I had read you couldn't do. This year I'm trying other varieties as well so we'll see if they fare better or worse as the season progresses. My smallest containers are 10gal. I'd estimate. I snatched them from the side of the road after a landscaping truck dropped them. I have a few 12gal. and 3 18gal I added this year. We did spend about $25 buying tubs for them to sit in.
You don't really want the roots sitting in water all the time so drainage is important.

We always put rocks in the bottom, too. Apparently, the plants don't benefit from that, but I'm not qualified to explain why. There's an explanation of it at the top of the Containers forum.

Some people recommend bottom watering, especially for seedlings. Putting water in the tray at the bottom so that the plant can suck it up, instead of watering into the top of the pot. So what you're talking about doing isn't wrong. I've always been told that you don't want the roots sitting in water, but apparently there's some flexibility with that.

If you have restrictions that prevent you from watering the plant as often as you'd like, you can leave water in the tray. But you would have to go back occasionally throughout the season to refill it. Not sure how often, but maybe the lady here who does it will come along and tell you more. :o)

I grow seedlings in trays of water, but not tried matured tomato plants that way.

There's a paradox when growing in pots...

If you put straight dirt in the pot and it packs down, the plant's roots will die if you give it too much water.

If you use the same kind of dirt, but add lots of drainage material (such as perlite) the roots will be okay, even if you over water.

However, the latter example requires you to water frequently, even as often as three to four times a day.

The difference is "air" - roots need to breathe. It took me many years to learn this 'cause there was no "internet" when I was young, and I had to learn such things by trial and error.

Yes the proper mix is of concern. Good point. This is gonna sound crazy but this is my soil mix. I got about 10 bags each of $1.50 top soil and 10 of the Manure compost hummus, like $1.70 each, at Lowe's. I dumped about half a bag each in a wheel barrow. I then went to my leaf pile and raked back the last few years to reveal the rich, black leaf mold beneath. I piled an equal layer on top of the previous mix. Then I emptied the top soil and hummus bag in another layer followed by a half layer of leaf mold. Then I mixed the hell out of it with a shovel pulling out large debris from the mold and pouring in some clean, salt-free sand into the mix to help with drainage. I just kinda eyeballed it. And I got really great results, I think, for a first year gardener. Container or otherwise.
Last year I actually put a couple of cuke seeds in a couple of the pots and let them do double duty. They did pretty well considering they were an afterthought. Over the winter I discovered another favorite of mine, Baby lima's, actually take nitrogen from the air and fixes it to the soil. So I got some Henderson's Bush and put a few in a few different pots. tomatoes like a lot of nitrogen so I figured "Why not?" BTW - If this is a bad idea somebody let me know now!!

I've got 20 tomatoes in containers in my back yard right now. 4 Cherokee Purple - from my own seed! 4 Lemon Boy, 4 Mr. Stripey, 4 German Johnson and 4 Ox Heart. I think the Stripey and German johnson are supposed to get rather large so this year should be fun! I've got access to 15ft bamboo stakes all day long!

to sum it up - do a little reading, do a little planting, do a little learning and hopefully do a little eating!

Wow Tylersays!

I like your method! I might give it a try!

Tylersays - I love your ingenuity, Tylersays. Whatever works for you - IS the right thing to do :)

I've been learning-by-doing all my life and am still finding new things to try.

I use coke cans for the bottom of my containers. They are so much lighter.
I've bought good potting soil also and some from my old flower beds. Mine are all 5 gal. plus.
I 've grown cukes, peppers and tomatoes in containers.
Vickie

Well the recession was kinda hard on my profession. I WAS a Survey Crew Party Chief who pretty much did subdivisions and construction lay-out. There's not a whole lot of either going on right now around here. For 12 years I worked 60+ hours a week, not leaving much time for anything else. And honestly, after you've spent all week outside it was really the last place you wanted to be on time off. Now I have ample time since I've only been able to find part-time employment at a convenience store. NOT A BAD JOB, JUST BAD PAY! :-( At any rate it now gives me time to do things I enjoy, but little to no money to do them with. The Quickee isn't without perks. I have as much fresh coffee grounds as I could possibly want - get friendly with your favorite store clerks and they'd be glad to save you some, I imagine. Ours are ground fresh minutes before brewing. And my heap smells considerably better now! Plus we have a "touchless laser car wash" and over the course of the last year I've gained the ability to safely collect almost 500gallons of rainwater by getting the plastic barrels the chemicals come in. Soon I'll be getting 2 more 60 galloners!! That'll put me over 500! I love a rainy spring! I'm not flushing the toilet with it but I'm not spending money on water anymore to feed the gardens either! Right now I'm dipping and walking but I plan on Daisy-chaining them together and putting a spigot on the last in line so I can use a hose. And I should be able to do that for only the cost of a spigot, a bushing and a tube of silicone. I can get the PVC for free with some scavenging. I can think of 3 friends right now who have a couple feet of 2" pipe laying around!
Even in better times I was kinda cheap. There's no better way to say it. But now it's really paying off. If I'm able to help or inspire someone to try something it gives me a good feeling. If it works for them I'm ecstatic.
And above I referred to myself as a "first year" gardener. We'll that's kinda a fib. We've had flower gardens for years but veggies weren't something we had time for, we told ourselves. Come to find out - we actually did.

BTW - When growing in pot's if you notice your plants are suffering a deficiency of some sort. blossom end rot, for example, needing lime or eggshells, you'll find the remedy will effect the plants much more rapidly than those in soil since you're treating the plant and not the garden.

cando1 at first I was thinking "How the heck do you get a 5gal pot in a Coke can?" then it dawned on me "D'oh! The cans go in the 5gal pot!" GREAT IDEA!! If only this was 2 weeks ago when I was prepping the containers. There's always next year!

I'm gonna try a Sugar Baby in a container this year also!! I think it can be done. It's not like it's a Charleston Grey, which can go to 25+lbs. I have to find just the right spot.

LOL, I'm famous for confusing people with my non-english.
Would you belive i made an A in college English. What can i say?
I'm from Arkansas.ROFLOL

Tylersays - I am so sorry to read about your layoff :( I work for a local builder and it's such a shame to see good workers having to be let-go :(

As to daisy-chaining your rain barrels. I have an 80 gallon rain barrel, but because it's low to the ground, the water comes out at a snails pace! If you possibly can, I would suggest you get your barrels up as high as possible to give some pressure to the water.

Thanks HoneybeeNC. It is what it is, but it does give you an interesting perspective on things. and it's made me a more resourceful little rat!
As far as the barrels go my plan is to stair step them down from the top. I have a vision in my mind's eye of what I want to do. Now it's just a matter of taking some measurements, gathering the materials and executing the plan. Since you work for a builder I'm sure you know how much good lumber gets tossed out every day on job sites. When the few construction projects that are actually happening around here get revved up I plan on asking the super 1) Got any work? and 2) Can I raid the dumpster at the end of each day? I know a guy who added a room to his house by scavenging job sites!

Tylersays - we don't have a lot of waste at our job sites. If too much of something is left over - we send it back for credit.

I thought you might like to see our web site - my daughter creates and manages it.

http://www.simonini.com/gallery/index.asp

Hi friends,I am new to this nice forum. I am just putting up my first container garden. I need your great guidance.
I start with 5gal container. I wish to go for Tomatos. I have pot mix got from a nursery. Now how do i go about it. What kind of fertilizer I should add to the plant? Please do help with your reply.
narul

Tylersays,
So you're using a regular soil, hummus, and leaf mold mix 1:1:1 in your containers with good success?

Reason I'm asking is because I ordered 2 yards of garden blend for 2 raised beds last fall. I've managed to get some of it into my containers which are usually filled with MG potting mix, coco coir, leaf mold in varying combinations. Now that I've (accidentally) introduced some of that garden blend to some containers, I've noticed the soil gets hard and packed as concrete! I've already killed two squash plants.

I'm interested in "re-tooling" the garden blend so that I CAN safely use it in my containers, since I have about 1/4 yard left. I was advised to purchase vermiculite to aid with drainage. I have access to leaf mold. Coco coir has become cost prohibitive. Would aged horse manure help with fluffing up the blend? There's sand in the blend, which makes it rather "heavy".

Thanks for any feedback you can provide.

Linda

Tylersays: You have us thinking we can make our own planting soil. Does your mixture really work? What about the drainage. Those pots can get pretty heavy with all that sand. Do you water every day or less.

narul, I've grown tomatoes in a 5 gal bucket before. Wht kind of potting soil do you have. Some already have a fertilizer. Make sure you've got holes in bottom of container for drainage.Fill the container with your soil(I put about 5 mashed coke cans for drainage in the bottom.) Bury your tomato plant up to the first leaves. Water with a weak fertilizer solution. I use 1/2 tsp of miracle grow per 5 gal of water. and use it once a week,a cup full at a time.Set the pot where it will get 6 to 8 hours of sunshine a day. Check it everyday for bugs or worms. Good luck
Vickie

Hey Tylersays,

Your approach to the adversity of being laid off would make "Dave Ramsey" proud. (He's the radio/TV guy from Nashville that talks about 'living your wage...advocates cutting up ALL credit cards...living on rice & beans & beans & rice to pay off credit card debt...and more...').

I hope you're able to find full-time work...but glad that you were able to share your venture into vege gardening with us.

Best wishes,
Jann

BTW: We live in area that for some reason 'cabinet makers' have set up business. I drive by and see their garbage containers FULL of scraps and always think that there's GOT TO BE something I could build with those scraps. ???

Behillman ~ the answer to your original question is yes. I ( and others on DG ) grow tomatoes in large pots of fast draining soil, standing in beds of water. With regular applications of fertilizer, the tomatoes develop strong healthy plants and the tomatoes have few issues that would be water related. I've had no splits, no blossom end rot. The roots will reach down thru the soil and into the water thru the drainage ports of the large pots. Other vegetables will grow in this same manner. There are threads on this topic. I will see if I can find some that you can access as a nonmember if you are interested.

Well the soil probably is a little heavy with all that sand but they drain well. A few weeks ago when I was prepping the containers I thought about something to mix in and help with air circulation in the soil itself. There are many choices, vermiculite and perlite being the best and cheapest probably. But I had such good results last year that I just didn't want to "mess with success". Right now watering isn't an issue at all. It's been raining off and on for two weeks already. I wish I could get some good strong sunshine! Now come the summer heat wave we'll probably have to water every couple of days. Last summer it averaged a gallon a pot every 2-3 days. Once a week they get MG tomato food.
It's also worthy to note pot color and shape. The landscape pots I snagged from the roadside are black. And early in planting when some days and nights are still cool this can work to your advantage. They will absorb light and warm the soil and roots and help sustain and promote vigorous early season growth. I have several tomatoes blooming already. The German Johnson and Mr. Stripey both are giving blooms. Now whether they are true blooms and will produce remains to be seen. They might drop off if the plant isn't ready. (But it does the heart good to see them!)
But in the heat of the summer the black pots can be a deficit. They do tend to dry out pretty quickly. In comparison we have several 12gal rubbermaid tubs we use also. I can actually put two "smaller" variety tomatoes in each of those and get good results. These are rectangular in shape and are gray in color. Despite having more exposed soil surface they seemed to dry out slower than the black pots. I'm thinking it has to be the color of the pots making the difference. I also use bamboo poles for supports for the plants. Most have 2 or 3 actually in the pot which also provides an aeration point. As the plants sway in the breeze it works those poles around alternately opening and then closing as it fills back in with dirt. I'm sure this helps greatly with getting air in the pots.

@gymgirl - good baked down manure is always good for the soil. In my part of Virginia our soil is pretty much red clay. It don't drain, it don't breathe. All the gardeners here till in copious amounts of manure just to get that clay to open up and breathe. Leaf mold is also used, but in my experience, really rotted down leaf mold can become kinda silty and will pack down pretty tight. I know the top soil and humus I bought both had sand in them. But the leaf mold I was adding didn't and it clumped easily in the hand but took some effort to break it apart. That's what made me augment it. Sand was something I already had available, so in it went.

@behillman - You can make your own!! There are all kinds of "recipes" on the net. In the years we've spent buying potting soil and planting flowers I've noticed there's not much difference - maybe the fertilizer, but that's about it. However there's a big difference in price!

@honeybeeNC - Awesome!! Not only is the website superb the examples of your companies work are incredible. Surveying is such a double-edged sword. There's no telling how many acres of beautiful natural areas I had a hand in destroying so that homes, condo's or highways could be built. And it always saddened me in the early phases when the homes of innocent woodland creatures were destroyed and the attitudes of most of the people doing the work. Believe me when I tell you I've shifted many a clearing line to save a tree that didn't deserve to be killed. On one private development I was working on we actually spotted an owl flying into a nest in the middle of the day. We made note of the tree and it's location on our survey. Long story short - the designer jokingly mentioned it to the developer and he in turn insisted on a design change to save the tree and nest. I believe he actually named the road after the owl, if i remember correctly.

To all - I wish I had pictures of last years containers, We had Cherokee Purple reaching near 10 ft tall. I will get a digital camera so I can post some pics this year!