earthtainer water volume

[Dewayne mater]

Raybo:

Do you know the approximate water volume of an empty tainer? I want to put in texas tomato food and my tainers are near dry. If I knew the approximate water needed to fill one up, then I can just put in the TTF and then fill with water. Lots faster and easier than trying to fill the tainer with water with TTF already in such as with an ortho sprayer. We've hit the point that they get dry quickly with big plants and heat coming. Thanks much!

Dewayne mater

PS I almost sent this as a PM but thought maybe someone else might need this info for some reason or another.

[rnewste]

Dewayne,

You can calculate it in cubic inches (length X width X 3.75 inches depth of water, then convert to gallons from there.

Raybo

[Dewayne mater]

I did use the rugged totes from Lowes as recommended in the ET guide. They claim to be 32 x 19 on the sticker, but, at the base, which is where the water reservoir is, the measurements are 26 x 15. So, here is what I came up with using those measurements.

26 x 15 = 390 x 3.75 = 1462.5 convert cubic inches to gallons (google tool) approximately 6.3 gallons.

Thanks for the assist!

Dewayne M

[JamesL]

Dewayne,
So how many tablespoons of TTF are you going to use? And how often?

[SIP Gro-Tubs]

How many containers did you make?

If you had a exterior float valve bucket hooked to a larger reservoir, you could do a Continous feeding system.

Very easy to do, most parts are available at the Big Box Stores.

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Those tubs are 20" dia, tops and you can plant at least 12 plants per tub,

[SIP Gro-Tubs]

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What the customer wants, you give it to them, tried this last year and it worked great, cutting back lanky peppers just insures you more growing tips = more peppers.

[Dewayne mater]

James - I went with what the TTF label said for hydroponics which is 1 tablespoon per gallon. Figuring I had about 6 gallons of water with the Earthtainer reservoirs empty of nearly so, I used 6 tbs or about 40% of a cup. As for frequency, since it is hot and now going to stay that way, I'm going to try using it at each refill for a while and see how that goes. I have a tainer with black and brown boar on one side and Indian Stripe on the other and both are loaded up with fruit and a couple of others also have pretty heavy fruit set, which is a definite drain of resources for the plants. I have pulled maybe 4-5 tomatoes already with BER and I know that calcium is helpful in prevention of that. Since TTF has a lot of calcium, putting that in each watering should theoretically help with BER. I also when ahead any moved my tainers to a location where they get a fair amount of afternoon shade and I think that will help too. Tomatoes don't like 100 degrees and especially in direct sunlight and I believe it can even make calcium and other nutrient uptake more difficult.

Dewayne Mater

[JamesL]

Thanks. I used their Veggie product to start out (top fed) and then gave mine a boost with Dynagro Foliage pro. They took an early beating with the weather, and it appears I took a hit of some herbicide damage as well. The are starting to flower so I was planning the switch to TTF. We have had so much rain I haven't had to water yet other than with the top feed. Although I think all the water helped with the herbicide as they are starting to look better.
I was originally planning to do half with Dynagro and half with Urban Farms but that plan went out the window and everyone is going to get the same treatment.

I was thinking along the same lines, 1 tbs a gallon at every watering, but since there shouldn't be any loss factor in the tainers I was mildly concerned it would be to strong.
Please let us know how it goes. You are clearly ahead of me on your season.

[Virtex]

Full strength everyday is probably too much fertilizer. I fertilize once a week in pots and that is plenty. So divide by 7 for best results. I would suggest you use 1-2Tbsp for the 6 gallons, if you plan on doing this everyday.

If you give them too much they might grow tall but with very few tomatoes.

Good luck,

- Scott

[Dewayne mater]

Scott - fortunately, I'm not going through 6 gallons a day per earthtainer yet! However, one thing that is different about TTF is that relative to most fertilizers, it is lower in N with a ratio of 4.0-2.5-7.0

That said, I have definitely not ever used the TTF at each water refill in the past...more like every 3rd time, so I'm concerned about whether having a liquid fert in the water at all times is going to be too much. It is designed for continuous use in hydroponics. Maybe we can get Urban Farmer can weigh in on it?

Dewayne mater

[JamesL]

Dewayne,
I just went back and read through the TTF thread. Post 39 is on point.
http://tomatoville.com/showpost.php?...5&postcount=39

And as an aside, I did correspond with him back in February. He wasn't to keen on bottom feeding as is our intention, per the possibility of salt buildup. So keep in mind the possible need for a mid to late season top flush.

[Dewayne mater]

James - thanks! I am not quite sure how to read post 39 as it relates to earthtainers. Do you take that to mean every 3rd time you fill the water reservoir, you add TTF at the recommended rate? (1 tbs per gallon)

Although I have fed my plants in previous years with liquid fertilizers as well as using a product called Cal/Mag that is a calcium supplement that helped me with BER, I have never done a flush. Maybe I've been lucky because our season is over here in July and then we can try to hold on to make it happen again in the fall to a lesser extent. Have you done a flush and if so, please enlighten me as to that process.

DM

[JamesL]

Read post 57 too. Fleshes it out a little more.
http://tomatoville.com/showpost.php?...0&postcount=57
I haven't flushed before. Raybo used a product called clearex in the past.
Raybo - do you still use that stuff?
www.botanicare.com/Clearex-P50.aspx
Was thinking just a good flooding top water would do the trick.

I am now wondering if a reduced continuous feed might be easier. 1tps per every gallon (1/3 strength).
My situation is a little different as we continue to get pounded with rain. So I won't have to water, possibly for weeks but I will need to feed. So I might just add 3tbs down the fill tube or continue to top feed.

[SIP Gro-Tubs]

Originally Posted by JamesL

Read post 57 too. Fleshes it out a little more.
http://tomatoville.com/showpost.php?...0&postcount=57
I haven't flushed before. Raybo used a product called clearex in the past.
Raybo - do you still use that stuff?
www.botanicare.com/Clearex-P50.aspx
Was thinking just a good flooding top water would do the trick.

I am now wondering if a reduced continuous feed might be easier. 1tps per every gallon (1/3 strength).
My situation is a little different as we continue to get pounded with rain. So I won't have to water, possibly for weeks but I will need to feed. So I might just add 3tbs down the fill tube or continue to top feed.

Do a continous feeding at 1/4 to 1/3 of the rate that they reccomend as a 1 time feeding.

Don't fall for the hype they are telling you to believe about salt buildups, flushing, etc. Urban Farms is a hydroponic store, they need to make a profit, so the more nutrients they sell you, thier profits go up.

Wick hydroponics has been around for centuries, its even mentioned in the Bible, the Babylon water gardens.

Why don't hydroponic stores, offer Wick systems?

EZ. there isn't any excessive profits to be made with Wicking systems.

No Electricity, No Pumps, No Timers, No Pressurized plumbing is needed for Wicking.

[Dewayne mater]

Sip - I'm using Raybo's earthtainers which are a wicking system or manual hydroponics. They work fabulously and although I also have a soil garden, I plan to keep the tainers going perpetually as well. I've seen nothing to indicate a build of any type exists and quite the opposite. Whenever I feed them anything, I see an immediate response, sometimes they seem to show improvement overnight. (I do use the soiless mix, but, did put in a strip of NPK dry fert back in early March, but I suspect it is spent at this point).

I've decided i will keep using TTF in each refill at a reduced strength. The plants realistically only have to make it another 3-4 weeks till harvest is complete. However, my hope is most if not all the plants will hang around in a non production state until fall, then start producing again. At some point, I'll probably cut them back to see if that encourages new growth, but I think that should be later in the summer.

The other possibility post harvest is to take some stems and root them and start new plants for the fall. My wife's grandmother wrote and article about the for Better Homes and Gardens back in 60s and swore by that method for a second crop in the fall.

Dewayne