Stunted growth?

[elight]

This year, I planted four tomato plants, two in an EarthTainer and two in 5-gallon SWC buckets (all with the same EarthTainer-recommended potting mix). The EarthTainer plants are doing great. The ones in the 5-gallon buckets are doing "OK". The problem is that they--a Sunsugar and a Jet Star--stopped growing vertically about 2 weeks ago. Whereas the Supersweet Millions in the EarthTainer is about 8' tall, the Sunsugar stopped at about 5' tall. I grew the Sunsugar last year, and it was much bigger.

Could this be a product of the heat wave? Is it something I need to be worried about?

[kevn357]

How often do you water and fertilize? I never grew in a 5 gallon bucket but I would assume one would need to water often and fertilize even more. I feed my 30 gallon "earthbox/earthtainers" every 7 to ten days with a 13-13-13 and some other stuff since the heat is forcing me to water from the top to keep the medium moist throughout.

Do you have any other issues though? Is fruit setting, yellow leaves, or anything else that isn't going well?

[elight]

They are self-watering containers fed by an automatic watering system, so they are being constantly watered (although there was a period of a few days where the system had some problems and it ran dry once or twice). I started the season with a ring of Tomatone fertilizer around the top of the bucket.

No other major problems. The plant does continue to produce fruit (despite the horridly hot weather), although it is not nearly as vigorous nor is the fruit as big as the plant in the EarthTainer. I figured this was par for the course, however, given the smaller container.

Should I try some additional fertilizer? Any input is appreciated!

[JamesL]

Elight,
The size of the container should be your part of your growth limiting factor. It would make sense that the plants in the smaller containers are going to have a smaller root ball and therefore smaller plants.
I used tomato tone as well in my tainers. Following Raybo's various trials and protocol's I did supplemental fertilizing after the first month using the Fox Farm liquids.
Used the Grow Big a few times after the 1st month, and then have used both the Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom over the last month. I have only been doing it on a weekly basis, and all the plants have received the same treatment.
I am sure it has had an effect, although I couldn't say how much of one.

So yes - I would certainly recommend a liquid supplement.

[elight]

Thanks, James. I still have some Miracle-Gro liquid tomato fertilizer left over from last year, so I'll mix some up and top-water with it this weekend.

[Sun City Linda]

Nobody that has used TomatoTone recently in their containers, Self watering or otherwise thinks it is very good anymore. Supplement it, and keep supplementing it until you pick the last fruit! Discussions about TT appear on this forum and EarthBox forum within the last couple months.

[tam91]

I used some TomatoTone in containers, and my plants seemed to take off.

[JamesL]

Originally Posted by tam91

I used some TomatoTone in containers, and my plants seemed to take off.

At present I have to agree with Tracey on TT. As a "base" product in the Tainers it has served me well so far this year.
A lot of grow season left though, and I can't say what things would look like if I wasn't supplementing it.
Hopefully Gen Hydro comes through on the Floramato and that could be a "go to" supplement.
Either that or Raybo will finally run out of "Old" Tomatone and pick a replacement!

[Sun City Linda]

Originally Posted by JamesL

At present I have to agree with Tracey on TT. As a "base" product in the Tainers it has served me well so far this year.
A lot of grow season left though, and I can't say what things would look like if I wasn't supplementing it.
Hopefully Gen Hydro comes through on the Floramato and that could be a "go to" supplement.
Either that or Raybo will finally run out of "Old" Tomatone and pick a replacement!

James - Ray suplements his Earthtainers and gets wonderful results but the idea behind Earthbox is to fertilize ONCE. Kind of a "set it and forget it" as it were. The only addition some Ebers use is Calcium Nitrate as a snack, which is especially helpful when you have a long growing season, as I do. Many do not supplement at all. The new Tomato Tone just did not cut it for me this year.

[elight]

Linda, I'm searching and am having trouble finding much opinion on the best replacement (except for the thread about the fertilizer that James e-mailed them about to convince them to re-start production). Do you have any specific recommendations?

[RayR]

I think high temps has more to do with the slow down with top growth of tomato plants. Many folks have been getting a lot of blossom drop at the same time with the heat, including me.

As far as fertilizers go, I grow only peppers and egg plant in regular containers, I prepped my containers mixing in Bio-Tone Plus thoroughly into the mix in early spring and grow lettuce in them until it's time to plant the peppers and eggplant. Then I prepped the containers again mixing in Tomato-Tone thoroughly into the mix. Root dipped the transplants with Myco-Grow & molasses and watered in with Liquid Fish and Seaweed. Peppers and Eggplant have grown fantastically and fruiting and flowering profusely. Peppers and Eggplant love the heat, just had to keep up with watering every day or two since not much rain around here at all.

I have some in-ground peppers that I planted later and used the same prep except I used Dr. Earth Organic 5 instead of Tomato-Tone. Everything is working great there too. If you are looking for an organic alternative to Tomato-Tone, that's a good one. Superior ingredients but more expensive too.

You've got 3 choices for growing methods, organic, synthetic or a combo, but keep in mind that fertilizing organically is an entirely different process, you can't do it effectively by treating organic fertilizers as you would applying synthetic fertilizers.

[Sun City Linda]

Yes, I too had good success with Dr Earth last year in my Earthboxes. But I have decided to switch to synthetic for my containers for reasons Ray stated.
Tam-I didnt prep my plants very well, only used Actinovate and my planting mix is soiless. Maybe you have a more hospitable container enviornment that I did. My maters grew slow and got diseased. Not a typical situation for SWC growing.

[tam91]

Sorry, I should have said - my containers are not SWC, they're just containers. And I have topsoil and compost and stuff in them. But the plants were not growing well, and after I added the Tomato-Tone they did better.

[JamesL]

I hear you Linda. The one and done product would be ideal.