Planted 4 Bonnie patio tomato plants in

[Shooter1103]

5 Gallon buckets with holes drilled in the bottom for drainage and a couple of inches of gravel in the bottom and a layer of Heavy duty landscape cloth on top of that then Miracle Grow organic container soil which states up to two months of feeding in soil. I planted these healthy looking Bonnie Patio tomato plants 2/3 of the way into the soul leaving the other 3rd above the top of the soil. I also put some egg shell calcium I ground from organic range fed chickens and ground into a fine powder in the planting hole and some Epsom salt as well. The plants are loaded with flowers and some tomatoes up to small baseball size but the plants are not growing in height? Growing outwardly but not much in height. Any suggestions on how to get the plants to start growing vertically and get the actual green tomatoes to start getting larger as it seems the are really slow in getting any real size to them. I water everyday except when we get afternoon thunderstorms, and have small tomato cages pushed down in the soil for support? Also my plants leaves seem to begin to start turning yellow and brown late in July and August, anything I can do to prevent that this year? I am a total rookie at this and had decent results last year with my same set up. Used container organic container soil from Miracle Grow this year and added egg shell calcium and Epsom salt in the hole this year when planting, so need to try and keep the yellowing and grown leaves away this year and keep the plants nice and green like they are now and producing tomatoes long into the end of August and September. I would appreciate any and all help but please keep it simple for this rookie non green thumb Gardner. These tomatoes are on wood blocks for better drainage and get plenty of full sun daily. Thank you in advance for your help.

[Salsacharley]

Bonnie Patio plants stay quite small. If you get them over 2 ft tall you are doing well. They produce pretty well and their flavor is ok in my opinion.

http://bonnieplants.com/products/veg...s/patio-tomato

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by Shooter1103

5 Gallon buckets with holes drilled in the bottom for drainage

If you put your holes in the 5 gallon bucket 1-2 inches up the side then you won't need to water quite as often, but it sounds like you have kept on top of the watering, so don't worry about it.

Originally Posted by Shooter1103

and a couple of inches of gravel in the bottom

Gravel is not really necessary.

Originally Posted by Shooter1103

Miracle Grow organic container soil which states up to two months of feeding in soil. I planted these healthy looking Bonnie Patio tomato plants 2/3 of the way into the soul leaving the other 3rd above the top of the soil. I also put some egg shell calcium I ground from organic range fed chickens and ground into a fine powder in the planting hole

Egg shells don't do as much for BER as consistent watering and a little Dolomitic lime.

Originally Posted by Shooter1103

and some Epsom salt as well.

A little epsom salts is fine for greening up the plants. Dolomitic lime is my preferred preventative for BER.

Originally Posted by Shooter1103

The plants are loaded with flowers and some tomatoes up to small baseball size but the plants are not growing in height? Growing outwardly but not much in height.

Any suggestions on how to get the plants to start growing vertically and get the actual green tomatoes to start getting larger as it seems the are really slow in getting any real size to them. I water everyday except when we get afternoon thunderstorms

As said above, Patio tomatoes are designed for very small containers, produce medium sized tomatoes of average flavor, and the plants do not get over 2 foot tall.

Originally Posted by Shooter1103

and have small tomato cages pushed down in the soil for support?

I don't know that Patio gets big enough to need cages.

Originally Posted by Shooter1103

Also my plants leaves seem to begin to start turning yellow and brown late in July and August, anything I can do to prevent that this year?

Early Blight is pretty typical. You can prevent it with Daconil as well as installation of mulch (I prefer wheat straw or pine straw, but you can use non-dyed pine bark).

Originally Posted by Shooter1103

I am a total rookie at this and had decent results last year with my same set up. Used container organic container soil from Miracle Grow this year and added egg shell calcium and Epsom salt in the hole this year when planting, so need to try and keep the yellowing and grown leaves away this year and keep the plants nice and green like they are now and producing tomatoes long into the end of August and September. I would appreciate any and all help but please keep it simple for this rookie non green thumb Gardner. These tomatoes are on wood blocks for better drainage and get plenty of full sun daily. Thank you in advance for your help.

If you are going to use 5 gallon pots, water every day, and provide cages, I would graduate to larger plants known for good flavor like Big Beef, Cherokee Purple, Jet Star, Arkansas Traveler, etc. I grow each of those every year and they should produce decently in a well-cared for 5 gallon container. I personally grew a Big Beef and Cherokee Purple side-by-side in a 35 gallon Roughneck container and had fantastic results.

[Shooter1103]

Thank you for all your advice but I don't have a clue about all the abbreviations you used to try and help me. I am new at this as I mentioned and joined here to try and learn. Also where to find this stuff like daconil etc and dolomitic lime? By he way what is a 35 gallon rough neck?

[KarenO]

I don't think you can rely on the potting soil to be enough fertilizer for the whole season. "up to two months" It might be enough for some things but not for tomatoes. Feed container grown tomatoes regularly with a balanced soluble fertilizer for best results.
Karen

[SharonRossy]

I agree with Karen about fertilizing frequently. With container gardening, even adding CRF or using MG with fertilizer is not enough. You need to fertilize at least once a week if not more with a diluted solution because it drains quickly. Also, as Feldon says, do not put gravel. You just use up space for extra container mix and extra room for the roots. Egg shells take time to break down. Definitely use dolomitic lime.
Sharon

[Shooter1103]

But with no offense, you guys are talking French with all the abbreviations for fertilizers etc. and soluble etc etc. Remember I mentioned I am not a seasoned Gardner and if you could tell me exactly what brand, name of fertilizer, and where I can find it to feed once a week that would be great? I have miracle grow tomato food that is in red granules I could use, but is there some ting better. The egg shells where ground up into a fine powder and sprinkled in the hole under the plant roots and around the outside when I planted. I know need to feed the plants, now I know indeed to do it once a week, but please just tell me the name of what I need instead of all the letter abbreviations with absolutely no offense intended as I just don't know what you guys mean. With all due respect on the taste, I like the taste of these tomatoes just fine and enjoy other tomatoes from family and friends throughout the summer. Just want to get really good at growing these patio tomatoes. Right now I am starting to see some leaves that are browning and yellowing and would like to head this off before it spreads too much. Usually don't see that till late in the growing season. Thank yo guys and look forward to finding out what to feed my patio plants as far as feed goes and how to get ahead of this leaf yellowing and browning. Looks like someone took a flame to the end of the leaves. There are blooms and tomatoes all over these four plants though with the largest being about baseball size. Looking forward to getting advice on that weekly feed though. I water once a day in the afternoon while the sun is still up unless we get a thunderstorm.

[feldon30]

You mentioned egg shells, so I assumed you had gotten some advice from another gardener to use them to prevent BER. Sorry about that!
BER is Blossom End Rot which is not a disease, but a failure by the tomato plant to distribute calcium properly to the fruit. Here's a picture:



The old wive's tale is to put crushed egg shells, but a better idea is to buy Dolomitic (pelletized) lime. It's highly recommended when growing tomatoes in containers. Make sure it's not hydrated lime or triple lime as those are too strong.


By the way, it's difficult for us to recommend one tomato fertilizer because there are few nationwide brands. So I'm going throw another abbreviation at you which will allow you to look at a bottle of fertilizer and understand what the numbers mean! Fertilizer is sold with a series of 3 numbers like 14-14-14 or 4-3-8. This the NPK rating. NPK stands for Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium. Why are they important?

N – nitrogen: promotes the growth of leaves and vegetation
P – phosphorus: promotes root and shoot growth
K – potassium: regulation of water and nutrient movement in plant cells, and should promote flowering, fruiting and general hardiness

If you put a fertilizer on your tomatoes like 15-0-0, then you will get large bushy green plants with no fruit. Most tomato gardeners prefer numbers like 4-7-10 or 3-4-6 where there is a small amount of Nitrogen, a medium amount of Phosphorous, and a large amount of Potassium (K).

You can go on using the Miracle Gro or whatever gives you good results, but when we are trying to get the maximum number of tomatoes out of our plants, we get picky about fertilizers. I personally use Tomato Tone or Happy Frog, but there may be some at your local nursery (not Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc.) that is geared even better for tomatoes.




You sound concerned about the browning/crisping of leaves which is likely Early Blight. If you want to do something about it, you can start applying Daconil (chlorothalonil). It's sold in a red bottle as a concentrate. You'll need a spray bottle or pump sprayer (a 24 oz model will do just fine).



I do not recommend buying the premixed spray bottle from Ortho as it is has a clumpy consistency and you'll go through it quickly.

[KarenO]

Soluble fertilizer is generally sold in a crystalized or liquid form that is mixed with water, a well known example is " miracle grow"
Your miracle grow tomato food will work fine. Mix as directed on the packaging and apply once per week and water daily to maintain evenly and slightly moist between.
Ask a hundred members here what they use and you will get 100 answers. I say use what you have and for your potted plants MG tomato food will do the trick nicely. Soluble fertilizers are the easiest to use for beginners and I recommend it for that reason. It will not burn your plants as long as you mix it as directed. Next year, if you want to get fancy you can try some slow release granular in your soil mix.
KarenO

[LindyAdele]

I just wanted to welcome you to the forum, (I'm newish here too!) And encourage you to continue learning about growing tomatoes. It sounds as if you are doing EVERYTHING you can to make the best and most beautiful tomatoes grow. : ) I hope you have a great gardening season! I have been reading this forum for about a year now, and find them to be very friendly and helpful.

Could you tell us what variety of tomatoes you purchased? Do you know if the are determinite or indetermininte? (If you don't know, tell us the names if you kept the tag and we can tell you) Indeterminite plants will keep growing and producing over the course of a season. Determininites will stop, and die after they have produced a crop.

I know others here have different opinions on pruning tomatoes, but if you are looking for upwards growth, I find I have to take the main center stem and tie it to a stake. I do this instead of using tomato cages, as my tomatoes usually grow to be 7-8 feet tall and the cages just don't do anything after about 2 feet! I keep on tieing the main stem, and occaitonally if the plant tries to branch out a lot I may remove a stem or two to keep it one main stem. After about 2 feet of growth, I remove the bottom stems (any that don't have fruit). I also remove some of the 'sucker' stems near the bottom of the plant. There are many opinions on this, so not everyone will agree here. The 'suckers' are the little stems that come out of the joint where side stems join the main stem. I pull them off to keep the plants less bushy. I find early on it helps to plants to get some height and put energy into fruit production.

I hope you find exactly what you're looking for here. Happy tomato growing!

[Shooter1103]

Thanks for clearing up a lot of things that are confusing to me. Still not sure where to find the dolomitic lime you guys speak of. Plus how much you call a little for a 5 gallon bucket container? I got the other stuff and abbreviations for the most part. Just want to stop the early blight on the leaves I am starting to see and feed these plants to promote growth, fruit production, and prevent blight. If you guys have any more hints and tips, please let me know. I am like a big sponge, I want to learn to be a great Gardner and learn the little things that make a huge difference in my plants. Lots of tomatoes right and blooms with plant about a foot tall or less. Hope they get at least 2 feet tall or more!

[Salsacharley]

Check out post #12 on this thread for a glossary of abbreviations......

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=5317

[Shooter1103]

But right now I would just like to know where to find the dolomitic lime and if that is the name it is under in the store or is it called something else and how much is applied and how often to a 5 gallon bucket tomato plant? I see the listed item for early season light is shown and to use a concentrate but not enough info on the where and how to of the dolomitic lime? Thanks folks

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by Shooter1103

But right now I would just like to know where to find the dolomitic lime and if that is the name it is under in the store or is it called something else and how much is applied and how often to a 5 gallon bucket tomato plant?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Espoma-6-...8617/203192761

I'd put 2-3 tablespoons per 5 gallon bucket. Just scattered around the top of the soil, but don't let any touch the tomato plant stems.

Again, I hope next year you will try varieties like Big Beef, Arkansas Traveler, etc. You seem to be learning fast and more than capable of handling them and they taste even better than Patio.

[KarenO]

Agricultural or Dolomitic Lime is capable of altering the pH (making it too alkaline) of your potting mix. I would not add any at this stage of the game. (Here we go with the 100 different answers part...)
I have never in 25 years bought any lime or added it to my garden or pots. never once. And I never have blossom end rot on my tomatoes. And that is because the pH of my soil is already correct and does not require adjustment based on soil testing which is the correct use of dolomitic lime. Also if you do decide to add lime it would need to be done when the potting mix is mixed before planting. You have a commercial potting mix already made, no need to add lime or anything else except water and fertilizer now that you already have plants in the pots.
Folks sometimes tend to "love their plants to death" as I like to say by messing around overly much. Tomatoes are pretty adaptable plants but they do not like alkaline soil.
KO