Tomato Pots!

I've been looking for a supplier of large containers for a few of my tomato plants this year. I had pretty much decided to use the large black plastic containers nurseries grow trees in. I'm hoping the larger volume of growing medium will prevent the soil from drying out between watering cycles this coming summer. It has been so very, very hot that my containers couldn't retain enough moisture.

While I was at my local farm supply store this morning to purchase onion seedlings for my garden, I asked the store owner where I can buy the pots locally. He said he has the perfect tomato growing pots that he will sell me for two dollars each. Since he also raises cattle, he uses large, fifteen gallon, tubs of minerals. The cattle lick the mineral mix out of the tubs leaving them cleaned and empty. The tubs are made of a very strong plastic which holds up well to the cattle pushing on them and setting out in the strong sunlight all the time. He has about thirty of the tubs and I can't make up my mind if I want to buy all of them or just the ten or fifteen I will need now. Since I was in my auto, I will need to go back in my truck to pick them up. Two dollars per container is a lot better than the high prices you pay for large containers at the big box stores. The tubs of minerals come in various sizes up to around thirty gallons. Some are only eight or ten inches deep, but very wide. Others are taller like traditional growing pots. I prefer the taller pots.

If you have a farm supply store near you, and want some really great growing containers; ask them if they have any empty cattle mineral tubs.

Ted