My Story

[Al@NC]

So last year my high school friend posted pictures of his upside down tomato plants on Facebook and it got me interested in growing tomatoes. I had no previous history with growing tomatoes, no history of family members growing tomatoes when I grew up. Seeing his pictures made me go out to Lowes and buy a upside down plant which I took home and still to this day have not planted! Instead I started studying tomato gardening online and decided that I would instead use some 5 gallon buckets to grow tomatoes. So I run back out to Lowes and buy tomato seeds. I grabbed all Burpee Hybrids such as Steak Sandwich Hybrid (~10oz), Early Treat Hybrid (~4oz) and Queen of hearts (~2-4oz). Not knowing what a hybrid was nor knowing anything about heirlooms or organic gardening I splurge and buy several bags of Miracle Gro garden soil to go in my buckets.

Luckily, I'm able to get 5 gallon buckets for free from my work and was actually able to get some free 2x10's that had knots and bark blemishes. This allowed me to go ahead an build a 7.5' x 30" x 10" bed which I end up putting a Bonnie Orange Jubilee Heirloom plant that I bought at Home Depot along with some cuk's and other veggies. I filled the bed with not only Miracle Gro but to save some money I threw in just cheap top soil and some mushroom compost that I grabbed at Lowes also. I mixed in Osmocote to feed them also.

I became a member here and began reading about all of the varieties, at first I was only wanting to learn more about how to water, which soil to use and which fertilizer is best, etc. but after having planted all of my seedlings out in 5 gallon buckets did I learn about mysterious world of heirlooms and found out about all of the other colored tomatoes! Until this point tomatoes were green and red and perfect looking due to my only knowledge being store bought tomatoes. This site opened my eyes to the beautiful world of real tomatoes that I had never known before.

I actually found a Cherokee Purple plant at Wal Mart here and bought (2) 15 gallon buckets from the local nursery. It was already so late in the season for the CP that it didn't make many tomatoes for me but they were great. I ended up buying more tomatoes at the farmers market and fell in love with the flavor.

I didn't do such a great job last year of using the right lighting for my seedlings or keeping my plants from becoming leggy but all in all I had a decent season considering I only put out 10 buckets along with the CP plant and Orange Jubilee plant I bought.

Having not fertilized until the plants were put out in 5 gallon buckets, I used fish emulsion. I had also bought Osmocote from Lowes this added to the fertilizer in the Miracle Gro along with the 5-1-1 in the emulsion and it's no wonder the plants grew tall. I started from seed the last week in March, and didn't put the plants out in 5 gallon buckets until the last week in May due to my daughter being born on May 6, 2012. By the middle of the season I went out and purchased Miracle Gro Bloom Booster to try and raise the size of the fruit. It seemed to do well for me as my largest seed Steak Sandwich were actually giving me some 12oz fruit from the buckets. along with the 5 gallon buckets my plants achieved >7 feet height last year which was probably short considering all of the food and fertilizer.

I didn't receive any ripened fruit from the Burpee seeds until August and while I didn't weight the harvest overall I was pleased with the outcome. I ate many tomato sandwiches, as many as I could on hamburgers and salads. We ended up making two large crock pot spaghetti sauces and still yet ended up wasting several tomatoes due to not being able to can, etc.

I ended up buying a 20 foot soaker hose from Lowes and watering from the top of the 5 gallon buckets on a timer last season. I bought red mulch to put on the top of the soil in the buckets due to the excess heat. This year I will buy pvc and water them from below. I'll also use plastic to keep the moisture in instead of wood mulch. I bought mostly 6 foot green stakes from Lowes to tie the tomato plants to but I'll be improving this somewhat this year. I pulled suckers on a almost daily basis last season and still believe that to be successful growing in 5g buckets you have to do this.

Having spent the last year reading more and more about tomatoes and soaking up as much information as I could from this wonderful site I anxiously await this season having learned a lot from trial and error last season. I'm also somewhat worried that due to starting mostly heirloom seed this year that my output will not be as great as last year and so I have started a couple of hybrid seeds left over from last year. I now have (21) 5 gallon buckets and I'm currently building a 2nd raised bed at 7.5' x 36" x 10" to compliment my first bed. I saved seed from the Orange Jubilee plant I bought last year and so far the seed has started great. I only took a few pictures from last year and they were all pictures of the buckets and I didn't take pictures of the raised bed.

I appreciate everyone's helpful advice and enjoy reading about your experiences! Below is pictures of my wife and daughter, my plants and some of my tomato output.