Two in One

[cythaenopsis]

Last year I had just 3 tomato plants. I wanted more! But alas, my growing space is rather limited. So in an effort to try making the most out of my space, I bought a 25 gallon container and filled it for two plants. I planted them a little over a foot apart. This is a sub irrigated job. I cut off an inside piece of the lid and used that as a platform for the soil. Under that I used plastic containers as supports (punctured to allow water inside) and two containers to support the soil wick, one for each plant. I have drainage and filling openings on one side.

I'm hoping this works and that there doesn't end up being a competition between the two plants for nourishment. I have no doubt that their roots will intertwine... but hopefully not to detriment (I imagine this happens in the wild all the time). They are both Russian Oxheart 117.

I did an experiment, where one side has 3 microfiber cloth strips as an additional water wick. One piece reaches the surface and it remains wet -- it is definitely acting as a wick! It'll be interesting to see if this gives a growth advantage over the other plant.


The tomato plant in the terracotta colored container is a Black Krim.


Two Russian Oxheart plants in single container.


I'm still working on the support structure. I'm going to lash the 4 outer posts to the container corners for added rigidity. I'm also thinking I might rig some weighted cord to hang from the top and coax the main stem to wind around it. I've seen people do this on more elaborate cage setups and it looked to work extremely well.