Reusing my recycling bin

happychick · September 3, 2007

The last owners of this house left 5 recycle bins in the garage. Occasionally we forget to put our stuff out on recycle day, but we never need 5 bins.

So I was thinking of using one to grow a tomato in. I have a volunteer that sprung up in a pot with a banana pepper plant and I'm pretty excited, because I think it might be a Cherokee Purple. All my seedlings died while I was out of town and DH was supposed to be babysitting, so I didn't have time to start new ones and had to go with grocery store Bonnie plants, which is why I'm excited that this might be a CP. I only think it is because the stem is a purplish color and of the seedlings I started, it's the only variety that had a purplish stem (for me). I want to put this plant in a pot instead of the ground, because it's still tiny since it started so late and I'm afraid I'll need to bring it in at some point to allow the tomatoes to ripen after it gets cold. (I have a very, very sunny room that should do just for making sure the fruits get ripe, I think.)

So anyway, I'm wondering if my recycle bin will be big enough for it. It's 22.5" long X 14" wide X 14.5" deep, so if my math is correct (which it very well might not be) it should hold around 19.77 gallons. And it already has drainage holes in the bottom, lol. I was figuring it might be big enough, as long as I prune it to just a couple main stems. Am I right?

September 3, 2007	#1
happychick Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2007 Location: Southeast Texas Posts: 37	Reusing my recycling bin The last owners of this house left 5 recycle bins in the garage. Occasionally we forget to put our stuff out on recycle day, but we never need 5 bins. So I was thinking of using one to grow a tomato in. I have a volunteer that sprung up in a pot with a banana pepper plant and I'm pretty excited, because I think it might be a Cherokee Purple. All my seedlings died while I was out of town and DH was supposed to be babysitting, so I didn't have time to start new ones and had to go with grocery store Bonnie plants, which is why I'm excited that this might be a CP. I only think it is because the stem is a purplish color and of the seedlings I started, it's the only variety that had a purplish stem (for me). I want to put this plant in a pot instead of the ground, because it's still tiny since it started so late and I'm afraid I'll need to bring it in at some point to allow the tomatoes to ripen after it gets cold. (I have a very, very sunny room that should do just for making sure the fruits get ripe, I think.) So anyway, I'm wondering if my recycle bin will be big enough for it. It's 22.5" long X 14" wide X 14.5" deep, so if my math is correct (which it very well might not be) it should hold around 19.77 gallons. And it already has drainage holes in the bottom, lol. I was figuring it might be big enough, as long as I prune it to just a couple main stems. Am I right?