To cover the holes or not to cover

[Cherokee_Motley]

I have had success growing Sun golds and Early Girls in recycled plant containers and I will try it again next year.

However, I have one question.... Should I cover the holes and then poke a few small holes to ensure the water slowly drips out or should I leave them open?

Currently, the water rushes out the bottom almost the second I add it. After the first month I put a sheet pan under the pot to hold the water and facilitate a poor man's wick system.

But I only have so many sheet pans and I might want to grow 5-6 plants next year. It seems if I cover the holes with tape, the water will stay in the pot much longer and then slowly leak out over the course of a few hours versus a few seconds.

What do y'all recommend? Thanks....

[Moonglow]

Welcome to Tomatoville! Someone in the know will show up soon.

[dice]

What happens when it rains?

[amideutch]

How big are the containers and what are you using for a growing medium? Ami

[TheClaw]

I bought rubber and cork stoppers at Home Depot. The cost a buck or two depending on the size. The water does not come rushing out as fast and I believe it is an improvement. I also tried jamming large chunks of mulch in the holes. Consider that I have twenty 20 gallon containers and one 15 gallon container, I have spent almost as much on stoppers as I did on the containers but they are reusable. I just bought another 9 rubber stoppers that I will be using in the next day or so.

I should add that I am using Miracle Grow potting mix and a good layer of red mulch.

Hope this helps. Good luck with you gardening!

-Howard

[nctomatoman]

I've always just left the holes open, since often you can get as much damage from tomato/pepper/eggplant plants sitting with wet feet. Yes, the water does come out, but the soil gets saturated....I used to have my plants with shallow rimmed plates underneath. When it is searingly hot and dry, it can help - but that extra water gets used quickly, and the plants really did no better or worse for them. Good aeration is always best for a healthy plant.

[habitat_gardener]

Funny -- I cut out most of the bottoms of some 5-gallon plastic pots to plant a few extra tomatoes. Some farmers in Calif. dry-farm tomatoes, and I've assumed too much water was worse than too little, as long as the roots were not confined.

I ran out of in-ground sunny space but had a place to put the pots where it would've been hard to dig, but where they could sit on soil. Of course the planting medium is much looser than the soil underneath the pots. To minimize surface evaporation, the pots are well mulched. (I've noticed when I add compost under my in-ground tomatoes that the tomatoes have tons of tiny surface roots , just under the inch or two of mulch.)

So far the tomatoes in containers are lush and healthy. Last year was not a good year for tomatoes, but already some of my saved-seed varieties are looking better in containers this year than they looked in the ground last year.

[Cherokee_Motley]

The water comes out but it comes out much slower and also the surrounding soil seems to stay wet longer.

[Cherokee_Motley]

Originally Posted by amideutch

How big are the containers and what are you using for a growing medium? Ami

The containers range from 4" to 3 gallons. I generally use a 50/50 compost / potting soil mix.

[dice]

It sounds to me like the container mix may have crusted within
it and become a kind of solid chunk that water drains around
and down the sides of rather than through.

(I have had that happen occasionally with seedlings. I water
them, water runs out the bottom of a seedling pot, but then
testing with a moisture meter shows that only the top 1/4
inch and bottom 1/4 inch are moist. I saved them by switching
to bottom watering, allowing the crusty mix to soak up water
from the bottom of the pot.)

[amideutch]

For next year I would suggest using a soiless mix like the "Premier Pro-Mix BX Professional w/Biofungicide. It has the macro and micro ferts plus calcium and perlite as well as the bio fungicide. Ami

http://homeharvest.com/pottingmixes.htm

[kevokie]

The first time I grew tomatoes in a container, the holes weren't big enough and they became clogged. I didn't notice it at first and after a big rain, checked them a couple of hours later and those babies were drowning. I'm sure there is a happy medium about how fast you want it to drain, but I don't think you would want your tomatoes sitting in a bucket of water for hours on end. My $0.02

[simmran1]

Our gardening club members got me switched over (somewhat) to using X-Pand
in containers and covering the holes with coffee filters.
It soaks up and holds moisture thoroughly to a point, then the excess drains.
Water crystals are abundant in the formula- and I think that has more to do with
the water holding capability than the shredded coir.
Impressive germination rates of larger seeds is what peaked my interest intially.
The consistent moisture surrounding the seed coat must be the factor here.
Typical germination of cuke and melon seeds is 3 days or <.

[habitat_gardener]

Hmm, I've used a coir-based mix (without polymers) for seed starting, but I heard somewhere that polymers weren't recommended for food plants. The manufacturers recommend their products for everything, though.

The X-Pand Garden Soil website says, "Moisture Boost Plus™ Coir is naturally more water absorbent than plain peat moss but also allows the nutrients to slowly be absorbed by the plant. Plus we add Water Smart™ crystals that hold moisture and release only when the soil starts to dry out."

"Water Crystals polymer is odorless water-absorbing polymers (polyacrylamide)" http://www.crystals.us/index.htm