Soil mixture for smart pots

[casserole]

If yoy can afford 25 gallon smart pots why would you try to scrimp to fill them ?

[augiedog55]

thank you for your insight 41N . I'll go with the 15 gall and I guess I'll have a few $ left over to maybe get 3 more plants.. The deck will be getting crowded lol.. What soil mixture did you use in your pots? How did those plants do for you?

[Father'sDaughter]

Since I watch way too many HGTV and DIY Network shows, there is something that comes to mind for me when I read this thread. If yours is not a ground level deck, have you made sure it can take the weight of all that soil on top of anything else you regularly keep on it, and the number of people who typically use it?

[augiedog55]

Its and above ground deck probably 6ft off the ground in the back. Its 20 X 24. It will just be the plants and my 2 chessies and I'll have to put fences around the plants to keep the dogs out(.they think tomatos are great food)I could probably park a car on it withoput any problems.

[fortyonenorth]

I used a variation of the 5-1-1 mix: 5 parts pine bark fines, 1 part spaghnum peat, and 1 part perlite. There's a lot of discussion of the 5-1-1 in the container forum of Gardenweb. It has performed well for me, but I like it with a bit more moisture retention, so I add some calcined clay (e.g. Turface) for this purpose. I ended up with 5-1-1-1, with the Turface matches the peat by volume.

In terms of cost, locally 2 cu. ft bag of pine bark is $3.50, 3.8 cu. ft. bale of peat is $16.00, a "very big" bag of perlite is roughly $16, and Turface is $8-$10 for a 50# bag.

Originally Posted by augiedog55

thank you for your insight 41N . I'll go with the 15 gall and I guess I'll have a few $ left over to maybe get 3 more plants.. The deck will be getting crowded lol.. What soil mixture did you use in your pots? How did those plants do for you?

[livinonfaith]

I believe Craig (nctomatoman) grew his dwarf tomatoes in 5 gallon grow bags last year. Here is a link to the video of the ones in his driveway so that you can judge for yourself his success. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HShW6...ayer_embedded#! Keep in mind that while these plants are certainly shorter than many indeterminates, some are over four feet high, so they're not tiny things.

They looked very healthy to me, and I'm planning to get 5 gallon root pots for about half of my tomatoes. I will also get some 7 gallon root pots for my larger-mid to smaller-large varieties. (If that makes sense)

The only two I will put in larger containers (probably 10 gal.) are Amish Paste and German Johnson, as those two grew very large for me. One of my Amish Paste last year grew over eight feet tall in about 6 gallons of soil. While it did okay, (and produced more fruit than many of my others) there was too much concentrated root ball to keep it watered evenly, especially in the heat of the summer. So I know that one could benefit from more space.

I would like to hear from other, more experienced, gardeners, but it seems to me like you could get much smaller containers (but still quite comfy for your plants roots) get a really nice soil mixture and still save a lot of money.

[livinonfaith]

Okay, I'm back again. (like a mosquito)

You've probably seen them, but just in case, there are three other threads going on right now that may be helpful to your situation.

1. I'm going to need a bunch of soil....

2. Please help me choose...

3. Grow bags

They all have a lot of interesting info.

[augiedog55]

livinonfaith, thanks for the info, that video was great. it has me pumped on growing in smart pots. I jus would like to know what soil mixture he is using