Earthtainer Year One Problems

[jgaylord]

This is my first year for Earthtainer tomatoes. I'm in zone 5, Ohio. I built six 'tainers following instructions to a "T". My results were as follows:

• Spectacular startup growth. lush and green. Up to 8'+ in no time.
• Less than expected fruit production. Many blossoms petered out (I suspect due to unusually hot, humid conditions).
• About 1/3 BER (used the Espoma garden lime per instructions).
• After 75-90 days, purple leaves and stem lesions, fruit mostly ruined.
• Total plant yellowing and dying off.

I took a plant to the Ohio State University Extension lab and here is the report:

"The primary problem with the tomato plant sample is lack of fertility. The purpling of the leaves is typical of potassium deficiency, but overall, the plant looked like it was pretty much lacking in everything. When growing plants in containers the initial fertilizer is usually good enough for 8-10 weeks, assuming heavy or frequent rainfall does not wash fertilizers out of the container . After that, additional fertilization is needed at regular intervals. This is outlined in HYG-1645 which can be viewed at: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1645.html Note that with tomatoes you do need to be careful not to overfertilize with nitrogen which will make the plant produce foliage, but not fruit. The stem cankers are due to an Alternaria fungus, but not the early blight fungus. This may be Alternaria tenuis. The thing to know about this fungus is that it is not considered aggressive, it tends to affect stressed plants which circles you back to the nutrient problem. No treatment is recommended at this time of year. When the season is over carefully remove all the plant tissue and dispose of it, do not compost."

My initial fertilization was per the Earthtainer instructions (one cup mixed into soil and one cup in each of the two parallel trenches). I used Gardentone 3-4-4.

Is supplemental fertilization necessary, or did I just use the wrong kind of fertilizer?

[sprtsguy76]

Just something to consider here, there is nothing wrong with using liquid ferts in swc's, thus being able to have total control over what and when. I would suspect that the plant did go through that 3-4-4 pretty fast. When temps rise, that stuff gets burned away/used up very quickly.

Damon

[Stepheninky]

This info is from an Ohio State University Fact sheet on growing in containers. The full document can be found at http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1647.html And is a great read.

There are two types of fertilizers: timed-release and water soluble. Both are needed for container vegetable growing success. Slow or timed-release is added at planting time, and should be thoroughly incorporated into the soil mix. Look for a complete, balanced type such as a 10-10-10, 13-13-13 or 14-14-14 formulation. Osmocote® in a 14-14-14 formulation is just one example of a slow-release fertilizer that can be used. The ratio of this fertilizer to soil mix is 1/2 tablespoon of fertilizer to one gallon of soil mix. Thus, a 3 gallon container would need 1 1/2 tablespoons of fertilizer, a 5 gallon would need 2 1/2 tablespoons, and so on.

Water soluble fertilizers are added about mid-season when the plants begin to produce. This additional fertilizer is needed because most potting mixes don't retain nutrients very well, the plant's roots are restricted and thus somewhat stressed, and watering leaches nitrogen out of the soil. Peters® 20-20-20 or Miracle Gro® 15-30-15 are just a couple of the water soluble types that work well for container gardening. Some experienced container vegetable gardeners have success with a "super bloom" type of fertilizer, one with a high phosphorus content to stimulate blooms and subsequent fruits. If you want to experiment with this type of fertilizer, look for a 10-50-10 or 19-59-9 analysis. These water soluble fertilizers should be mixed at a slightly weaker rate than the label recommends and added once every week or two.

Also you can add Black Strap Molasses to any liquid fertilizer. It helps to make nutrients more available to the plants and also contains sulfur, potash, iron, and micronutrients from the original cane material, so it will help add some of the nutrients that your soil may be short on.

Use 1-3 tablespoons of black strap molasses to each gal of liquid fertilizer used.

Hope that helps a bit.

[rnewste]

Thanks guys for doing all of this research. I will add into the Guide at the next Rev to add periodic feedings through the Filler Tube with a water soluble fertilizer, for heavy feeding plants like tomatoes.

Raybo

[Talon1189]

My 2 Earthtainers seemed to hit a "wall" in growth about 3 weeks ago. I just bought and added Fox Farm "Big Bloom" into the filler tube to hopefully help revive my plants more. Big Bloom is low on the NPP but adds more organics to the reservoir with little to no chance of burning the foliage. Too early to tell if it helped or not as I just did it I have also scratched the top 1-2 inches around the plants while adding some organic fertilizer once a month for the last 2 months My fruit production has been steady here with 2 Legend plants, a Cherokee Purple, and a Better Boy in my 2 Earthtainers ..... Weather conditions have been near ideal in Michigan with very little rain here. The bigger fruit should be coming in the next week or two >>>>>>>>>>>>Talon

[jgaylord]

Thanks for the great feedback!

How would you add the water soluble fertilizer? I'm thinking a concentrated solution that, when added to the reservoir, would attain the right concentration per the total volume of the reservoir. If I mix the properly diluted solution prior to pouring into the feed tube, I'm afraid that I would lose it all to the overflow.

[rnewste]

jgaylord,

Two things I notice in looking at your pictures. First, I would recommend spacing out the 'Tainers more. Leave at least 15 inches between them. Second, the leaves and stems look very "slim" for lack of a better word. How much direct sunshine do they get per day?

The Guide recommending 1 Cup for each of the two fertilizer strips was written using the "Old" Tomato-tone 4-7-10. Your Garden-tone is much "weaker" NPK of 3-4-4. Consider increasing the amount per strip next Season. Also, I would recommend the "New" Tomato-tone over the Garden-tone that you used in any event. The plants in photo #4 just look under-fed. The purple showing in the last 2 photos is convincing.

Raybo

[jgaylord]

I didn't know fertilizer from, well....you know, when I started this. I take it that the relation of the three numbers is the ratio, but that the absolute value of each number describes the concentration. It looks like I used pretty weak stuff. and that the first number should be lower than the rest so as to not overdo the nitrogen?

[rnewste]

For my Fall trials, I am using one Cup of a 14-14-14 Controlled Release Fertilizer (CRF) similar to Osmocote in the bottom half of the Mix. 2 Cups of Tomato-tone for the fertilizer strips, then I am "dusting" each planting hole with Starter Fertilizer (about 1/4 Cup in each hole). Mid-way through the growing Season, I will start adding this supplemental fertilizer:



The goal is to provide enough fertilization - without going overboard, and choking the plant. Fine tuning the amounts and timing of applications for your geographic area due to rainfall, humidity, temperature, etc. will be required to optimize your results. It will likely take 2 to 3 Seasons to "dial in" the ideal settings.

Raybo

[jgaylord]

Raybo, have you been successful reusing the previous year's potting mix?

[nutmeg]

For the last two years, I've used FoxFarm's Tiger Bloom (2-8-4) liquid fertilizer after the first fruit set for my bought (gardeners.com) and homemade earthtainers, and the in-ground peppers and zucchini.

I try to fertilizer once a week, but life has a way of getting in the way of my gardening, so once every other week is closer to my actual results.

I am very interested to see how the Grow Big works in your trials!

Happy Gardening,

PJ

[rnewste]

jgaylord,

As long as there has been no soil-borne disease in the Combo Mix, I reuse it as per the Maintenance Section of the Guide, where I add in one cubic foot of new Combo Mix each Season. My goal is to get 4 year's use this way, before completely purging the old combo Mix, and starting Season 5 with 100% new Mix.

BTW, are you using the 3:2:1 Combo Mix as described in the "Tweaks for the Experts" Section?

Raybo

[fortyonenorth]

Thanks for the initial post - I've been struggling with container fertility this year as well as that same stem canker issue. I assumed it was early blight, so this is all good info.

I'm growing in open containers, but otherwise, my system probably has similar demands as the Earthtainers. This year, I used a mix of pine bark fines, perlite and peat. I included some organic fertilizer (Dr. Earth Tomato and Vegetable) at the time of planting and then followed with regular applications of fish emulsion/seaweed mix as a foliar. I don't have any scientific info, but I'm not sure the foliar stuff did much - the plants seemed to run out of steam after the first flush of fruit. I wasn't until I added more of the Dr. Earth that they recovered.

Last year I included a good bit of composted cow manure to the mix. Even though it was a very bad year for tomatoes (compared to this year, which has been nearly ideal) I think I got better production and better taste with the manure added in. With a few exceptions, taste has been pretty bland this year.

Still looking for the silver bullet

[jgaylord]

Raybo, I did not used the 3:2:1 tweak, but I will follow the recharge instructions for next season.

[dice]

I had a few plants with the purple leaves this year. On some
it was fairly obvious why, they were in the ground in a bed
where everything seemed a little undernourished. It was cold
here in May and June, so I was never sure if it was the weather
or the soil nourishment early on, until after several weeks of
good weather I could compare plants in two different in ground
beds.

But a couple of others were in a row of containers where every
container got the same amount of fertilizer at plant out, yet only
these two plants out of 11 showed the symptoms. So the
possible causes do not seem cut and dried to me as definitely
a lack of fertilizer.

I used a generic 5-10-10 in the containers in spring, watered
them in with fish emulsion and liquified kelp, and added a
handful of Garden Tone to each when they started setting
fruit. The plants in containers that were doing well just kept
right on growing, and the two that were struggling with the
purpling on many of the leaves did not react to the handful
of Garden Tone at all.