General discussion regarding the techniques and methods used to successfully grow tomato plants in containers.
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#1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: San Diego-Tijuana
Posts: 2,598
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Hello Everyone, happy gardening this 2018 season to you all.
This thread will hopefully document growing in containers of various types and sizes, and under varied conditions. CONTAINERS About 50 containers (nursery blacks in various sizes, converted 5 gal water bottles, and 10-25 gal grow bags) will house Cherries, Dwarfs, micros, determinates, and other assorted plants. Indeterminates will live in 75 hybrid RGGS slots (in short, a 4 inch sewer pipe is filled with fertigated water permanently, containers wick up via a coco coir-peat moss filled net cup sitting under the 4-5 gallons of potting mix). Doubling up in each slot, so that’s 150 indeterminates. SUPPORT SYSTEM RGGS slots will be supported with green trellis netting (6 in holes) suspended from overhead stainless steel wires. Height from ground to wire is right around 7 ft—secured below via stapling to the wooden RGGS tube supports. green trellis.jpg I use large plastic clothespins to attach stems to the trellis, so it’s pretty low stress. Towards the end of last season there was significant weight pulling the wires-trellis and they did fine. Free-standing containers will have CRW cages, dollar store trellises, and bamboo. POTTING MIX Potting mix will be 50:50 (new:recycled), with Royal Gold’s Tupur being the major contributor. Price is decent and I like that it’s a blank slate to play with. The recycled component is a diverse mix that's been resting for months. FERTILIZERS Have a lot of osmocote I scooped up at 2 USD per bottle. I’ll use it sparingly in combination with Tomato Tone as part of a fertilizer strip for free-standing containers, supplementing Magnesium-Cal Nitrate accordingly too. For the RGGS slots, I’ll likely use Haifa Polyfeed with Micros for the initial part of the grow and then switch to a formula closer to ChemGro. I’d love to go with ChemGro, however, the 25kg bags of Haifa products are priced lower here in MX, so we’ll see if I can make it work. All will enjoy periodic veg-compost tea via drench, and foliar supplements. Inoculation with beneficial microbes will occur throughout the grow. NEW ADDITIONS This year’s addition will be shade cloth over these 75 slots. I have to check what percentages are available/recommended for our area when I head to the Ag section next week. TEMPLE OF JANUS DOORS: OPEN. On the insect front my citrus trees are starting to bloom, so I’m already going hard at them trying to evict my favorite interlopers. Spinosad, garlic-superhot pepper infused oil, detergents, DE, Met52EC, and copper round out the current integrated pest management strategy. And if I continue to see the little thrip b@$T@rd$ in the blooms I’m gonna bite the bullet and buy Exalt (spinetoram) just so I can watch them die writhing. Die thrips, die! Last edited by Gerardo; February 19, 2018 at 03:17 PM. |
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#2 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: San Diego-Tijuana
Posts: 2,598
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I have 3 objectives this season.
Here’s some of the already emerged ones:
Sowed, awaiting emergence.
Saving lots of seed, so I'll be aggressively fighting off invaders to minimize viruses and other fun stuff. PS. I'd love to grow more Siberian tomatoes, alas, I've misplaced my seed bag and will have to continue searching. For the moment, Tyazheloves Sibiri and Orange Minsk heart will be the representatives. I really liked Tyazheloves S: excellent flavor, semi-det, and keeps for a very long time. Last edited by Gerardo; February 19, 2018 at 04:24 PM. |
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#3 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: San Diego-Tijuana
Posts: 2,598
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Mostly SPAIN
fa3bf19f-0e2e-4d43-8e3f-442d532f832a.jpg small round pots, just right to start them 1b595a68-bf70-43eb-9a5b-3e15735d4995.jpg Lots of sweet basil 459ccc18-79e0-4e51-8a87-93ab36222a8b.jpg Overwintered peppers, hot. The one in the red container didn't make it. cd320dc1-79a4-4d36-a2aa-c9666f8a4623.jpg Last edited by Gerardo; February 19, 2018 at 04:27 PM. |
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#4 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Germany
Posts: 837
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Good Luck!!!
My Spanish are up, too!!!! |
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#5 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: San Diego-Tijuana
Posts: 2,598
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#6 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Romania/Germany , z 4-6
Posts: 1,582
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What variant of Haifa are you using? The GG?
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#7 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Indialantic, Florida
Posts: 2,000
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Best of luck with your garden. Looking forward to pictures.
What brand of Coco Coir do you use? I've been mixing 50-50 with Promix or the Lucky Dog Potting mix. I used the cheap brick stuff up in quality of Wonder Soil. I relied on the rain some but ended up washing the cheap stuff until the water ran clear. |
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#8 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2013
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 2,052
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You are committing a lot of space to Elgin Pink x Anna Maria's Heart F2! What is the appeal of this one?
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#9 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: San Diego-Tijuana
Posts: 2,598
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Yes, 18-18-18 GG. The "drip" is also available, although it seems to be more for soil.
Quote:
This year Tupur (Royal Gold) is the mix of choice, decent quality coco coir, good bang for the buck. The absolute best Coco Coir I've tried is Bio Bizz Coco Mix, fun to run fingers through it. Silky Smooth. http://royalgoldcoco.com/soils/royal-gold/tupur-pid-3 Taste, size of plant, and disease resistance in my neck of the woods. Also, I've gotta pick the right horses, so I want to have a sample size that allows me to see genetics at play. Curiosity mostly. Last edited by Gerardo; February 19, 2018 at 05:47 PM. |
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#10 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: San Diego-Tijuana
Posts: 2,598
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Fun stuff to grow in the cold.
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#11 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Vancouver Island Canada BC
Posts: 1,253
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Cold? You can grow basil in the cold? How 'cold' is it in Tijuana in winter?
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#12 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: San Diego-Tijuana
Posts: 2,598
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#13 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: San Diego-Tijuana
Posts: 2,598
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We have liftoff.
Somewhat yellow, the Kings Mix is hot apparently, or it's the cold evenings, or both. I can live with it, as will the seedlings. Next batch will start in Tupur. No dense planting this year. Spares in the mixing tub, looking forward to Spudakee. Lots of Tyazheloves Sibiri, Cabezón de la Sal, and Villariego Grande. thanks a million Andrey and Baikal. Last edited by Gerardo; March 1, 2018 at 06:13 PM. |
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#14 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: San Diego, Ca
Posts: 14
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Mine have been pretty slow to grow in these the cold nights and rainy days recently. Looks to be warming up though.
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#15 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: San Diego-Tijuana
Posts: 2,598
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![]() Quote:
If the seedlings had grown up inside they would be further along. Citrus blooms agree with you on the warming up part. On a few of those nights I had to bring in my pooches. Let's hope for warmer evenings. Last edited by Gerardo; March 5, 2018 at 11:51 PM. |
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