Newbie with Earthtainers in NC

[Fisher_man_matt]

I've lurked on the forum for a while and thought i'd make a post.

I found Raybo's instructions when searching for container garden and decided to give it a try. So far I've got 9 tomatoes in 6 containers. It's been a while since I had any type of garden. I'm starting to remember how much fun it is to play in the dirt again.

Week 1 - last week of March???


Week 2 - first week of April


Week 3 - second week of April


May 6th - with my trusty sidekick Gertrude


May 12th

[bullish]

wow that's some excellent growth!! nice job!

[Fisher_man_matt]

Thanks Chris. I'm really happy with how it's going so far.

[rnewste]

Matt,

Excellent job building the EarthTainers!

..but you "forgot" the one Step you KNOW your Mother would have made you do......

Raybo

[Fisher_man_matt]

Those skirts do look a little ragged don't they.

On a serious note, thanks for for taking the time to prepare the instructions for making the EarthTainers. Having such good instructions were a motivating factor in getting me to start some plants.

[Fisher_man_matt]

Weekly update for May 18, 2012

My tomatoes continue to grow like weeds. I counted 22 fruit of various sizes yesterday afternoon. All the fruit are on four of the plants. The tall plant has tons of flowers but none have produced fruit.

The weekly photo with the Gert.

[PA_Julia]

Fantastic and very healthy looking plants!!

Excellent job!!


Julia

[Fisher_man_matt]

Weekly Update for May 26, 2012

My tomatoes continue to grow and are setting lots of fruit. Yesterday's count was up to 42 tomatoes on 6 plants. The tall plant I mentioned has started setting fruit as well. The newbie I am, I mistakenly broke 10-12 blooms off the tall plant checking on it's progress. The flowers had bloomed, then wilted back after a couple weeks. The wilted blooms were fragile to the touch and broke off under a light touch. A week later and the stems of the untouched blooms are much sturdier and fruit is setting. It's almost like the plant had a delay between the flower and fruit.





I'm a bit concerned about my plants. The lower leaves are looking odd on a couple plants. I took copies of the pics shown below to a local nursery and was told it was a deficiency. The owner recommended I add some fertilizer to the water.

The second issue is that some of the fruits are showing blossom end rot. It was recommended that I add fast acting lime to my container.

I'd appreciate any comments and/or suggestions.

[Fisher_man_matt]

Originally Posted by PA_Julia

Fantastic and very healthy looking plants!!

Excellent job!!


Julia

Thanks Julia. Seeing the growth of the plants has really raised my excitement level about growing my own tomatoes. I've got the materials now for four more Earthtrainers as well as four Global Buckets. This playing in the dirt is addictive.

[rnewste]

Matt,

Regarding the BER, I just wanted to verify that you added in 3 Cups Dolomite Lime when you filled each EarthTainer?

Are you spraying with any Fungicides like Daconil, or any Insecticides as well?

Bottom leaves over time will naturally turn yellow and die as the plant is devoting all of its growth to the upper area and tomatoes. The trick is to try to delay this upward migration of yellowing for as long as possible.

Raybo

[Fisher_man_matt]

Originally Posted by rnewste

Matt,

Regarding the BER, I just wanted to verify that you added in 3 Cups Dolomite Lime when you filled each EarthTainer?

Are you spraying with any Fungicides like Daconil, or any Insecticides as well?

Bottom leaves over time will naturally turn yellow and die as the plant is devoting all of its growth to the upper area and tomatoes. The trick is to try to delay this upward migration of yellowing for as long as possible.

Raybo

Thanks for the quick response.

The containers I'm using are 18 gallon for the base with a 14 gallon for the planting media. I mixed two cups of the pelletized dolomite lime in the media per 28 gallons of growing media.

Was I also supposed to add additional lime on top? I used the 45/45/10 recipe for the media from the Q&A page 35 of the guide.

To date I haven't used any insecticides or fungicides.

[rnewste]

Matt,

The 2 Cups of lime in the 18 gallon container is fine. No need to add any more. BER usually disappears after about one month from initial fruit.

I don't understand your Mix at all. There is no "Page 35" of the EarthTainer Guide. What I recommend is a 3:2:1 ratio of Sunshine Advanced Mix #4, Microbark, and Perlite. Is this what you used?

Also, in NC I would absolutely commence weekly spraying with Daconil. You can get the more economical concentrate bottle at Home Depot. Regular fungicide treatment is a must.

Raybo

[Fisher_man_matt]

Maybe I was using an old version of the guide???

The question was "can I make my own potting mix?"
The answer was 45% compost, 45% peat moss, 10% perlite plus 2 cups dolomite lime.

Edit:
Apologies to Raybo. It looks like the instructions I used were not created by you. The instructions I used were titled, "making a self watering container or earthbox". I had viewed your instructions but apparently saved the other version (I now have both).

Sorry for the confusion on my part.

[rnewste]

Matt,

Can you send me a link to this recommendation? I would never recommend 45% compost in a SWC container. We must have our wires crossed here....

Raybo

[Fisher_man_matt]

Originally Posted by rnewste

Matt,

Can you send me a link to this recommendation? I would never recommend 45% compost in a SWC container. We must have our wires crossed here....

Raybo

I don't know if you caught my edit. Looking back at the PDF I have, the instructions were created by someone else.

Here's a link to the instructions I used.
http://www.seattleoil.com/Flyers/Earthbox.pdf

I'll strike this up to me being a newbie who didn't know exactly what I was talking about. Again, sorry for the confusion.