Hairmetal: I think we talked about your problem with those plants before. I don't know why you had a problem with them. But, as I said before, I don't normally have to water any of my plants in 5-1-1 more than once every other day. This goes for six-foot tall tomatoes in 25-gallon smart pots resting on the ground as well as flowering annuals in 16-inch hanging baskets lined with coco fiber. If it rains at least an inch, they can go three or four days without more water. If you make the 5-1-1 properly and you use a container that is big enough for the root system, you will not have a problem. 5-1-1 holds a lot of water. The ground doesn't suck it all out of the pot.

Justaguy, Tom Mobley has a had unbelievable success with just 14 14 14 in his pot n pot method. I am totally new at this business, my dad who just past away this year at 99 always had a large veggie garden in NC, but I was never interested until now at 72 ! I have put some MG in the water once they started blooming, but this first big beef is unbelievable (seems to be my favorite word this morning :>)). Our weather here is very subtropical, I have two very large mango trees that people said would not survive this far north and west (away from the Atlantic and gulf stream), but put them on the South side of my 12 cbs wall of the hangar and they have done extremely well. People keep tomatoes producing here from fall until June when it apparently is so humid that they fail to set new fruit. Typical day high here summer is 92 and 90% humidity and 70 low at night. Lots of rain in summer, we've had zip where we're located here west of port st lucie this winter and spring. Sorry about how dark the pictures turned out and with my palmetto background it is really hard to see how large the first bigbeef is in the bucket. Will try again to make a picture. bernie

Hi Rina, You are right. The past 2 weeks it has rained a lot and I had to build a temporary shelter for all my potted plants - even the ones without the outer container. Drainage is not a problem with the addition of the coconut coir. Some of my bottom containers have holes that make sure only 2 inches of water remain there. The one in the photo does not have holes because the space between these 2 containers is narrow and I don't want to keep on adding water every 2 or 3 days. I grow tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, swiss chard, kale, various herbs, etc. Bell peppers, strawberries and zucchini are doing exceptionally well in this setup. Younger plants [with few and small leaves]not so well.

Thanks for the comments. Terrybull - maybe I shouldn't have said A1's SWC mix.. I'm basically using A1's 5:1:1 standard mix. But A1 stated in a thread that if you're using that recipe in a SWC, then up the Peat to 2 parts. So basically what I've got is a 5:2:1 (Pine bark fines - Soil Pep, Spaghum Peat moss, and Perlite. with Lime added) EG - I guess my problem with the finger test is that I'm not sure of the results. This "soil" has a bit of a different feel, and it's hard for me to determine the proper moisture. It's funny, I've been growing veggies and herbs for several years, but this first year using new soil and in SWC's, I feel like I'm just beginning all over again. I'm doing all of my fertilizing with Foliage Pro which feels different also. And since I'm not sure if the SWC's are wicking properly (and if the roots are reaching deep enough), I'm not sure whether to fertilize the reservoirs or top water-in the fert. I've been doing a little of both basically. But all in all the plants are not looking too hot, and I don't know if it's the extremely wacky weather we've had here in Boise, ID or the fact that my greenhouse went down a few weeks ago in a windstorm and dumped every container upside down.. Not a good season so far..