One thing I'd consider is are you(meaning anyone)actually container gardening or raised bed gardening? If that container is set on the ground and can anchor itself with it's roots then it has another(not necessarily an ideal one)source for nutrients. I think without a doubt container(true) gardening in regards to fertilization is quite tricky. This is especially true when you're using liquid fertilizers. They tend to drain on out. Last time I grew tomatoes in a container was quite an adventure. The plants were cuttings(of a cutting of a cutting) I took in August or September and brought in the house and kept alive They wound up in the end living about a year and a half and dying from disease. I had tomatoes in May though. I fed em fish emulsion once a week. I don't remember if I stopped but the stinky stuff used to just run right through them. They were pretty productive. For the tomatoes in my greenhouse in the ground last year though I vegged them out and at some point I just stopped fertilizing. They got slow release(organic), fish emulsion and then nothing. They were monsters and loaded with fruit. Now the trick this year for me is to make sure i can manipulate the fertilizer routine like i did last year and utilize the cozy greenhouse to get them jumping. It's not going to be easy. I think it starts with knowing how much slow release fertilizer(organic) per cu foot if you will along with the tricky maintenance(ph concerns me..how fast does garden lime kick in?, also micro nutrients). 2 things I will make sure of, the containers breathe(greenhouse can go well over 120 degrees, although cool shot with the hose drives the heat out)and use organic so there is no real over feeding.

I dont know the advantages and disadvantages between the two. I do however use the 18 gallon totes as SWC's and have had some good success with cucumbers, carrots, peas, hot and sweet pepper and tomatoes. In these I have only attempted to plant the following numbers of plants per container with good success- 1 tomato per, 2 cucumbers per, 4 hot pepper per, 2 sweet pepper per. Carrots and peas I space anywhere from 2-4 sq. inches. This is my limited experience and may be different for other gardeners. Hope this helps. Damon

Buy a roll of chicken wire and find some scrap wood and drive the wood in a circle around the plants. Tack the chicken wire to the posts and you will be rabbit proof. Buy a few wire tomato cages and set them inside the round enclosure you made and set one long strong stake right next to the stem of the plants but don't injure the roots. (stake first and then insert plant and you should be fine.) Not the strongest setup and you will have to twine the vines as they grow but it should work for you. Once the plants grow you could let them crawl along the ground if you do a heavy mulch. You'll lose a few fruits if you don't pick them early. Both plants are indeterminate I (think) and you can also attach a trellis to the strong stake to train the vines. Good luck. I tomato cage and stake my peppers and I have lots of squirrels but they leave them alone. They seem to do ok in the wire t. cages. BTW, last year I used 5 gal containers for some tomatos and they got root bound and quit producing before I quit eating. Not enough room and I had to water daily. This year peppers get 5gal containers with a city mulch and regular garden dirt mix, and the tomato containers are at least 12 gal, some more. Both will get a soaker hose running on them. I also fertilize with a box of tomato food. Works for me.

Ljbrandt, Excellent experiment, and right on time! I'm about to start my fall/winter garden here in Houston, and need some advice. Been trying to catch up to Al, but, seems he's outta pocket. I used a modification of his 5:1:1 container mix for the first time last season, growing the best crop of healthy tomatoes and plants ever. On Al's recommendation, I used a 3:1:1 mix of PBFs:peat:perlite in 5-gallon, self-watering eBuckets. I used MG Potting mix as my peat component, and I mixed in 1 cup of powdered Dolomite lime + 1 cup of 10-10-10 per eBucket. Very healthy crop! Only concern I had was at the end of the season when I ripped the plants, I noticed the mix at the bottom 1/4 of the eBucket seemed to be holding a bit more water than throughout the top 3rd. Also, I stayed confused on the watering schedule, because I could never tell if I needed to water or not. I might try your dowel this go-round, and try to adapt that as a measuring system. Now, I'm prepping my eBuckets for my fall/winter garden. I'll be growing cabbages, cauliflowers, Brussels Sprouts, and broccoli in the 5-gallon eBuckets. These are high feeders (they like organic mediums), and they are water hogs! I'd like a recommendation, please, on how to reuse the 3:1:1 mix from last season, and in what proportion to fresh MG potting mix, fresh PBFs, and fresh perlite? After reading your experiment, I'm inclined to go forward to a 5:1:1 mix in at least some of the eBuckets (I'll have about 48) just to see what would happen. Also, I need a recommendation on incorporating Black Kow Composted manure into the mix, as the plants are heavy feeders. I've grown them quite successfully in eBuckets before, in a mix of 50/50 MG Potting mix/Black Kow Composted manure. I'm still trying to get a feel for Al's container mixes, and how the plants respond (last season was my first time). I loved the lightening fast drainage, and felt there was definite oxygenation going on in the mix, because the seedlings took off like a rocket when they were planted, and stayed so healthy through our Texas heat. They grew faster than I ever saw before. Please note that not all my containers were true eBuckets. I made 1/2 of them free draining with holes drilled in the bottoms and 1/4" up the sides. These were top-watered with MG Water Soluble Plant Food for Veggies. The remaining were enclosed with the built-in reservoirs. Early on, I experienced an anaerobic odor emitting from some of the self-enclosed eBuckets, and discovered the overturned colander soil platform had collapsed in them and the mix was sitting in the water. Once I rebuilt them, there was no further smells. One other observation was that the eBuckets didn't seem to wick the water high enough, which is why I started top watering them, before the season ended. I know I've offered a mouthful here. Hope to hear some feed back as soon as you can get it posted. Almost forgot. I've started sifting dead tomato root hairs from the old 3:1:1 container mix, and will be ready to re-purpose it for the cole crops by the end of this week, so a speedy reply would be appreciated. Thank you so much, Linda