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Container Gardening

My tomatoes are getting too much water in my SWC.

15 years ago

Can a tomato from a SWC taste as good as one from the garden bed? That is the question. So far, no way. Granted that this is my first year growing tomatoes in a SWC. I experimented this year and grew two identical varieties two different ways, one in a SWC and one in the garden bed. By far, the ones grown in my garden bed are much better tasting. It seems like every tomato I have had off the plants in the SWC have a watered down taste to them, BLECH! I have a sneaking suspicion that the SWC's are delivering too much water to my dear tomato plants. I've battled BER all year long with the tomato plants in the SWC's, not to mention yellowing leaves from bottom to top of my plants. No, I did not add any lime. They started off great, grew fast and they were lush and green. Then the roots found there way down the wicking chamber and through the areation bench and down the sides of the areation bench and really induldge themselves with too much water. I have considered changing lots of things. I have considered shrinking my wicking chamber? I've also considerd not drilling holes in my areation bench. Anything to slow down water uptake.

Has anybody else done a equal comparison with tomatoes in a SWC vs in ground.

If so, could you taste a difference?

What should I do to minimize water uptake in the SWC?

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Comments (5)

justaguy2
15 years ago
I grow lots of tomatos in raised beds and SWC and have never noticed a taste difference between the 2.

What are you using for a potting mix?

Perhaps the lack of lime explains the problem?

It kind of sounds like you had a nutrient problem (yellowing from bottom up, BER) and that could be explained by an overly wet potting mix.

More details, please :)
bob414
15 years ago
I was reading in the tomato forum where someone is trying covering the aeration bench (wicking chamber and all) with landscape fabric to prevent the roots from growing into the water. Don't know if it helped or not but sounded like a possible solution.
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justaguy2
15 years ago
why stop the roots from growing into the water reservoir? My tomatos always do this and there have been no ill effects.
rnewste
15 years ago
sprtsguy,

My "guideline" is that if you have tillable in-ground space ALWAYS plant that way. If on the other hand, you have sunlit space like on a deck or patio, an AWS container system is the next best thing.

I too experienced too much moisture concentration in my first Rev "A" EarthTainer design. I have now shrunk the wicking basket opening orifice from its original 76" to now 16 sq. inches. In addition, I am now preventing the roots from penetrating down into the water reservoir using landscape fabric as I felt they were taking in too much moisture. While I got much larger fruit, they did seem to have excess moisture content when I sliced open the tomatoes.

Growing in an AWS container is much more "delicate" than I had originally thought, but the opportunity to triple the number of tomato plants that I could raise has motivated me to find the right balance in the design to approach the flavor and yield of in-ground gardening.

Note: None of this applies to growing corn in AWS systems, as that has been totally disease-free and gigantic production for me this season.

See the URL link below for the Rev 1.4 EarthTainer plans.

Raybo

Here is a link that might be useful: EarthTainer Instructions
sprtsguy76
Original Author
15 years ago
Potting mix is an OSH brand. I use a 4-7-5 organic fert. I added about a cup of fert. to every 18 gallon SWC. I dont see lime being responsible for flavor, BER yes. Too much water= blander tomatoes, I'm almost convinced of this. It just seems that if those roots are laying in water and not soil they will taste like water. I almost completely dry farm my tomatoes in my raised bed and they arent big, but oh boy are they tasty. I've done the landscape fabric thing, it did not work, roots go right through it. I thought about maybe some old t shirts as a liner or some cheap fabric. By the way, whats a AWS container?

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