Its the million dollar question for a lot of us swc gardeners. Raybo is trailing several combination mixes this year as well as myself. My newest combination includes 5 parts fir bark fines that are 1/4" or smalller and I would say most of it is well under 1/4", 2 parts peat and 1 part perlite. You need an ingredient that is pretty fine for wicking, some use turface. I'm using 18 gallon totes made by Rubbermaid for my swc's. I've gone from a 6 inch diameter wicking basket to a 4 inch square basket to now a 3 inch diameter wicking basket. I've tried using a more gritter mix and for me it didn't work. If you get to gritty in your mix with swc's I think you start breaking that water bond which is important in swc's. I'm now using a crf this year that is 18-6-12 at half strength. I hope to get a 'seasons' use per swc out of this crf, but just in case I dont I've got some FP in my back pocket. damon

Congratulations on getting started with gardening. It's a really rewarding and fun activity! About your question, I've been using these same type of planeters (pop bottles, buckets, etc) for years with great success. They're more accurately called sub irrigated planeters or sip. you'll want to use a potting mix, not a potting soil. Most common big box stores will carry them. I've had good luck with the typical brands such as miraclegro, sta green and others. You can make your own too but I'd stick with a premade store mix while you get more familiar with gardening. Good luck!

Start from seed? That will all depend on if you can find local transplants of the right varieties or not. Around here I don't find many but that could be totally different with whatever grower resources you might have. Size of container - hanging baskets come in standard sizes - 10-12-14-16-18". The bigger the better and I's use the 16-18 and wouldn't go smaller than 14. Again, local resources will likely determine what is available to you unless you have access to a wholesale nursery supplier. But keep in mind that the bigger the container - and bigger will always be better - will mean weight that has to be suspended and it really becomes a matter of practicality. That will also determine if you can get self-watering or not - most readily available ones are not. And truth be told most of the SWC hangers are excessively expensive don't hold enough water to make all that much difference anyway IMO. They still require at least daily watering and in your zone likely 2-3x a day just like here. So success in a container that small is problematic unless you stick with the very small plants. Soil mix - same as for any container. A quality soil-less mix. No dirt, no potting 'soil'. Feeding? At least weekly as the nutrients leach out every time you water. If using an organic then likely more often - some use a diluted organic liquid fert every time they water - as there will be no beneficial soil bacteria in the mix to digest and convert the organic nutrients to a form useable by the plants. Organic growing in a container is very different ballgame from organic growing in ground. Varieties - any that are specifically bred for small container growing. But no, you won't be doing indeterminate varieties. Their name will often include things like dwarf or bush or container or tiny as part of the name. EX: Tiny Tim. Tumbling Tom, Totem, Baxter's Early Bush, Husky Red, Patio, New Big Dwarf, etc. Some of the smaller determinate varieties will work with the bigger baskets - Halley, Sprite, Grape for example. There are several discussions here about best varieties for containers and I'll see if I can pull some of them up for you but keep in mind that many of them are about much bigger containers than you are talking about. Dave This post was edited by digdirt on Sat, Feb 15, 14 at 15:14

Great thread! Something I was planning on doing for my containerized tomatoes next season (I balcony garden) is mixing some coconut husk chips (1/4 to 1/2 inch chips, not coir) in with my potting mix as the chips retain a good amount of water AND air. I saw that someone suggest coconut coir (which is shredded coconut husk fiber, not chips) in their mix yet I have never used this product and can only suggest using actual chunks of coconut husks. I admit that I am a novice when it comes to tomatoes but for my containerized citrus trees I use a 4:1 ratio of CHC and peat and it works amazingly. For my first Meyer Lemon tree I simply potted in Miracle Gro for cactus and citrus and within a month or two all of the leaves on my tree had dropped and it appeared to be dead. I decided to repot it and the mix smelled aweful and was still wet after not being watered for about 3 weeks. I repotted it in the 4CHC:1peat mix and within a month or two it started to bud again and rebounded. The first ingredient in Miracle Gro for cactus and citrus is peat which holds entirely too much moisture for citrus in a container (at least for it to be the number one ingredient). I'd bet that just about any mix that has peat as the number one ingredient for growing nearly anything in a container will eventually become problematic because of a lack of oxygen to the roots of the plant. When I bought CHCs at the begining of the year I got a 3 cubic foot bale (after being dried and compressed) and even after potting my 15 or so citrus varieties I still have about 2.5 cubic feet that is just taking up space in my storage unit. Depending on what potting mix I buy for my containerized veggies next year I would like to mix at least 1 or 2 parts CHCs and see how how the plants respond. CHCs expand and contract just like a sponge (holding a great amount of water and more importantly air) and also takes forever to breakdown (literally years which is what makes it great for citrus). Here is a link on CHC usage and I used the same supplier they suggest (Crystal Company) as they wash their product 3 times which removes a good amount of salt buildup that may exist. I am not sure if any of my information is useful for tomato growers but if you have never used CHCs before for anything I would suggest giving some a shot (get a citrus tree also!). Great posts folks! Joe