Jason, I have an assortment of vegetables, herbs, and small trees in fabric pots (a total of 20 in sizes ranging from 10 to 20 gallons). The pots set on concrete hold a lot of water in between watering, and I wish I had known about wicking before I planted them. The pots on grass or dirt drain/wick quickly and depending in the size of the pot and plant, can require daily or every other day watering. I live on the Gulf Coast so my climate is not as arid as others but it does get very very hot here so the plants consume a lot of water anyway. When it is time to re-pot, I will put wicks in any pots I don't plan to set on natural earth, grass covered or otherwise. I will say my fabric pot planted veggies and herbs were more productive and healthier than when I had an in-ground garden, probably because I could better tend to and individualize their food and water care and not have to pay so much attention to weeding (which I despise). Hope this helps!

I understand what you are saying John. I have been in the nursery business for over 50 years now and I know how things have changed over those decades. Sadly I also know how very outdated much of that info one can read online is. Add to that the need they feel they have to try to cover all points within a brief page length (so some will read it) and one finds all sorts of issues hidden between the lines. In the article you linked for example they skim lightly over the issues of "free of pathogens and seed-free", of "density and disease concerns", "hold nutrients well", etc. assuming the reader will know how to prevent all those issues - issues that kill more container plants than all other issues combined and so easily avoided by simply using a bagged already sterile mix. They make no mention of the size of containers and even imply these "mixes" will work in any container. They don't discuss how one is supposed to evaluate "density" or recognize what is good or bad density. They don't address HOW one is supposed to retain nutrients when daily watering is often needed. I could go on but but as I mentioned above all this is discussed and debated in infinite detail on the Container Gardening forum as it is only indirectly related to Growing Tomatoes. Bottom line - the choice of what to use is yours. I have tried them all over many years and IMO container mixes that incorporate coarse sand (except for succulents), top soil in any of its various forms, much less garden soil and even compost pose far more problems for plants grown in containers than any potential benefits they might have. Dave

Hello, Our favorite tomato expert Carolyn137 wrote an excellent response to a question about Blossom End Rot (BER) and I am quoting it here: With BER there is NO problem with absorption of Ca++ though the roots. The problem is maldistribution within the plant that can be induced by a number of stresses which include uneven delivery of water, too much N, growing in too rich soil, too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry you name it. As the plants mature they can better handle the streses that can induce BER so usually it goes away. The two exceptions are first, if the soil has NO Ca++ as confirmed with a soil test, and that's a rare condition, and second, if the soil is too acidic in which Case Ca++ is bound in the soil. Again, adding lime, egg shells and on and on can not and will not prevent BER b'c absorption of Ca++ thru the roots is OK. Paste tomatoes are especially susceptible to BER and I think someone in a post above mentioned that. If you go to the top of this first page and click on the FAQ link and scroll down you'll also find an article about BER in case some of you have never looked at the FAQ's And there';s some darn good articles there as well, but I wouldn't pay any attention to the variety list b'c it's way out of date. The old information about BER being caused solely by lack of soil Ca++ has been shown to be wrong with research that's been done in the last 20 years or so, but it's going to take another generation before the real story gets into books, websites, magazines, etc. Most of the better websites already have the correct information. BER affects not only tomatoes, but peppers, squash, cabbage, cauliflower, etc., and it's a huge multimillion dollar problem for the industry, which is WHY all that reasearch was done. For instance, when tissues were taken from a plant that has BER fruits and was assayed for Ca++, the normal level of Ca++ was found, it just wasn't getting to the blossom end of fruits. And there's also a condition called internal BER where the fruits look fine, no evidence of BER externally, but when you cut open the fruit the inside is black Hope that helps Carolyn knows tomatoes! Betsy

Actually I wish I was kidding. A friend of mine at the U of A write her thesis paper on the unique situation Alberta and its plants are in. i will try to keep this as brief as possible. Apparently some of the chemicals that are produced when they burn off gas and oil well gases bond to the nitrite particles in the air. You will notice this if you pay particular attention to the sky around noon during spring. It is quite evident that it the color has changed from that dark "blue bird" color we are used to seeing. Anyways what this does is allow a certain wave length of radiation through that has been named TVASR (thermoVascular Adaptive Solar Radiation). The effect on plants is much like UV on humans that causes a sunburn as it causes a "burn", for brevity, that hinders the chlorophylls ability to synthesize sunlight. While it is still to early in the new study to know how dramatic the affects are on plants proper hardening off is increasingly important. Yet they do know that s "burn" from TVASR can hinder flower and fruit production. TVASR has also been linked to plants dropping flowers and damaged buds, much like frost, and to plant death that we before attributed to winter kill. So please take the time to harden off properly. I can get the link to the paper for those who wish to read it . Sorry to be so long winded. SCG