Does anyone grow Tomatoes in 5 gal buckets?

floridays

14 years ago

I wouldn't mind starting some again but would like to be able to bring them in, instead of covering.

Is it as straightforward as it seems - Bucket (drilled out holes), good potting mix and some fert?

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Comments (7)

msmarion
14 years ago
I drill my holes on the sides so the nematodes can't get in. I use a layer of packing peanuts on the bottom black cow and Jungle Mix for veggies.
yuliana
14 years ago
Out of my (at times miserable) experiences of growing tomatoes, container gardening has proven to be most successful. I did not use homer buckets, but I used and still do Big Lots containers, which are probably 5 gallons or so.

On bringing them inside your house. God, I wish I could find that joke to post here; it's about that woman that brought a plant inside the house, and a snake in a plant bucket along with it. Then the snake got under the couch, and the husband tried to get it, etc. etc. Funny as hell

Anyway, you shoud seriously consider the effects of bringing containers into the house
first, they are very very heavy. You'd need a dolly
second, you don't know what you are bringing along with the plants. Could be as innocent as a lizard, or could be much worse, such as spiders or even snakes.

As I am maturing (hopefully) as a gardener, I think that it is well worth it to set up even a small green house to have toms producing through the winter and starting the seedlings for the spring garden. The only plant I think I would consider bringing in would be a coffee tree, if and when I get it.
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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
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miesenbacher I havn't seen any pictures of your container grow outs, why is that? I guess you haven't noticed. Do you think I haven't done it? I have a veritable container garden on my deck of five-gallon SWCs that includes tomatoes. These are the two New Big Dwarfs I'm growing this year soon after being set out: Red Robin last year: Celebrity last year: Planted Rutgers determinates in 5 gallon SWCs two years ago. Three years ago planted four determinates in 5 gallon SWCs. Four years ago, planted at least four, maybe six, full-sized indeterminates in same 5-gallon SWCs. Very unhappy with them. For those plant-roots, the container size was too much like Chinese foot-binding. The topic of this thread was growing in a 5-gal bucket. Not, what is the best size container to grow in! Well, no, not exactly. Here was the question: My question is - should I do it in 2 steps - ie - move it into a medium size container, and then when it is bigger into the bucket? I have read that plants should not be in a container that is too big, don't know if that applies in this case. So this long thread progressed from there, including a discussion of container sizes for various tomato plant-sizes. I'll say it again. I grow determinates in five-gallon containers, just not indeterminates, which don't do as well as in the open earth. But people can grow tomatoes in anything they want -- they may not HAVE any open earth for indeterminates so choose to grow them in five gallon containers. In those circumstances, I'd grow them in containers, too, though I'd find a larger container than a five-galloner for most indeterminates to support the massive root system of a large mature plant.
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floridays
Original Author
14 years ago
All helpful information, thanks!
I might look into putting a couple on those rolling casters since these will go on the patio and can be wheeled into the screened in porch where it rarely goes below freezing.

Thanks again,

Scott
whgille
14 years ago
Scott

I always grow tomatoes in containers for a lot of reasons. As containers you can use anything you have available. For soil I use a mixture of a good potting soil mix with pine bark fines and perlite to make the mix light and fast draining. It is easy for me to move them to the porch in case of a freeze.

Silvia
tomncath
14 years ago
I'm the same way, I've used 7, 5 and 3.5 gallon black nursery containers until last year. At that point I moved into 5 and 3.5 gallon buckets to have options for both top watering and bottom watering. I still use Al's mix for top watering, it's extremely light and fast draining so picking up the buckets and moving them is not problematic. I'll post a few links below for review. Bear in mind that the concept can be use to either wick water into the mix or out of the mix if you make two bottom buckets, one with holes at the bottom to drain water out, the other with holes higher on the sides such that the bottom bucket is a water reservoir. I've been asked why the double bucket system for top watered plants, the answer is that the PWT (perched water table) drops down into the cup such that all the mix in the container stays dry enough that roots can occupy the whole container, this is why you can grow tomatoes in a 3.5 gallon container, it provides just as much dry soil as a 5 gallon container with a 3-4" PWT at the bottom of the bucket, and if you're makeing quite a few buckets it cuts down on the mix you have to buy or make.

Tom

How to make 5 gallon SCWs

More on making 5 gallon SWCs>
floridays
Original Author
14 years ago
Sylvia, thanks for posting a pic and great info!

Tom- interesting approach, I had not even considered a SWC but some of those instructions seem fairly simple. Thanks for the info and links.
tomncath
14 years ago
Floridays,

Lots of folks are using the 18 gallon totes too. I just happen to like the buckets because even when filled they are fairly light and easy to move, and they will last longer than the totes. Our UV light here will trash the totes in 3-4 years, just like a real Earthbox. And, the 5 gallon buckets are free, I get them from Burger King....

Tom

Does anyone grow Tomatoes in 5 gal buckets?

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msmarion

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Does anyone grow Tomatoes in 5 gal buckets?

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