Man I hope one day I can have that many tomatoes
Last year was my first year. I had two yellow lemon boys. They were beautiful. But more greenery than fruits. This year I have nine beefsteak, two husky red cherry, four other kind of cherry's, and 10 red currant tomato seedlings. Y'all are all an inspiration.

Awsome! What a cool setup. Your location looks like mine. Do you get a lot of sun. I don't, I only get about 5-6 hours per day of direct sunlight. I have a heavily wood area to the west of my garden.

Looking good! Things going well here too!
Lime Green Salad

drtomato,

I get a good solid 8 hours a day.

sprtsguy...beautiful plants...those blossoms on your lime green salad...fantastic!

Oh, man... one of these days soon I'm liable to show up on y'alls doorsteps looking for a 'mater sandwich!! Looking really good. Thanks for the inspiration. :^)

could you explain your set up? Thanks it looks awesome.

I've got one more box to install with a Brown Berry and Aunt Ruby's Yellow. I'm using a little different method, than you Bing, for tying the bottom string. I found I can get better tension on the vertical one with it attached to the box itself. And you're right about it being pretty stable without weighting down the legs or attaching it to the wall. We've had some really windy days and nights here in the Bay Area for the last week or so and it's held up just fine.

I'd like to know about your setup as well. Watering correctly is the bane of my existence...just can't seem to get the right amount no matter the method.

Bing, you brought me out of hiding. I've been following your posts for a long time and wanted to let you know how much I enjoy reading them.

I've been using a variation of the same thing you are doing for a few years now and wanted to let you know how I solved the watering problem, easily and cheaply.

I know you said you enjoy watering them. But if you ever change your mind, here is what I did.

Since all of your containers are level, have the same depth of water and the drain holes should be about even.

I plumbed all of my containers together, below the drain holes, and have them all feeding from one 5gal bucket with a float switch in it at the end of the row.
They all keep the same water level and as each pot uses water, they steal water from each other.
Until they get low enough to kick on the float switch in the 5gal bucket, that I have set to go off when the water is about 1/2" below the drain holes.
That puts water in the 5gal bucket, which fills up the totes again until it turns the float switch off.

Good luck with your tomatoes this year. Mine are about done until next November.

Awesome looking setup to me! I might try some of those self watering rigs next year. Very tiddy looking.I have mine in huge pots but I do have to water them a lot. Some I've rigged with a drip system. Good growing to ya.

Good morning all,

Mr Potaohead (is that right!!). Excellent idea...I didn't think about doing it that way but your twine is nice and tight. Might try your way next year although I might go a completely different direction next year. Last year, I found that I couldn't keep up with all the suckers so I had a lot of offshoots from the main stem. I got a lot more fruit but also had to do a lot of tying of those extra stems. I'm considering a new trellis where I'll make a four corner PVC box around the outside of each set of two containers. I can build it up as the plants grow and use twine wrapped around the outside of it. Then I won't have to prune and can let the suckers grow. Your plants look excellent...good luck this year!

Palmettogal,

That's the beauty of this system. All you have to do is keep the reservoir full and the container wicking system and the plant takes care of the rest. The plant always has water available. But...you must keep that reservoir topped off!

Yummykaz,

Go to the search box and search "bingster"...you'll get all my posts and the ones from last summer have detailed instructions. You can also search "earthtainer". "Raybo" has taken the homemade earthbox to the cosmic level. His are much more sophisticated than mine and his posts have a lot of good info. Also...you can google "homemade earthbox" or "josho". Josho's site has full instructions on how to make these boxes so I credit him here.

Corrie22,

That's a great idea and thanks for your nice comments. I tried growing tomatoes for years with mixed results and last year was the first time I grew tomatoes that had the size and taste I'd always wanted. I'm excited this year because I grew my own seeds so have lots of different varieties (hopefully) to try. You say you're done for the year already...are you in South Florida, per chance?? I'm up in the panhandle of Florida and ours is a short season also. I pull my plants by the 10th of July...too hot and muggy for the blossoms to set fruit...and the bugs get 'em no matter what you do.

cheers all,

Bing

Bing, good morning
I'm in the Florida Keys. I usually start seeds in late Sept, early Oct, plant sometime in Nov., and grow until May. I have some cherrys still planted that will go "maybe" the rest of the summer.
That is just a modern modification of the way my Mom used to grow tomatoes when I was a kid. There's not a lot of dirt in the Keys and tomatoes are nematode magnets. She would use 55gal drums, cut in 1/2, and drilled to be self watering. Saved on fresh water too. We have friends all over the Caribbean islands that have been doing it that way for generations too.

Hi Corrie,

Thanks for the follow-up. Been to Key West once to fly against the Navy when I was flying fighters in the Air Force. A pretty neat little place...certainly not your average small town!! Needless to say we had a lot of fun while we were there. I wish I knew how to extend my season for as long as you grow your plants. I plant here the 1st of April and I get my first tomatoes the first week of June and last ones by the 10th of July when the plants just give up. I would think you would have the same problems there with heat and humidity come April and May. How do you get your plants to produce so long?? Any tricks?

cheers and have a nice day

Frank

I am about 90 miles north of Key West. Plantation Key, also known as the garden island. Most of the island was under cultivation at one time and their main crop was tomatoes.

It's just the weather and the water. We do not have the land mass to heat up like you do. Our temp is controlled by the temp of the ocean, our weather is controlled by fronts. We're just a little rock out in the middle of the ocean, and it's hard for our temp to get much above or below ocean temp. You guys can be close to 100F in the summer, while we are still in the 80's during the day and 70's at night.
What we fight here is sun. I just moved the cherry's to a spot where they get 4-5 hours of mid day sun, then shade the rest of the afternoon. That's has worked in the past, but I'm growing two varieties of cherry from FIU for the first time and have no idea how they are going to do.

So cross your fingers!

Thanks...and good luck!