Yeah those kids are smart as hell! I plan to get the tubing to make it happen just as they show in their videos. Not all teens sit around playing video games and texting I guess. ;) I grew up on a real farm and texting wasn't invented yet (and cell phones were too pricey for any farm kid to own). I just had video games, but they always took a back seat to school and working for my family. Yup.. we both shared "The Yellowing" of our plants. So far so good with adding that sifted pine bark and more perlite. I cannot remember the initial proportion of peat to vermiculite to perlite that I used for my base soil medium, but I remember it was said the proportion that Miracle Gro uses in their non Moisture-control. The only reason I made my own (which was a lot of work) was because I had 5 Earthtainers to fill and it was cheaper in the long run and I didn't mind getting my hands dirty. I mixed this in the 3:2:1 ratio (soil medium:pine bark:more perlite) for this year's mix. Anyhow you're probably asking about the fertilizer mixes, so for that I used 1 measuring cup of OLD Tomato-Tone + 1 cup of NEW Tomato-Tone for the fertilizer strip (in a 30ga ET). I blended those together and laid the strip. Then for EACH tomato hole I put in approximately 1 cup of my homebrew worm casts. My worm bins are very simple. Take two 5-gallon buckets, drill 3/8" holes randomly through the bottom of one bucket (50 holes or something). Fill this bucket with shredded paper (junk mail, paper bags from fast food and credit card offers are what I use). You will want to moisten the paper and squeeze the water out like a sponge, so it is just damp. This is the worm bedding. Add this and then next add worms and organic matter like banana peels (primarily my worm's major source of material). I use red wiggler worms provided by a class I took a few years ago at UK. Put this bucket inside the other bucket which will serve as the outer bucket to catch whatever drips from the worm's activity above. I use that worm leechate on my Blueberry bushes. Also get a lid for the worm bucket bin. The worms get enough oxygen by lifting the lid every now and then to toss in more organic waste for them to work the bacteria off of. I've gone weeks without lifting the lid. The hardest part of the worm bin is collecting the casts 6-8 months later. I can describe that process if you want. Here's what my bins look like: From 050509 Harvesting: From 022810 From 022810

It's been busy here! My bins are nearly full. I get a very satisfying stretching of the back muscles when it's time to turn 'em lol. This past week has added the following: few large bags of Starbucks UCG kitchen scraps from work, home, and coworker's bird cage linings some baby mice found in the basement grass clippings, weeds, and garden trimmings ~8 gals. mixed UCG and fruit pieces from local coffee/smoothie shop shredded packing paper (which was very theraputic btw) fries of unknown age, various paper products, and old sodas from cleaning the cars TP rolls, PT rolls, and pizza boards all shredded to satisfaction leftover cherries, potatoes, apples, and celery not to mention the stripped bare bones from a Wing Ding (kinda like a Hot Wings cook-off w/o a winner but with plenty of beer) recycled beer from above Wing Ding lol Next week I'll be getting 2 truckloads of yard trimmings from a neighbor! Even after it's all shredded I think it might be time to start a new pile :)

Damon, I use potting mix. My ferts are various. Tomato-Tone, Bio-tone, MG for tomstoes, and my secret formula and procedure for starting seeds. If you search for my posts, I have detailed exactly how I grow in containers here in North Georgia. Organic is okay, but not where I'm located. Just too many critters and diseases here in this heat. Ted

Wow those tomatoes sure look great, nice work on the containers also. Looks well organized, and you have certainly put the right amount of effort in, deserved of those great results! I too was thinking of using those containers for my tomatoes. I got some 7 gallon pots left over from a landscaping company instead, as they were cheaper (1$ a piece). However, it is extremely labour intensive keeping them watered, so I am thinking of buying those containers to create a "self-watering" system by placing the 'totes' under my 7 gallon tomato containers. Anyway, good job, keep up with the pics!