The first and last pics are hilarious! That's one heck of a lot o' maters. Enjoy!

penserosa,

Yeah, I'm kind of afraid to go out in the garden at night now....remember the horror movie "Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes".

Raybo

Great pics. These pics show what everybody should be getting yield wise. Too many times people seem thrilled with just a few tomatoes. It is hard to mess up with self-watering containers if you follow the instructions.

Maybe with more room and hence more air between the containers ( you did have them packed in close together)
and spraying preventative with Serenade (or whatever) from the get go you can avoid the powdery mildew with your next crop.

ROFL! Just don't say, "Pass the ketchup..."
What kind of yield should we expect per plant? I also wonder, when your first tomatoes show up, will the plant keep growing and then shoot out more blooms? I have alot of questions from a new gardener.

OMG that's a lotta sauce-a .... wow.. what are you growing them in?? Lordy I would love to have that many maters...

Carolyn

farkee,

You are "spot on" as usual. This was my first year growing in EarthTainers, and I simply didn't know how far or how close to space them. In the space in the first photo, I have 11 'Tainers. Next year I am going to rotate them 90 degrees as well as only put 9 in this area. I fully agree that they need more air circulation and individual sunlight.

Carolyn, Here is a link to the design I am growing in:

http://www.tomatofest.com/tomato-earthtainer.html

Raybo

Here is a link that might be useful: EarthTainer Instructions

Outstanding production!!!

Raybo:

You are way ahead of me with my plants in the soil. But if you want to give them away, I am sure a few of us would love to have some of your harvest ;-).

I do have a question for earthtainer growers. If the plants have access to water all the time, do the tomatoes taste watery ???

Enjoy your harvest. I am also curious what you are planting to do with them. I am planting to eat as much as I can with the aid of Pepto Bismo, then give the rest to people who wants them and then homeless shelter.

Ray, wish my son lived near you! This summer, he graduated from college and is now working in the same industry you were in (or recently left) in San Jose. For the first time ever, he won't be home to eat my tomatoes. Maybe someday he can grow his own.
Your work on your Earhtainers inspired me to at least buy an EB to try it, it is great but I see how yours will be better. Now hubby is starting to take an interest. I think next summer I will give my veggie beds a rest and plant everything in the ETs you designed.
BTW, hope your dry leaf problem mentioned in another forum is cleared up. Mine did. I suspect that heat wave we had down here. My toms are all leafless on the bottom too, looks horrible but still producing though not ripening yet. if the rats don't get to them before I do...
Keep us all posted with your pics!

Suzie

Holy cow. Even my grocery store doesn't have that many tomatoes.

This earthtainer growing, is it a bit like hothouse flowers that are "forced" so that they'll have lots of blooms for Mother's Day? I mean that in the best possible way - you and most folks here know much more about tomato growing than I do - just askin'!

Pat

holy moley, that's a lot of tomatoes!

what are you going to do with all of them?

OMG!!!!!

You must be a bit overwhelmed right now. I only have 2 plants and I'm starting to worry about how we're going to use all of the tomatoes! They are not full size or ripe yet, but yours look amazing!

Rnewste,

Great pics and tomatoes. Do you keep track of the yield weight of each plant? If you do, please post it. I am sure it would make for the beginning of a challenge or benchmark to shoot for. Congratulation on getting so many tomatoes to eat unscathed which is definitely a pro for container growing. Aloha.

Wow. I hope you have a big freezer. That's a lot of tomato sauce!

I have one self-watering container. The Sausage I have in there had 20 tomatoes developing at last count and at least twice that many flowers. More than my other 9 tomato plants *combined*. I'm sold on 'em.

Hi All,

Yep, I am a bit overwhelmed by how they all "popped" at once. I was expecting a much more gradual ripening of the different varieties - but BAM!!

lehua, Mahalo. This has been a more difficult routine than I had planned for. With the AWS, I was just planning on laying back in my hot tub and watching them grow. "Set It..And Forget It" as the old Ronco commercial goes. Well, I actually spent a lot of time hand spraying Serenade as we got wacked with powdery leaf mold big time this year.

So while the leaves took a beating, fortunately the tomatoes are fine. I am expecting sun scald however, where those tomatoes are no longer protected by the foliage.

Now getting a dozen new seedlings ready to transplant for my Fall garden, and hopefully, will have tomatoes on the table at Christmas.

P.S. Anyone living around San Jose is welcome to come over and help themselves. Just email me.

Raybo

I know how you feel. I have 33 plants and we can't pick them fast enough. I froze 20 lbs today and went out to the garden to find another 40 lbs of ripe ones. The only one that doesn't seem to be producing yet is the Opalka. I had high hopes for that one but it seems to be a lot later than the others. The plant is about 7' tall and has 100+ tomatoes on it but they don't seem to be turning red.

I notice from the photo's, that you have removed the black plastic soil covers from the earthtainer boxes that were in place at planting time,

At what stage did you remove them and why ?

Its a juuuuuuuuungle out there!

WOW!!!

Macheske, very nice pic. Wish my opalkas had looked like that.

mickyfinn,

No, I didn't remove the black moisture barriers. As it gets warmer here, I simply spread a thin layer of bark fines on the top to minimize the sun's heating of the black material.

Raybo

I just checked out the link to the self watering containers that you are using. The soil depth seems to be too shallow, but by looking at your tomato's it doesnt seem like that matters!! Wow I think that im going to try a couple of those out nest year. Absolutly awsome! Did you also follow the fertilizing portion of the directions or do you suggest otherwise?

corey,

The potting mix depth in theEarthTainer design is approx 10". The 'Tainer holds 3.2 cubic ft. of potting mix, so that is better than 1.5 cu. ft. per plant. For reference, my prior in ground plantings always seemed to grow in about a 1 cubic foot area. Actually, I am trying to find ways to inhibit plant growth in the 'Tainers, as they are just shooting skyward!!

Raybo

We had our first harvest a couple of days ago... 2 Galinas. Well, at least it's a start LOL! We should be getting some Sweet Thing Grapes by the end of the week:

{{gwi:1371734}}

I can't believe the size of them... last year the biggest grape tomatoes we got were about the size of my pinkie fingertip. I can't wait to taste these.

So far most of my "slicer" tomatoes have set fruit but it will be a while before any of them ripen. I've already lost 2 NAR's to BER :^( and that's my "problem child" plant anyway. There always has to be one, doesn't there?! But anyway, at least we have a start on the season. I doubt we'll have anything like what mewste has, though. Gracious, that's a LOT of 'maters!!! Have fun harvesting!

wow...need some help eating all those 'maters? :)

Geez, I wish my garden looked like that!!! But I doubt I will see the day. :(

Congrats to you all!