Even before I read where you said it's not a water proof barrier I thought looking at the picture it doesn't look water proof. I feel that it should be water tight because water can carry nutrients very nicely. Picky, I know. Still should be an interesting experiment thanks for sharing. :)

Raybo, can't wait!

I may be doing this complete isolation with the Tomato-Tones next year. Should I re-use some of the self-made mix from this year? (it is peat, vermiculite and perlite in a 7:1:2 ratio, respectively) or in an experiment of one 'tainer being old TT and another being new TT, should I make up brand new soil mix to use in each? This would rule out the additives that Miracle Gro and Sta-Green add to their mixes for pure comparison of the actual fertilizers, right?

Ben,

The fertilizer content in new Miracle-Gro potting mix is probably .02, or something like that. Not a big factor overall. I would use the old mix for your trials next season, as the existing fertilizer would likely be spent. My data so far shows the "Old" Tomato-tone producing about 20% more tomatoes than the "New" Tomato-tone (using the same 1-cup per plant strips), but the "New" Tomato-tone is consistently showing a 5 to 7 day advantage in DTM.

Since you can't get the Old any more and if you have some stashed away, my recommendation is to conserve the Old as long as possible by doing a 50/50% blend of the Old and New together. That is giving me good results on several plants to date.

Raybo

I like your 50/50 mix idea of Old+New TT, so I think I will do that too for the benefits of both and spread it out. I have 'too much water' problem on some of my 'tainers (according to what others have said in my thread about that). The plant in the ET with the carved lid is doing the best.. I guess because the unusual rains we have had in our area cannot penetrate en-masse into the ET to screw up the moisture balance. I may go ahead and do carved lids for all my ET's next year in case we have an unusual volume of rain again. You just have to take extra special care when you plant your Tomatoes into the small holes of the lid. It'll be a challenge for the 30-ga ETs with two plants per 'tainer. The mulch on top of the lid has not moved at all, so my earlier worries of that blowing off were unwarranted. It 'sticks' to the lid just fine and is keeping the ETs cool.

If the fertilizer is 'spent' then as you say I shouldn't have any problem re-using the 'tainer medium next year. Do you think the purists will say much about that? I might need to build two more ETs just for an example and make up fresh mix anyway next year because I want to try alot of different varieties. I'm looking to try Goosecreek and stupice, but have yet to find anyone with seeds of those 2. All in all these ETs are fun and can't thank you enough for the guide\videos you put out there for everyone.

Ben,

My Goose Creek are coming in fine now, so I'll send you some seeds later this year. Remind me in the Sept timeframe. Ditto with Stupice seeds.

If you are going to have to buy some additional bags of new Potting Mix, then I would take some of the old mix, put that into the new 'Tainers, then mix in about a half and half old and new Potting Mix.

Rain is not a problem here in N. California. Last rain was in May, and we won't see it again until October. I too have some yellow leaves on a Kellogs Breakfast, but none on Big Beef nor Celebrity.

I like your lid idea. I saw where someone actually mounted the 8 cage legs to the top of the lid, then clamped the lid to the ring of the 'Tainer. Made for a easy way to remove the cages for planting and clean-out. I may experiment with that mounting next season - - something to think about.

Raybo

Ben,

Here are 2 photos from a Jason Cain who came up with this cage mounting approach:

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Assuming you spread the legs out near the edges of the lid rim, it looks like it should support the weight of the plants pretty well. I would make certain that there was a solid layer of potting mix that the central area of the lid sat on - no air gap in-between. It certainly would work on smaller varieties:

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He uses 4 Toggle Bolts to clamp the lid to the rim of the container. I would use larger fender washers under each of the 8 wire rope clips supporting the legs, to better distribute the load. I would also make the diameter of the two plant cut-outs smaller. Neat idea, Jason!!

Raybo