Supports for 5 gal. bucket tomatoes
 

Growing tomatoes in 5 gallon (self watering or global bucket) bucket need to set some suppoert system up. Looked on the net and nothing jumps out to me. Was trying to use PVC or some sort of cage system.

Buckets will sit on concrete so that cancels out staking anything into the ground. Any pics or thoughts would be great.

Hi chrisrap1, glad to see you joined us here at TV.

I have been using the same 5 gallon setup for my tomatoes and I have found a perfect system for those buckets. The grids I use fit perfectly on the buckets and I zip tie them to the holes in the hole the handles were in to hold them just in case they fall over in the wind. That has not occured yet and I am on my 2nd season using the grids.

My first season I used plain old cheap tomato cages but they just didn't want to stay in the bucket as well as I would have liked, so I bit my lip and decided to pay the money for the grids. I am happy I did because they will last for many years and easy to put on the bucket and just as easy to take off. Here is a photo of my buckets, the photo was taken with the EB as the focal point but you can see my buckets behind it.

I got the grids at Gardners Supply Company and here is my review I wrote about them there.

[COLOR=navy]"I connected two of the grids with each short side (19") shaped in a half circle and then attached them to my 5 gallon buckets by sliding them down onto the buckets leaving me with 34" of height. They are sturdy and I believe will hold a patio tomato without any problems and certainly much better than the wire cone style purchased at the local garden store. I might drill a hole in two sides of the bucket to attach the grids with zip ties to be sure it doesn't come off in case the bucket falls over. Otherwise, I think if you are not in windy areas that step is probably not necessary."[/COLOR]

[COLOR=black]There are 4 grids per order and I used 2 per bucket for 34" of height. You can always stack them higher and use all 4 for a much taller indeterminate, but I am not sure it would be wide enough to support the really long branches, you would get with the indetermninate tomatoes.[/COLOR]

Here is the link,
[COLOR=black][URL]http://www.gardeners.com/Flexible-Garden-Grids/38-773,default,pd.html?start=132&cgid=VegetableGardening[/URL][/COLOR]

[URL="http://thegrowingconnection.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/rooftop_buckets_mellons.jpg"][IMG]http://thegrowingconnection.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/rooftop_buckets_mellons.jpg?w=300[/IMG][/URL]

Here's a picture that I found. This doesn't look too difficult to build. I hope this will give you more ideas.
DP

dpurdy, that is the site I found the instructions on how to make a global bucket. globalbucket.org. It is a couple of teens who designed them and they have lots of different experiments they are doing with them. They even designed a self watering system for them. I believe that photo above is of a Chicago rooftop garden.

[IMG]http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z144/sprtsguy76/Picture153-1.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=sprtsguy76;270921][IMG]http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z144/sprtsguy76/Picture153-1.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]


I like this way and it would be much cheaper than my way. I live in a community and if my garden doesn't at least look nice they will tell me to take a hike with it.

Sprts,
Can you describe the cages?

The cages are made of CRW. I bought a 150' roll a few years back that was 5' in width. I basically cut them to size. A five gallon bucket is about three feet in circumference so that would be 6 squares. They stack well too so the size possibilties are endless. I usually dont make them any taller than 4' for 5 gallon buckets. I mount and put them together with UV zip ties and havent had any problems.

Damon

Chris: take a look at the thread in the DIY forum about PVC cages that I started the other day.

IMHO I'd take the durability, strength and life of CRW cages any day. You dont have worry about horizontal and vertical support and no tying up necessary. Plus the 6 inch squares are perfect for reaching through to harvest.

Damon

Sprts,
Thanks....they look great

I like the CRW solution, but don't really want to buy a 150' roll considering I just have a few buckets and am likely moving out of town in the fall. I did see, however, that Home Depot sells a 48" x 84" CRW sheet ("remesh") for $7ish. This will be much easier than the PVC solution and probably cheaper. And I can use the wire rope clips I have left over from building the EarthTainer pea fence cage.

ONe eyelet bolt near the bottom of the bucket and another directly above the bottom one near the top ,drop stake into eyelets

What is the big leafy plant behind the tomatoes? Is that collards?

Here's the way I have mine set up. Not too hard to build. I wanted mine portable!

Steve