Tomatoes and Pepper harvest
 

This week many of the Big Boy & Jet Star tomatoes ripened, I kept what we could use and gave my neighbors each about 1/2 dozen and will be doing the same next week. Many of the fruits are just starting to get a blush of color, the production of tomatoes has been GREAT! I was worried growing indeterminate's in a 7 gal. Walmart bag but the results speak volumes. Can you see the difference in bell pepper plants in the pic below, the green & red peppers are a hybrid named North Star the yellow are California Wonder you can see in the pics how much larger the peppers are and the yield of the North Star plants have been amazing. As a result next year the only bell pepper worth planting for me is North Star their well adapted to the northern climates shorter growing season & offer large yields & large fruits! Hoping I can get 1 more harvest of peppers before the first hard frost. And I should note I've been applying 15-30-15 water soluble fertilizer every 2 weeks since July to all my plants except my green beans. By no means am I telling you to do this just telling you for me it worked well since I wasn't able to amend my potting mix with any compost tea or other tricks I've seen others use. I guess my advice if asked would be apply sparingly a little goes a long way, every 2 wks I use 5 gal. of the mix to feed 14 plants in grow bags I try to give each plant equal amounts as I apply. :D

Nice pics. How does the flavor compare between Jet Star and Big Boy?

Cole there's no doubt the Jet star are the sweeter of the two but the Big Boy isn't bad just not quite as sweet. At times I've sat down and enjoyed both eating them as one would eat an apple, there that tasty! The Jet Star are a tad smaller than the Big Boy and they have less seeds.

Darn nice looking fruit.

Worth

I must be getting the hang of it when it comes to using Walmart bags to grow vegetables, all my plants have done well. Thanks for the kind words Worth1

Jetstar, how much 15-30-15 do you put into the 5 gallon of water? If you could be specific with specified volumetric fluid ounces of 15-30-15 per 5 gallons or weight ounces or even grams would be definitively helpful. You are getting great results. The photo of the tomatoes is fantastic. Congratulations on your success.

BajaMitch, I got the water solubale 15 - 30 - 15 mix at my local Walmart it called Expert garden mix and its very simple 1 tbs per gallon of water then I apply about 1qt of the liquid I mixed to each plant. I apply the mix to the top of each plant, I was worried I might burn my plants but this hasn't been a issue with any of my plants. I didn't know what to expect when I began using this fertilizer every 2 weeks but the results have been great. If your not sure if it will work for you just use less and see how your plants react. I have used his method with indeterminate tomatoes, squash both regular and bush acorn and carnival type peppers & cukes. Be careful I don't want you to burn out you garden because you over applied or re applied to soon.

I've used the Expert 15-30-15 , a good product, much like Miracle Grow All-Pupose. A couple of thoughts.

When these are mixed at the outdoors recommended 1 tbls per gallon, you're going to get a EC reading of about 2.8 mhos or 2000 ppm Truncheon and this is without any significant Cal or Mag. A normal solution of the HG 4-18-38 with Cal/Mag for me is 2.0 mhos.
This is why the Expert and MG products are recommended every 2 weeks, the dose is fairly strong. But, you're going to need to find Cal and Mag somewhere.

The Calcium & magnesium were mixed into the potting mix I used 1-1/2 cups of garden lime and 2 tbs of Epsom salt. I use this formula with every grow bag I have. Its worked well for me.

Yeah, nice production like yours from small containers would be impossible without it. Plants would look pretty good, but under nourished when fruit starts loading up, production and plant heath suffer. They generally don't tell you that on the boxes of all-purpose ferts. Your stuff looks great Jetstar.

Jetstar - per your CA/MG adds to the potting mix - how big are your grow bags? Thanks!