Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Newbie here with deep horse trough container. Can it work?

squirrel789 · May 21, 2015

@bjbebs

Thanks for the pics and the advice! I wish I could do an in-ground garden too! Your support system looks very well-made and pretty much ideal. It's similar to the cattle panels and fence posts we used at the farm, only we tied the vines to the panels and were missing your awesome, rounded cage systems.

I have no doubt though that the methods you're talking about and shown in your pics are superior, and the in-ground methods are similar to those I've used with my dad in the past with good success (but I must say your supports are much more awesome!). I just hope I'm not going to end up at the local farmers market paying premium $$$ for good-tasting tomatoes, after sinking my cash into a trough full of plants with little or no fruit :-).

I realize the plants in my trough are packed in there pretty tight, I was just hoping that I could find an optimal level of feeding/watering/pruning that could help overcome this. Is this even a viable concept? I am hoping some folks on this forum have perhaps tried similar experiments and would share their methodology and results concerning taste, yield, etc.

I've read many online articles and posts where people grow indeterminates in 5 gallon buckets mostly successfully with lots of quality fertilizer and medium to intensive pruning. I'm admittedly new and rather ignorant about container gardens, and I'm sure I'm leaving out a number of important factors, but shouldn't 8 plants be able to grow in 40 gallons of soil if it is the same depth/surface area as eight 5 gallon buckets? I have around 170 gallons in this bed, and it's at least as deep as a 5 gallon bucket would be. I feel like I must be missing something obvious in this comparison. I know "intensive" and "SFG" methods appear to be popular (based on you tube videos, and online articles) in urban areas, but I worry that the finished product just won't live up to the delicious, in-ground garden tomatoes I'm used to. Any contradictions to this fear would be very welcome and I would love to hear how you grow your tomatoes.

I will certainly keep this thread updated as the plants start to grow more and will post pics of my containers, from preparing them to their currently planted state, as soon as I can pull them off my phone.

Best of all, the appeal of having my tomatoes in my backyard where, after work, I can crack open a cold beverage, and get outside to closely work with the plants sounds extremely relaxing and appealing to me. Again, I'd love to hear if anyone has tried something similar and how it worked out for you.

As always thanks for your time!

May 21, 2015	#3
squirrel789 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2015 Location: SW Missouri Zone 6b Posts: 121	@bjbebs Thanks for the pics and the advice! I wish I could do an in-ground garden too! Your support system looks very well-made and pretty much ideal. It's similar to the cattle panels and fence posts we used at the farm, only we tied the vines to the panels and were missing your awesome, rounded cage systems. I have no doubt though that the methods you're talking about and shown in your pics are superior, and the in-ground methods are similar to those I've used with my dad in the past with good success (but I must say your supports are much more awesome!). I just hope I'm not going to end up at the local farmers market paying premium $$$ for good-tasting tomatoes, after sinking my cash into a trough full of plants with little or no fruit :-). I realize the plants in my trough are packed in there pretty tight, I was just hoping that I could find an optimal level of feeding/watering/pruning that could help overcome this. Is this even a viable concept? I am hoping some folks on this forum have perhaps tried similar experiments and would share their methodology and results concerning taste, yield, etc. I've read many online articles and posts where people grow indeterminates in 5 gallon buckets mostly successfully with lots of quality fertilizer and medium to intensive pruning. I'm admittedly new and rather ignorant about container gardens, and I'm sure I'm leaving out a number of important factors, but shouldn't 8 plants be able to grow in 40 gallons of soil if it is the same depth/surface area as eight 5 gallon buckets? I have around 170 gallons in this bed, and it's at least as deep as a 5 gallon bucket would be. I feel like I must be missing something obvious in this comparison. I know "intensive" and "SFG" methods appear to be popular (based on you tube videos, and online articles) in urban areas, but I worry that the finished product just won't live up to the delicious, in-ground garden tomatoes I'm used to. Any contradictions to this fear would be very welcome and I would love to hear how you grow your tomatoes. I will certainly keep this thread updated as the plants start to grow more and will post pics of my containers, from preparing them to their currently planted state, as soon as I can pull them off my phone. Best of all, the appeal of having my tomatoes in my backyard where, after work, I can crack open a cold beverage, and get outside to closely work with the plants sounds extremely relaxing and appealing to me. Again, I'd love to hear if anyone has tried something similar and how it worked out for you. As always thanks for your time!