[BajaMitch]

Update

That heat wave in Early June kind of did my 19 containers "in", if you what I mean. Some plants never really recovered as 4 of the 19 have yielded no fruit at all, and, an additional 5 plants yielded no more than 5 oz of fruit all this season. There were a few that did much, much better, but not what they should have done. The two best yielding containers were at my father-in-laws house in Long Beach, CA where the heat wave was not nearly as bad since he is much closer to the ocean. They were Cherry Red and Celebrity and his yield has been closer to normal yields, exhibiting very little to no effects from the record heat of June 9 and 10 this year.

I had a total of 16 experiments going in order to test for different mix recipes (varying proportions of perlite plus sphagnum peat moss plus Kellogg Premium Potting Mix and compost), containers with holes versus no hole containers, top drip irrigation (Drip) versus Self-Watering-Containers (SWC), large containers versus small containers, 6 different cultivars, determinates versus indeterminates, different fertilizer application methods (ferts mixed in the potting mix versus a fert strip versus periodic feeding), and differing quantities of compost.

The good news is that I still got usable results from my experiments as the experiments were set up as Boolean comparisons using only two containers for each experiment and testing for one specific thing. In this type of experimentation, the two plants do not have to do particularly well to render usable results. The only thing that I need to see is which one of the two containers in the two container experiment does better than the other. That is, each experiment was set up to compare only two possible items and the rest of the components in the two containers would be exactly the same in a given experiment pair, e.g., small container Vs large container, holes Vs no holes, compost containing mix Versus no compost, 1 mix recipe of a given volume % for each mix component compared to a mix with a different mix % (17% perlite Vs 34%, 7% compost Vs 25% compost, 0% compost Vs 50% compost (Drip containers), Drip Vs SWC, fert Strip Vs Ferts mixed in the mix, Periodic Feeding Vs Ferts mixed in the Mix, etc.).

I have meticulously maintained periodically taken records that show, for each experiment pair, which of the two containers did the best with regard to the comparative plant health, size and plant height, foliage and stem condition, flower production, fruit production (such as it is), maturation level, soil pH, soil temp. Even though the overall fruit production was low, my records and data clearly show big differences in the Boolean experiments between each of the experiment pairs.

This is what I have learned, so far. Holed containers do better than containers without holes for both Drip Containers and for the SWCs. For the Drip containers, 25% to 30% compost containing mixes do much better than Drip containers with no compost or even much less compost. The one Drip container with 50% compost is doing among the best of all containers. The fert Stip container is out performing the containers with ferts mixed in the potting mix and even out performing the two containers that are being periodically fed ferts. The Strip container is a Walmart 6.25 gallon SWC and is doing better than most all of the 4.25 Drip irrigation containers and certainly better than the 3.5 gallon of mix SWCs that are either a 4.25 gal container or in the other three 6.25 gallon Walmart SWCs. For all the SWCs, those with 6.72% compost do better than those SWCs with no compost in the mix.

I have two sets of SWCs going: 4 Walmart SWCS that contain 6.25 gallons of mix and 4.25 gallon containers that hold only 3.5 gallons of mix (the remaining 0.75 gallons of volume is the water reservoir). Generally, the much larger Walmart SWCs have done much better than the smaller SWCs. BUT, and this is an all import BUT, I do not attribute the Walmart success as being due to container SIZE.

Here is why. My biggest problem (even more so than the heat wave) with almost all my experiments is that I believe that I have over fertilized virtually all my containers. Too much nutrient! The big Walmart containers have virtually the same amount of the six macro nutrients, therefore, the "Concentratiton" of fertilizer/nutrient is much higher in the smaller containers per gallon of mix by a factor of 70% over the larger containers. To bolster my contention that I have over fertilized and that the concentration of ferts in the mix is critical, the one container that is doing the best among the 4 large Walmart SWCs is that the Walmart container with the Fert Stip is way out performing the other 3 Walmart containers where the ferts are mixed in the potting mix. This supports the contention that less fert concentration in potting mix itself is healthier for the tomato plant. Of all the Drip 4.25 gallon containers, the two containers that are doing among the best are those containers that are being periodically fed, meaning that their fert concentration has been lower throughout this growing season than those Drip containers that have the ferts mixed in the potting mix from the beginning of the season.

I analyzed the Chem-Gro fertigation application quantities, especially the ratio of ferts used by AKMark. By comparison to my fert application, both Chem-Gro and AKMark (and even Harvest's use of Chem-Gro ferts) are using much less total fert nutrient than me by 33% to 50%, and, they are both administering the fert periodically, which means that their plant containers are starting out the growing season with much, much less fert concentration in their potting mix by multiples (well over 100 times less fert in the mix) than all of my containers that have all the ferts mixed in the potting mix at the beginning of the season.

Last year, I had to replant on July 1, 2015 (I took them down on April 15, 2016 so that I could use them in this year's experiments. Those 4 Walmart SWCs were doing well on April 15, 2016, but I needed them for this years experiments). Last year, I did experiments with those 4 large Walmart SWCs. Of the four, I had one 'control' container that had no fertilizer added, and the mix consisted of only Kellogg Premium Potting mix; no ferts added until December. The other three had ferts very similar to the fert quantity that I used this year per container. The control did much, much better than any of the other three by leaps and bounds. Another testament to less fert is better.

The reason I used the fert quantity from last years experiment in this years experiments is because I mistakenly thought that I could do better this year by not adding any sand to the mix. Those three Walmart containers that had added ferts plus peat moss and perlite in addition to the Kellogg Premium Potting Mix had large quantities of sand in them...very large. I mistakenly thought that the sand was the only problem - wrong. The sand was a problem for sure, but the ferts were the other problem as I now know (strongly suspect). I now do not use any sand at all as it does nothing for the plants. Sand doesn't wick up water in SWCs, it doesn't have any CEC (the all important Cation Exchange Capacity) at all, and a mix of compost, perlite, peat and potting mix drains just fine while holding water and providing plenty of the absolutely necessary CEC.

Oh, BTW, here are my determinations so far based on my experiments. Use containers with holes in the sides of the container for air root pruning (line holed containers with landscape fabric). The optimal mix for SWCs (IMO) is 2-2-1 (by volume, 2 parts potting mix, 2 parts peat, 1 part perlite) or 3-1-1 (slightly better than 2-2-1) with 6.72% compost with either of the aforementioned recipes (borrow some mix volume from the potting mix for this 6.72% by volume). Use a fert strip instead of mixing the dry ferts into the mix. For top watering drip containers, use holes and a fert strip as well. Optimal mix recipe (IMO) is 3-5-2-2 ( by volume, 3 parts compost, 5 parts potting mix, 2 parts peat, 2 parts Perlite or 25%-41%-17%-17% respectively).

For back yard container gardening, using liquid ferts for fertigation is expensive, comparatively speaking. Being a cheap guy, my goal is to determine the easiest and cheapest way to grow container tomatoes with repeatable, reliable success. But, that's just me. My philosophy is, if you have the money, buy what you want...it's not immoral to do so. But, if you're cheap, like me (irrelevant as to whether or not you've got lots of money - if you're cheap, you're cheap), then why not save some money? Also, IMO, if I can, through my experiments and data collection, achieve a cheap, reliably well working container recipe, that will mean my efforts are financially and physically efficient. Anyone can spend tons of money on expensive grow media and chemicals and expensive ferts, what's the challenge in that? It's like using a Lamborghini to commute to work. Sure, you may get there a little faster, but is that most financially efficient way to do that? Not dissing people with money. If I had the money, I would in fact own a Lamborghini, and I would probably sleep in it, too.

Side point; Those darn Walmart container plants lasted from July 1, 2015 to April 15, 2016 and two of them were starting to fruit up by April 15th. That proved something very important to me. There were many very cold days in that 9.5 month period. The maturation of the plants were slowed down very significantly, BUT, they did not die. Nor did the plant viability suffer at all in the long run. Yes, they were very 'dormant' in their growth, but they did not die or perish at all during those months where the over night temps dropped to 37 degrees Fahrenheit and the day time temps didn't exceed 55 degrees for consecutive days. Interesting!

What that means to me is that I am going to plant on April first next year, no matter what the weather is. I deferred planting to early may this year because I read that optimal planting is where the overnight temps are regularly above 55 degrees Fahrenheit and the daytime temps do not exceed 85 degrees. That didn't happen until May 1, 2016. Well, I say baloney to that. The plants will weather the cooler temps in Early April just fine and will be maturing before the really hot weather of summer. You know, the hot weather of June 2016 that ruined my production this year by killing off the 2nd and 3rd flower trusses of both my indeterminates and determinates.

Last item. Funny thing, some of those burned up 2nd trusses and 3rd trusses, for some not understandable reason, apparently were successfully fertilized with pollen as they are now starting to grow some fruit. They actually stayed dormant from June 10th to about two weeks ago where those seeming dead and dried up flowers are actually showing little tiny tomatoes starting to grow.