Returning Gardener Going the Container Route

[delaware]

At 60, by happy choice, I gave up my car for a bicycle for philosophical reasons.

At 60, and not by choice, being vertically and horizontally challenged with spinal arthritis, I was forced into giving up an in-ground garden in favor of container gardening on my 11' X 30' patio and I'm enjoying it so much I wish I had done it long ago instead of just giving up gardening for a while. Good grief, 6 years without homegrown tomatoes!!!!

So here I am at 66 with 80 containers (a combination of large plastic pots and 10, 15, and 20 gallon smart pots) interestingly arranged at varying heights and staked with rather nice looking caging and bamboo stakes all ready to go for tomatoes, oh my, oh my 20 different trail varieties (that is trial to me....you guys know 'em well), lettuce, oriental vegetables, strawberries, beets, carrots, okra, blackberries, and gasp, even asparagus in containers. Hey if I can learn to "claim a lane" and make an 18 wheeler give way to me pedaling at 6 mph on a 4 lane highway, surely I can grow asparagus in a container.

But I digress....

I'm confident about everything but the maters. I'm growning varieties I've never grown before, in smart pots I've never used before in a growing medium I've never used before and since there are 20 varieities, I want to do EXTREME pruning which I've never done before in order to decide on which varieities I want to keep planting in future years.

NCTOMATOMAN did extreme pruning and topping in 2 & 3 gallon containers but he has tomato angels tending his crop....me I'm gonna stick with mostly 15 gallon smart pots, and a few 20 and 10 gallon smart pots...prune to one or two vines and top at 5 feet after adequate fruit set. The problem is that I'm not sure of which variety can tolerate the smaller 10 gallon pots. (I have 5 - 10 gal, 13 - 15 gal and 2 - 20 gal).

Incidentally, my growing medium is Promix BX. Dear Lord, I've sucked up 5 - 3.8 cu. ft. compressed bales of Promix BX for the tomatoes, and 3 - 2 cu. ft. bags of Miracle Grow Potting Mix, 10 cu. ft. of vermiculite, and 6 cu. ft of perlite for the annuals and leafy vegetables.

Based on searching the internet for growth habits, this is what I'm proposing:

10 gallon Smart Pots
Bush Big Boy, Tomatoberry, Container Choice, New Big Dwarf, Rosella Purple Dwarf

15 gallon Smart Pots
Cherokee Green, Cherokee Purple, Tasteful Tomato, Carmello, Costoluto Fiorentino, Granny Smith, Valencia, Black Krim, Green Zebra, Sioux, Jaune Flamme, Nepal, Black Truffle

20 gallon Smart Pots
Neves Azorean Red, Brandywine

Does this sound okay?

Thanks for your help and suggestions!

Caroline

[peebee]

I'm not an expert who can tell you what you can or can't grow in what size pot, all I can tell you is that I've grown Tomatoberry (the real seed from Johnny's) and like a typical cherry, it grew very tall, much bigger that Cherokee Green or Purple, or Carmello.

But, I've grown cherries in 5 gallon pots before; to me they seem to grow anywhere. You just don't get the yield in the smaller containers, but again, cherries produce more than regular tomatoes anyways so that might be enough for you.

[amideutch]

Caroline, supporting your plants will be one of the most important area's in determining container size. I've grown all types of maters in containers with 10 gal Smart Pots being the largest used down to a 1 Gal Smart Pot.
What you are proposing is more than adequate to handle given varieties to pot size. Periodic fertilization will be needed during the course of the growing season. And don't be surprised if some of the varieties you listed for the 15 Gal Smart Pots get as big or bigger than the NAR/Brandywine plants. Ami

[Dewayne mater]

Even though you are not using his design, I highly recommend Ray Newste's numerous threads on the Earthtainer. Through many trials and surprisingly few errors, he has really honed down a lot of the issues like the best: growing medium, fertilizers, lime, insect control, and disease control. Several side by side trials of a large array of products in these areas have been done and the end result is a savings of a lot of trial and error for the rest of us!

Glad you are back into it and I wish you happy and successful growing season.

Dewayne Mater.

[delaware]

Originally Posted by amideutch

Caroline, supporting your plants will be one of the most important area's in determining container size. ...snip...
What you are proposing is more than adequate to handle given varieties to pot size. Periodic fertilization will be needed during the course of the growing season. And don't be surprised if some of the varieties you listed for the 15 Gal Smart Pots get as big or bigger than the NAR/Brandywine plants. Ami

Thanks Ami for the reassurance. I'm relieved ... well all I have to contend with now are bugs, diseases, and a 7 month old spunky Dachshund who rips out seedlings as fast as I plant them.

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

Even though you are not using his design, I highly recommend Ray Newste's numerous threads on the Earthtainer.
Dewayne Mater.

Thanks Dewayne. I have read many of his posts with great interest. I've also spent hours in the arcives doing searches. What a great site.

[Elizabeth]

In my experience tomatoes do great in SmartPots. I use the 15 gallon size with 20" Texas tomato cages (a perfect fit). A few of the plants went over over the top of the cages, even with the extension - so probably about 7'.

[delaware]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth

In my experience tomatoes do great in SmartPots. I use the 15 gallon size with 20" Texas tomato cages (a perfect fit). A few of the plants went over over the top of the cages, even with the extension - so probably about 7'.

That is great to hear. What luscious plants you have!

How often do you have to water the 15 gallon Smart Pots when it gets 90-100 degrees? You'd think Delaware wouldn't be ghastly in the summer but it often is. However, since I'll be doing extreme pruning and topping, I suppose my water requirements would be less. I could handle once a day for a while but watering twice a day would be a reall drag with a job and a life. But then, if it gets too tedious there is always the possibility of installing a drip system.

[Elizabeth]

Those are photos of my fall/winter plants taken in November. They are just now getting yanked (my spring plants are babies on the patio). I meant to put them on drip, but never got around to it - they got too big too fast and they are close together so it was going to be pretty fussy. I have rings of laser line already made up so I can put them on drip this season.

I was out hand watering every other day during the warmest days (in the 80's) of Sept/Oct, and probably once a week when temps were lower. Where I am we get up to 90 maybe a couple times a year and 100 never, so I don't know how often they would need watering in higher temps. I have a moisture probe that I use for container plants to gauge when to water. I know there is some moisture exchange when smartpots are on soil, but these are on gravel, so that doesn't happen. If yours are on soil it would help with moisture. I had a couple of SP in a planting bed that has automatic sprinklers - they got watered on the side from the spray and I never had to hand water them.