Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

General discussion regarding the techniques and methods used to successfully grow tomato plants in containers.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old May 23, 2012   #76
lowlylowlycook
Tomatovillian™
 
lowlylowlycook's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: So. Illinois (6a)
Posts: 147
Default

So far, the mini-Laketainer seems to be keeping up.


Last edited by lowlylowlycook; May 23, 2012 at 12:31 PM.
lowlylowlycook is offline   Reply With Quote
Old May 23, 2012   #77
NGGrant
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Santa Cruz New Mexico
Posts: 81
Default

Awesome, I can't beleive the smaller tube has retained air so far, usually those things deflate rapidly.
__________________
Nick.
NGGrant is offline   Reply With Quote
Old May 30, 2012   #78
lowlylowlycook
Tomatovillian™
 
lowlylowlycook's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: So. Illinois (6a)
Posts: 147
Default

Reported conversations between my brother and another fisherman:

Fisherman: Is that a tomato?

Brother: Yep.



And, yeah, I'm worried about the smaller tube as well. I haven't really found a combination of tube and container that I'm really happy with.

Interestingly, the small LakeTainer seems to a bit ahead of the original as far as how many tomatoes it has. Maybe it warmed up faster in the sun before they were both launched.
lowlylowlycook is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 13, 2012   #79
lowlylowlycook
Tomatovillian™
 
lowlylowlycook's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: So. Illinois (6a)
Posts: 147
Default



LakeTainer Jr. Seems to be more advanced as far as tomato size goes. And Even these Sophie's Choice plants are too much for the pitiful store tomato cages.
lowlylowlycook is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 17, 2012   #80
meadowyck
Tomatovillian™
 
meadowyck's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Brooksville, FL
Posts: 1,001
Default

llc

You really need to develop this idea, it is GREAT!, and sell it. Find a manufacture who could make the tubes for you and get a set up designed. One suggestion grow the dwarfs in them, then you wouldn't have to worry about such big plants.

What a great idea you have, I only have the gulf, but I'm afraid the maters would all be picked before I could get to them....LOL
__________________
Jan

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
meadowyck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 18, 2012   #81
lowlylowlycook
Tomatovillian™
 
lowlylowlycook's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: So. Illinois (6a)
Posts: 147
Default

I think I said it before but while this is a much more sensible way to grow a tomato than a Topsy Turvy, the LakeTainer's market is just too limited by needing, well, a lake.

Still, I'd like to perfect the design a bit for next year so every time I'm in a store that might sell plastic planting pots, I take a quick look to see if they sell anything that's round, wide and not too deep.
lowlylowlycook is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 21, 2012   #82
meadowyck
Tomatovillian™
 
meadowyck's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Brooksville, FL
Posts: 1,001
Default

I get that, but what a great idea you have. Can't wait to see your lake fill up with them each year. LOL
__________________
Jan

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
meadowyck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 1, 2012   #83
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

You do realize that you are leaching fertilizer into the lake, right? Please tell me that's not Lake of Egypt, the lake from which most of us around here get our drinking water.
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 2, 2012   #84
rnewste
Tomatovillian™
 
rnewste's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Campbell, CA
Posts: 4,064
Default

Cole,

While we should all be sensitized to fertilizer run-off into our drinking water, etc. I would wager that any Golfcourse leaches 1 million times more fertilizers into streams and lakes than that emitted by one (lowly) LakeTainer. Think about it.....

Raybo
rnewste is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 2, 2012   #85
lowlylowlycook
Tomatovillian™
 
lowlylowlycook's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: So. Illinois (6a)
Posts: 147
Default

Well, I regret to inform you that some kind of critter has gotten the taste for green tomatoes and eaten literally all of them. Ate a good amount of foliage too. Not too sure what it could have been.

Also, while this lake is no longer used as a reservoir I'm more careful about what I use on the Laketainer tomatoes.
lowlylowlycook is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 2, 2012   #86
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

There might not be a lot of environmental impact, but the weakness is still in the leaching out of the fertilizer, even if it only wastes good fertilizer. I'm sorry to be Captain Bringdown, and I do admire your outside-the-box thinking.

What you have (re-)invented is raft hydroponics or raft-style aquaponics, which was likely one of the very first ways that early humans raised food. Early humans were hunter-gatherers, but we are just now figuring out that they did practice agriculture, too. They would plant when they were in one area and then come back at a later date and eat from those crops as they passed through. It is theorized that raft aquaponics may have been the first form of agriculture that humans kept around them all the time, because they could tie a line to the raft and drag it up and down a river as they walked along it. The river supplied water and protein from fish, and they basically dragged a floating salad bar with them to eat with the fish.

Aquaponics works much better with leafy, green stuff. The nutrient level is very low, and fish waste is almost entirely nitrogen. It's hard to grow fruiting plants in aquaponic setups, because you have to add P & K, and the fish don't like to swim in fertilizer. The most succesful setups that I have seen that are growing anything besides lettuce will pull out the fish water, mix in more ferts, and then water without letting the runoff get back into the tank.

Last edited by Cole_Robbie; July 2, 2012 at 12:52 PM.
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 2, 2012   #87
swamper
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: CT
Posts: 219
Default

I think this is an irresponsible practice, from the standpoint of introducing fertilizers into lake waters, regardless of whether there are other nutrient sources in its watershed. Even if the lake is not a drinking water supply, this practice can only cause harm by eutrophication and lowering dissolved oxygen. The end result is decreased water quality and degradation of aquatic life.

It's very sad to see practices like these promoted and defended here.
swamper is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 11, 2012   #88
Worth1
Tomatovillian™
 
Worth1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie View Post
There might not be a lot of environmental impact, but the weakness is still in the leaching out of the fertilizer, even if it only wastes good fertilizer. I'm sorry to be Captain Bringdown, and I do admire your outside-the-box thinking.

What you have (re-)invented is raft hydroponics or raft-style aquaponics, which was likely one of the very first ways that early humans raised food. Early humans were hunter-gatherers, but we are just now figuring out that they did practice agriculture, too. They would plant when they were in one area and then come back at a later date and eat from those crops as they passed through. It is theorized that raft aquaponics may have been the first form of agriculture that humans kept around them all the time, because they could tie a line to the raft and drag it up and down a river as they walked along it. The river supplied water and protein from fish, and they basically dragged a floating salad bar with them to eat with the fish.

Aquaponics works much better with leafy, green stuff. The nutrient level is very low, and fish waste is almost entirely nitrogen. It's hard to grow fruiting plants in aquaponic setups, because you have to add P & K, and the fish don't like to swim in fertilizer. The most succesful setups that I have seen that are growing anything besides lettuce will pull out the fish water, mix in more ferts, and then water without letting the runoff get back into the tank.
Can you please tell me where you got your information from.

The only thing I know of is the Chinampas made by the Aztec 1000 years ago which was not really a floating raft.
And they were in a lake/swamp.


Worth
Worth1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:17 AM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★