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Old April 30, 2014   #16
Cole_Robbie
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Quote:
Originally Posted by growmor View Post
As for the tomatoes I am going for taste. I live on a former junk yard that was dozed off but even what was there before wouldn't grow anything. I had good black dirt hauled in for a garden but my tomatoes last year were awful. I am not a good waterer so I am going with self watering containers and they will all be within 25ft of the house with probably 4 of them on the patio plus a large pot for the Napa Grape. Most of what I will grow will be Steak Sandwich plus some early ones. I have tomatoes larger than golf balls now. I am not growing anything but tomatoes except my small container of peas.
Interesting about the junkyard. I wonder if your soil has high levels of heavy metals. Did you till in the dirt you hauled? If so, the next thing to try would be a raised bed. I'm guessing that at least the general area where you live has soil similar to mine, and we grow some great tomatoes. My container tomatoes taste noticeably weaker.

I think drip irrigation is the best way to water. You can run it off a timer if you prefer.

And along the lines of the fish idea, you could just increase the nitrogen content of your fertilizer if you want bigger vines.
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Old April 30, 2014   #17
Stvrob
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supersweet 100 is an extremely vigorous hybrid cherry. I grow them single stem up to the second floor balcony and then let them start branching. The kids alwys used to get a kick out of that. 15 to 18 feet of vine length is pretty common. And for a hybrid, they are pretty good!
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Old April 30, 2014   #18
growmor
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I live in the Ozarks where rocks abound and the dirt washed off from the early farming years. The creek bottoms have some dirt. I had the hauled in dirt deep enough that I didn't get down to the original ground. Since I will have 9 cherry tomato plants on my patio 18x24 I have thought about using more Nitrogen to get more foliage as I will have too many tomatoes anyway. I am using EarthBoxes which use a trough of fertilizer along the front upper edge of the box with no further feeding. They recommend a balanced blend like 5-5-5 which I can't get so I am using 13-13-13 which might very well do what I want to do.
I think Sweet Million is the replacement for Supersweet 100.
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Old May 1, 2014   #19
Stvrob
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I used to live near Rolla, MO, pretty rocky, but the soil was very nice loam. My tomatoes grew very well. Speaking of climbing things...I used to grow luffa gourds there. That would be awesome growing over your patio!
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Old May 1, 2014   #20
KarenO
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The idea of eating cherries off the vine on the shade of the plants is very appealing to me.
Not to rain on the parade but how are you guys for thunderstorms down there in the summer? I know one good prairie boomer up here would flatten a tomato arbor in five minutes easily and make a big mess in the process
. As for big cherry plants if you decide to give it a go I will add another vote for black cherry, Sungold and super Snow White as the biggest cherry plants I have grown . 9 feet to the eaves troughs of my house here in zone 3.
Hope it works out
Karen
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Old May 1, 2014   #21
growmor
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The idea started that I wanted something at hand that was tasty and developed from there. I will have it anchored well enough to withstand most storms. It's cold here right now but as soon as it starts to warm up I will start measuring, visualizing and planning. We have been wanting shade over part of the patio but I really didn't want to build a permanent structure. I hadn't thought before of having a growing shade but the more I think about it the more it appeals to me. I have never grown cherry tomatoes except little scrawny vines so I don't know if I will like high producing tomatoes overhead or not. Some other vining plants might be better. The more I think of this idea the more excited I get. Any more suggestions of really heavy vining plants?
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Old May 1, 2014   #22
SharonRossy
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I agree about Black Cherry. The other great cherry which is a hybrid is Sun Sugar. If you want other vining plants, definitely grow cucumbers. They are easy, generally. Grow the Kirby cukes. You will get a lot and you will have to check because suddenly you will find a huge one that you didn't even know was there. But you get big leaves and it won't be top heavy. Much more manageable.
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