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

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Old December 12, 2012   #1
Garf
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Default Container Mulch

What would be a good mulch to use in containers?
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Old December 12, 2012   #2
habitat_gardener
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I use the smaller-size pieces that I sift out of my compost, an inch or two deep -- around the size of a bark mulch. Anything with smaller pieces will work.
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Old December 13, 2012   #3
KarenO
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i use aspen wood shavings such as is used for pet bedding. clean, stays put, composts over time and looks nice too.
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Old December 13, 2012   #4
simmran1
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Garf,

Either here a T’Ville or another gardening forum sometime ago I read about using straight peat moss, about ¾ to an inch on top. Was supposed to be a weed suppressant,
and more of a saturation barrier against heavy rains, or over watering, and a claim was made to lessen blossom end rot, due to more even watering.

This last season about mid June the spigot from the sky turned off and everyone in our garden club was experiencing BER, including me. I was at a mega home improvement and small bales of peat moss was right there near the garden center checkout so…

I did what I thought was described and it seemed to work, at least better than anything else. It is a weed mat barrier, and seems to allow watering to trickle once saturated.
The BER may have cured itself, but at least it was gone, and though I still had to water everyday in the 100 degree heat, I got some decent yields from everything in containers.

Anyway, that’s the way I’m gonna be mulching, so you might try it.
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Old December 13, 2012   #5
FreyaFL
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I use the shredded eucalyptus mulch from HD on everything from my yard garden areas to my potted plants. It seems to work well. I have also used the shredded Melaleuca mulch (I think it's called Florimulch...?) as this is supposed to have some bug fighting capabilities. I also like that it makes a use of an invasive. (I buy this when I can find it, but I haven't seen it in a while. And, just so you don't get your hopes up, aphids seem to have no issues with it. LOL)

Interesting to hear about using peat for mulch. Maybe something to try during our dry months, then, before planting for our very wet summers, it could be turned in and a layer of eucalyptus or melaleuca mulch put on top.
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Old December 14, 2012   #6
Fat Charlie
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I just use grass clippings.
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Old December 14, 2012   #7
kilroyscarnival
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I have been using leaves chopped up by the mower into the bag. Actually for the peppers, I put a layer of diamond-cut shredded newspaper (from my paper shredder)around first, then covered with the leaves, as I didn't have enough leaves before they really started falling. The newsprint, moistened with a spray water bottle, had nice adhesion, but the leaves haven't blown off as I thought they might. Again, dampening them down helped.
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Old December 14, 2012   #8
easttx_hippie
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I use pecan shells in my containers, especially the ornamentals 'cause they look so good. I get them at a local pecan processor that has a small mountain of them every fall. I keep a 30 gal. drum of them next to my potting table so it's easy to use when potting anything.
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Old January 8, 2013   #9
Garf
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I just had my PonGam tree trimmed, so I asked the trimmers to shred some of the wood as fine as they can for me. I got half a garbage bag of finely shredded wood for use as mulch. It wouldn't be enough for a raised bed, but should do nicely for my containers.
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Old March 8, 2013   #10
cschilds
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If you are lucky enough to live near the ocean, try seaweed for mulch. I collect fresh seaweed from our beaches here on Florida's Space Coast, rinse it to remove excess sand and salt, then add liberally as it dries down quite a bit. It keeps my plants very happy with all the additional nutrients available, and my tomatoes taste far, far, far better.
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Old March 9, 2013   #11
Stvrob
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I use black plastic
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