Double 5 Gallon buckets and pitfalls and varieties

[vintagepatch]

I have access to free food grade 5 gallon buckets. I am going to use 2 buckets inserted one inside the other. The bottom bucket will hold the water to be wicked up to the top bucket with the tomato in the top. The buckets will be placed in a planter area that is raised area. The raised area is a limestone planter that hides my rainwater plumbing and is tall enough to hide the buckets. My questions are as follows:

What varieties? The new dwarfs? What is the best wicking material? After the tomato season is over has anyone planted anything else? Has anyone hooked up a main bucket to feed siphon water/fertilizer to multiple buckets at the same time?
I know I will have other questions later.

Any input will help. Thanks!

Mary

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by vintagepatch

I have access to free food grade 5 gallon buckets. I am going to use 2 buckets inserted one inside the other. The bottom bucket will hold the water to be wicked up to the top bucket with the tomato in the top. The buckets will be placed in a planter area that is raised area. The raised area is a limestone planter that hides my rainwater plumbing and is tall enough to hide the buckets. My questions are as follows:

What varieties? The new dwarfs? What is the best wicking material? After the tomato season is over has anyone planted anything else? Has anyone hooked up a main bucket to feed siphon water/fertilizer to multiple buckets at the same time?
I know I will have other questions later.

Any input will help. Thanks!

Mary

Have a look a www.globalbuckets.org for a start. Covers exactly what you're looking to do, but no variety advice.

I've got 50+ buckets that corn syrup came in stacked in a corner of the garage waiting for a nice day to start fabricating mine. I'm personally thinking of trying my determinates and the one dwarf I have in the buckets, in theory the smaller plants should do better with the container size than the big indeterminates.

[vintagepatch]

Thanks Mark. I will check out the site. Since your in Wisconsin and I'm in Texas I can wait to compare results. I have order the dwarf seeds from victory. I have a couple of spots that that gets very hot sun 12 hours a day. I might do Earthtainers in those areas. I have nothing but rainwater collection. Conservation of my H20 is a major problem when it gets very hot, windy and no rain. Mary

[newatthiskat]

Cool I have some 5 gallon buckets around the house. I might try peppers in them. Thanks for the link
Kat

[fortyonenorth]

Originally Posted by marktutt

Have a look a www.globalbuckets.org for a start. Covers exactly what you're looking to do, but no variety advice.

Looks like an interesting website - thanks for posting.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

I did 50 different species of peppers in 5 gallon nursery containers last year and got 2-3 times the production I got from the same number and variety planted in the ground here. Since we seldom get days over 90 here and have a very short season, growing some of the real heat lovers requires some extra effort.

My only issue was keeping them watered, my wife and kids were not the best at taking care of them while I was out of town. That's why I wanted to go to the Globalbuckets design with an automated self watering setup using a couple of 55 gallon plastic barrels for a reservoir this year.

I've got enough extra that I decided to try some tomatoes this year as well. I'm hoping with black buckets under a low tunnel I can put them out 3-4 weeks before normal and finally get a garden tomato in June here.

[VitaVeggieMan]

Originally Posted by vintagepatch

I have access to free food grade 5 gallon buckets. I am going to use 2 buckets inserted one inside the other. The bottom bucket will hold the water to be wicked up to the top bucket with the tomato in the top. The buckets will be placed in a planter area that is raised area. The raised area is a limestone planter that hides my rainwater plumbing and is tall enough to hide the buckets. My questions are as follows:

What varieties? The new dwarfs? What is the best wicking material? After the tomato season is over has anyone planted anything else? Has anyone hooked up a main bucket to feed siphon water/fertilizer to multiple buckets at the same time?
I know I will have other questions later.

Any input will help. Thanks!

Mary

Mary, I currently have 15 of the 2-bucket planters going this year for the first time: 5 with tomatoes, 5 with peppers, and one each with carrots, collard greens, romaine lettuce, New Zealand Spinach, and Malabar spinach (the latter two with 6' tripod trellises). Everything is growing well so far, but the tomatoes and peppers have only been in the buckets for 18 days. I have a few more to plant this year with pole beans, scarlet runner beans, Orach mountain spinach, and even Teddy Bear Sunflowers. The bean buckets will have 7-8' pole/trellis in them, so they will have to anchored to something to keep from tipping over.

For the tomatoes, I stuck with determinates and semi-determinates because the larger indeterminates would likely grow too large for the standard round tomato cages I am using. I planted Mega Bite (2), Maskotka, and Patio Princess. As a test, I did plant one indeterminate (Black Prince) in a 6-gallon 2-bucket planter. The 6-gallon buckets are harder to find, but hold more grow media and water. Next year, I hope to try some of the new dwarf tomatoes in these bucket planters.

I also want to add an automatic watering system to these planters (and several EarthBoxes and EarthTainers). I'll probably use the EarthBox AWS, but I think I'll have a problem because I used 1.25" PVC pipe for fill tubes instead of the recommended 1.5" pipe. I don't think the EB AWS component will fit in my tubes, so I'll probably have to replace them all -- not sure I can do that without damaging the plants!

I do have a rain barrel, and thought about using that in an AWS setup, but I don't think it will have enough water pressure to serve 20+ planters.

Anyway, you can clearly use these bucket planters for more than just tomatoes, so go ahead and give them a try. I build mine a little different than most of the designs I've seen on the net -- specifically, I drill holes in the bottom of the inside bucket for aeration and put a layer of landscaping fabric on the bottom (after filling the wicking basket with grow media) to prevent roots from growing into the water reservoir. Of course, I stole both of these ideas from the EarthTainer design, so credit goes to Raybo for these features.

Good luck!

Mark

[brismith70]

Mark:

What does Firehouse Subs charge for their 5 gallon buckets these days? Do they still donate the proceeds to charities for firemen?

Thanks,

Brian

[VitaVeggieMan]

Brian, they charge $2 per bucket (including the lid, which I don't use), and they claim all of the proceeds go to charities for firemen. I think they look a little better than the typical white bucket, and they probably retain a little more heat for sun-loving plants like peppers and tomatoes. However, I'm sure tired of washing with a bleach/detergent solution them to reduce the pickle smell!

[tnpeppers]

Is that cling wrap you have used on the top of the tomato and pepper buckets?

[chalstonsc]

Vintage,
I have 5 gallon buckets inside 5 gallon buckets. I suspend 3 nylon ropes around quarter inch in diameter and about a foot long through the holes from the top bucket into the resevoir in the bottom bucket for wicking.
I've grown all types of varieties with success, and so have others, but I'm sorting through semi-determinates, "compact" indeterminates, and dwarfs to find which consistently do better in my climate.
I also grow peppers and eggplants....and you can grow pretty much anything you want to as long as you can water and feed as required.

[VitaVeggieMan]

Not cling wrap. Those are disposable shower caps made of clear plastic with elastic around the edge. They cost $2 for a pack of 6 at the local beauty supply shop, and they fit the buckets perfectly. They retain moisture, prevent splashing of dirt on the plants, and prevent the ring of organic fertilizer around the top edge of the bucket from leeching into the soil too fast.

[VitaVeggieMan]

chalstonsc,

Do you have a wicking basket in the bottom of your internal bucket that sits in the water reservoir in the outer bucket? If so, why do you feel the need for the nylon ropes for wicking?

[chalstonsc]

Vita,
No wicking basket....the ropes do the wicking instead.

[VitaVeggieMan]

Here's another picture of some 2-bucket eBuckets. I just planted these with New Zealand Spinach and Red Malabar Spinach, both with tripod trellis stakes.