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Location

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Cleveland Texas

What would be the best way to raise tomatoes? I haven't decided whether to use raised beds or maybe a large plastic drum with the top cut out or other container.
Room is not a problem, just mainly worried about weeds and critters.

10/22/2009 10:57:31 PM

New Hampshire, USA

I used containers this year with a lot of success.

11/3/2009 10:22:55 PM

Belgium

I'm looking for some giant tomato seeds, all seeds are welcome, e-mail me please if you have some
Rohnny.Clerinx@telenet.be

11/4/2009 12:33:27 PM

Belgium

sorry wrong post

11/4/2009 12:33:44 PM

Cleveland Texas

How large of a container would I need? Would a 55 gallon plastic barrel be to big or one cut in half?

11/4/2009 2:24:55 PM

South Finland pumpkinfinland@gmail.com

Rebj,

I had 20 gallons container and grew 3.67 LBS, which is Country rec here. might want bigger container next year but 55 gallons container would be enaugh. Just my two EURO cents.

Miika

11/4/2009 3:10:07 PM

Murfreesboro, TN

You can use landscape fabric and plant in the ground. I hate weeing too.

11/4/2009 8:19:12 PM

New Hampshire, USA

5 gallon container or bigger

11/4/2009 9:56:22 PM

Cleveland Texas

Any soil recomendations for a container?

11/4/2009 10:31:13 PM

Boulder County Colorado USA planet Earth

I have found that plastic growing conatiners(you can get these from tree farrms that sell trees they may have some left over) I like any thing bigger than a #15 i have seen huge 6 foot plants growing from em

11/5/2009 9:20:54 AM

New Hampshire, USA

You can use miracle grow vegetable soil.

11/10/2009 10:31:43 PM

Colorado Springs, CO

rebjr,.....A 55-gal. drum ? ! Is so, hopefully it is plastic and not metal. Tomato plant roots are not programmed to go deep, they go where the heat is, and will be proned to stay closer to the surface than you might think. They go out to find water, not necessarily down. In a 55-gal drum I envision a whole bunch of soil mix that will never get water nor share space with any roots.

Expect your root mass to be about the size of a basketball, at best, with a few stragglers reaching out beyond that area. A 5-gal. pail is perhaps ideal, and be sure to have several dime-sized holes around that bottom rim for excess water drainage and for air to come in.

There are some draw-backs to container growing that are noted. They can often not have adequate sustained microbial activity, let alone be populated by earthworms, and one might have to give water more frequently due to extreme swings of water gain and evaporative loss. You might wrap those containers (base) with some sort of towel or old sheet and block some excess direct sun exposure or winds from "cooking" that soil mass. Heat is good, but too much heat in fluctuating daily cycles will possibly confuse and stress the plants. Drench the soil with compost tea, and hydrolized fish & seaweed solutions to feed. Try early evening foliar feeding on occasion with those same solutions.

Tomatoes like consistency, and dislike stresses.

11/26/2009 10:53:47 AM