Tomatoes in 5-gal buckets... I didn't have success

sheeshshe · Mon Jun 04, 2012 7:26 am

I keep reading and seeing people having success with growing tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets. I tried it last year and honestly, they didn't do nearly as good as the ones planted in the ground. the plants didn't produce anywhere near the amount of tomatoes as the ones in the ground (same soil) the plants also didn't get as large either. Do people really have awesome success with it? Is it something that can be done, but you need to fertilize it more?

jal_ut · Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:43 am

[url=https://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010137veg.roots/010137ch26.html]Look at This[/url]

The tomato has a giant root system when in the ground. When confined to a bucket, yes, it would need to be watered and fertilized regularly to perform anywhere near as well.

[url=https://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010137veg.roots/010137toc.html]This paper[/url] describes the root development of many of the plants we grow in our gardens. It is required reading if we want to learn about our plants and the parts we don't see.

rainbowgardener · Mon Jun 04, 2012 10:14 am

Yes, tomatoes in containers have such a little bit of soil, which dries out very fast compared to being in the ground. That means you have to water them all the time (for me every day in heat of summer). That means you are flushing nutrients out of the soil all the time, with all that water, so then you have to fertilize regularly.

It can be done, but it is way more work than sticking a tomato plant in the ground.

I tried it one year and decided it was only for people who really have no other choice, like they are gardening a balcony or something.

RogueRose · Mon Jun 04, 2012 10:52 am

I have 3 (or 4....hmmm..got to count) in 5g buckets and 5 in the ground. They're all doing great. The weather is cooperating wonderfully lately with watering my garden every day for me (and they said it was supposed to be a DRY summer...or is this a delayed april showers?). I want to fertilize everyone but I want to use my liquid fertilizer and I'm worried it will just go right through with it being so wet. I think I will just put on the granular one I have though since it's so wet out.

Also - I am not sure how you planted them, but I planted them up to 3/4 full then filled in more soil once they grew a bit.

sheeshshe · Mon Jun 04, 2012 11:13 am

that makes total sense! One of my friends thought about doing it for their tomatoes and she is new at gardening, I told her last week that I don't recommend it. Glad I told her that, because I don't' want to set her up to fail, esp since she doesn't have a lot of time to devote to watering daily.

sheeshshe · Mon Jun 04, 2012 11:16 am

I wish I could open those links. for some odd reason, it isn't letting me open them. it is blocking it

rainbowgardener · Mon Jun 04, 2012 12:45 pm

you mean the link to RogueRose's garden album? That's a facebook page. It won't let you go there if you are not a FB member.

If you meant jal_ut's links, I didn't have any trouble opening them.

sheeshshe · Mon Jun 04, 2012 12:46 pm

No, the links that james posted.

jal_ut · Mon Jun 04, 2012 1:51 pm

https://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010137veg.roots/010137toc.html

Here is the link. Copy and paste into your browser.

sheeshshe · Mon Jun 04, 2012 2:06 pm

thanks!!! that works. Not sure what is up with my browser.. I've never had issues with opening links before... strange!

sheeshshe · Mon Jun 04, 2012 2:14 pm

WOAH!!!!! that link is insane! wow, crazy stuff. I never would have thought an onion would send out roots 39" down. that is nuts! and tomatoes? up to 5 feet? that is shear craziness! hopefully I read it right!

applestar · Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:55 pm

Yep. I've had those links for a while now too, and it's really amazing. Now I can't remember if Jame posted both, but there are two -- that together reference most common vegetables you would plant. I like going back and reading them at least once or twice every season....

RogueRose · Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:32 pm

rainbowgardener wrote:you mean the link to RogueRose's garden album? That's a facebook page. It won't let you go there if you are not a FB member.

If you meant jal_ut's links, I didn't have any trouble opening them.

The link I posted is a public link for those that aren't on FB and also not in my network.

mattie g · Tue Jun 05, 2012 8:10 am

The info from the Soil and Heath site is pretty mind-blowing. Makes me feel like I'm not treating my plants right and giving them enough room to grow!

jal_ut · Tue Jun 05, 2012 11:49 am

When plants are grown in the soil their roots have a large volume of soil to draw water and nutrients from, as you can see from the info on the link. This doesn't mean you can't grow plants in containers, but it should illustrate the need for frequent watering and fertilizing so your plants are not starved.

mattie g · Tue Jun 05, 2012 1:18 pm

jal_ut wrote:When plants are grown in the soil their roots have a large volume of soil to draw water and nutrients from, as you can see from the info on the link. This doesn't mean you can't grow plants in containers, but it should illustrate the need for frequent watering and fertilizing so your plants are not starved.

Good point.

I'm using containers for some extra tomatoes and peppers this year, and really don't know what I'm doing. Is there a good guideline for how often container gardeners should fertilize (with compost tea and hydrolized fish fertilizer)?