Being a softer plastic, feet wouldn't help. Three short pieces of lumber under them works.

I bought 10 of those last year on sale at Menards for $3 each. They work great for a container if you're not picky about looks. I just put each on two scrap pieces of 1x6 wood to raise them off the ground. My tomato patch uses these exact tubs.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:7306}}

Mea, those are pretty much the exact same ones. So, did you put drainage holes in the bottom of the containers too, or just around the sides?

Pulling out of my garage this morning, I noticed a dismantled rubbermaid drawer set sitting there in the corner. Tonight I might test the sturdiness of the divider sections to see if those might work to hold containers up off the ground.

I have holes in the bottom too and putting the tubs on 1x6 scraps elevated the tub enough to drain from the bottom too.

Mea, How many tomato plants did u plant in each tub? I wanted to grow some carrots, will they grow in these tubs?

As far as I know, you can only grow one tomato plant per these containers. I also use these containers for cucumbers since they need a lot of water to make the cucumber they need a bigger pot to draw it from. I had an excellent cucumber crop last summer. My tomatoes were so so but I attribute that to our drought here in Chicago last summer and my soil mixture probably wasn't that good either. My poorly aerated soil exasperated the problems with the tomatoes in these containers when the drought hit us. I got a decent crop but lots of blossom end rot and cracks in the skin.

Just due to the size tomato plants get I wouldn't suggest more than one per container.

Last year I grew lemon cukes in 8 gal ceramic pots -- one to a pot. Got about 2 cukes a day from each throughout the growing season -- plants were staged in pairs at 3 wk intervals --fruit season was +/-5 mos., though the last mo. of production (Oct) had pretty tiny fruits (ping pong balls). As long as I didn't louse up the watering, the cukes took much less space than the tomatoes -- the smallest tomato container that I got a decent yield from was 10 gal. My best came from the 20 gal. containers and those were very happy campers from July (first harvest) to March (end of the winter harvest). Tomatoes were planted in 3 sets, March (for earlies), July for fill in, and end of October for the winter crop. Cukes only managed two plantings -- a spring and a July. The Oct planting never went anywhere.

Thankyou Mea, will try toget someof those big tubs.

Nila

If you want a sturdier tub than the Wal-Mart ones, go to the livestock/horse supply section of a Fleet Farm, Petsmart, or other big farm supply store, and look for a "Muck Bucket". They generally run in the $10-$15 range and hold 17.5 gallons.

The ones made of "Fortiflex" can take quite a bit of abuse, as long as you don't whack them hard with anything when it's real cold out. In addition to black, they also come in red, green, and blue, though not all stores stock all colors at the same time. The ones called "Tuff Stuff" are even more durable (and probably a little more expensive), but I think black is the only color for these.

I discovered the ~$4 18 gallon starage containers at Wal-Mart a month or so ago and I've got squash, icebox watermelon, onions, bush beans, and even sweet corn in them! I'm about to replant one of my tomatoes in another one since its roots are filling up its whole 5-gallon container. They're not pretty, but they sure are cheap.

If I have a planter that is 17 inches across, ? inches around, and ? inches high, how can I tell how many gallons it holds? What is the formula? Plus, since it is a planter, the top is bigger than the bottom. The garden center employees don't know - they are just high school kids. I need to know my planters are big enough for my tomatoes. Thanks.

DonnaMarieNJ

donnamarie, your formula is here: volume for frustum of a cone(involves calculus). Compute the volume in cubic inches and divide by 231 to get the volume in gallons. Lot easier if you buy cylindrical or square planters.

A slightly less accurate, but easier formula would be to take the average of how far across the top and bottom are and use that in the formula for the volume of a cone. For example a planter that was 24" deep 17" across at the top, and 11" across at the bottom would have an average diameter of 14" and a radius of 7". That would make its volume Pi * R^2 * H or 3.14 * 7*7 * 24 = 3694 sq in / 231 = 16 gallons

While I appreciate your help, I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. Can you make it easier for me? And if I do have a rectangular tub, which I do, what would be an easy formula for that?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP.

DonnaMarieNJ

I did the measuring. My planters are 16 inches across, 14 inches deep and 45 inches around (top) graduating to 37 inches around (bottom).

My rectangles are 16 inches deep, 60 inches around and 16 x 18 inches across.

How many gallons are these? Do I need bigger containers?

A general idea for the formula would be appreciated. There is no need for it to be 100% accurate.

Thank you yet again!

DonnaMarieNJ

Your math problem is kind of confusing and seems overly complicated. All you need to know is that there are 7.48 (round up to 7.5) gallons per cubic foot of whatever. For rectangle boxes convert everything into feet and multiply height x width x depth and you have cubic feet. Multiply that by 7.5 and you have gallons.

For cylinders, the formula is Pi * Radius squared * height. You should take the measurement across, divided by 2 to get the radius. Then put it in the formula. Your planter is 16 inches across, which makes a radius of 8, so your volume is Pi * 8 squared * 14, which equals 2815 cubic inches. There are 231 cubic inches per gallon, so 2815/231= 12 gallons.

The formula for a rectangular planter is length * width * height, so your planter is 16 * 16 * 18 = 4608 cubic inches, or 4608/231 = 20 gallons

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

boosiebutt, the idea of many of us being able to do your formula is a sweet idea but overly optimistic for me anyway. You little apple dumpling you! LOL