I like it. I've shown the videos to my mom, and promised to build her one.

The only hedge I might have is that for certain total sizes of system a drip system might be cheaper. My RainDrip system with timer was $33 at Lowes.

The big advantage of the gutter system though, even at slightly higher price, is that it looks much less fiddly. No need to adjust drippers for hot and cold weeks, right?

Here are a couple photos of my rain gutter tomatoes in Wal-Mart shopping bags.... so far they are looking really good.

Rick
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Those do look great, ricman.

Rick - What kind of tomatoes are they?

Hello Linda,

Those pictured are Celebrity and Better Boy and Early Girl.

Rick

This post was edited by ricman on Sat, Jun 7, 14 at 11:13

This is my first full year using the rain gutter grow system. I built 8 of the rain gutters and have a total of 70 tomato plants.
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I'm not sure I would have been brave enough to go 70 plants on the first shot, but it sure seems to have worked out for you.

I need to order some clips, do you happen to remember if those are the 23mm (like these)?

I bought my clips off of EBay they are listed as Grandpa Jacks Trellis Tomato Clips. I did not note a size listed. I built a small 5 unit rain gutter grow system last season and it performed well for me so I had some idea of what I was getting into. I also do other container plants such squash, cucumbers and peppers set up on drip irrigation.

Rick

Cool, and thanks.

Rain gutter system - good!
This is my first year trying it. I'm very happy so far. As you can see, my plants are doing great. Also as you can see, I have a lot of weeds on the ground. I"m working on that, I mean on getting rid of them not on helping them grow, but Weeds Are The Champions, My Friend.

The photo is from last week. The plants are quite a bit bigger now.

Here's a newer photo. The plants are bigger, but so are the weeds. At least they are not in the buckets. I sprayed'em yesterday. Die, weeds die!

Hello gjshawk,

Very nice looking setup. I love the ease of the gutter system once its up and running. Your plants look really nice and healthy.

Rick

Yeah, they seem to like getting water from the bottom up. Reminds me of vegetation along a stream or ditch bank. The plants there always seem to be greener and bigger than those farther away.

I have 4 4ft squares using the square foot garden method, and they are watered by my lawn sprinklers. They are doing pretty well too, but I think next year I'm going to take a couple of them out and replace with more rain gutter systems or something similar.

Grant

I just joined the rggs group on FB too. These photos are inspiring!

Thought I'd post an update photo of my rain-gutter setup. Plants are really growing so far, and are kinda crowding out the peppers. Green tomatoes on about all of them.

Hey gjshawk,

Looking great very healthy looking plants. Here is a shot down one of my rows. My son is standing at the end of the row. I have really enjoyed the RGGS.

A quick shots of the days harvest. Red Bell Pepper, Yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers and tomatoes-Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Big Boy, Better Boy, Big Beef and Super Fantastic. The largest Black Krim , the one in front weighed in at a little over 1 pound. Love the RGGS!!!

Fantastic!

Ricman, where are you located? Looks like you have quite a bit of room for the garden, which is impressive, as is the harvest! I'll be expanding my RGGS next season, since the "trials" will be a success this season. I really, really like being able to ignore watering that area of the garden. I have other sub-irrigated planters but I have to fill the reservoirs pretty much daily. They are growing great, but i still have to keep watering them, but not the RGGS.

Well, Rick, small world. I lived in Oklahoma for a while, while going to OU in Norman. Graduated in 1979, then left to go to flight school in the Navy. I wasn't a gardener back then.

Quick question: Have you noticed any difference between the plants on drip irrigation vs the plants on the RGGS? I'm curious to know if there is any difference. Thanks. I'm in Colorado, by the way.
Grant

It's hard to say about any differences because I didn't do any tomatoes in pots just the RGGS. I have done container tomatoes in the past and they did not do as well as in the RGGS this year. But without a side to side comparison no proof I guess. My other plants in the pots have done well this year but it has not got really hot yet, but that starts very soon as you well know.

Rick

I LOVE this gardening system! But . . . Our winters can get -15F, can I leave the plastic HD buckets full of soil outside over the winter? What about the plastic gutters? Anyone have experience with the plastic cracking? Do you cover the entire setup with burlap, etc? Thanks