Hello!

This is an update to a previous post on setting up an automatic water and fertilizer for veggie containers:

Liquid Fert in a self-watering container?

So far, the system has been working great! I went on a 9 day vacation, and knew that a 32 gallon setup would not be enough to feed 9 containers for 9 days. So, I added another 32 gallon trash can in parallel, and hooked it up as before. But, on this second one, just to make sure I did not run out of water, I added a float valve near the bottom the 2nd can that is hooked up to the water spigot. Here are a few photos of the updated setup:

This one shows the float valve at the bottom of the 2nd added trash can.

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This one shows both of the cans, side by side. At the bottom of the left can, you can see where the water from the spigot is hooked up.

Notice the broken off handle in the lower middle of the pic? That is what happens when you try to move around a trash can full of water! :o)

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I have continued to use a ~1/10 Miracle Gro mixture (1 tablespoon per 10 gallons). As the mixture gets used up, I add 10 gallons of water and 1 tablespoon of MG, using a 5 gallon bucket. At the current rate of use, I am using about 80% of the two cans every week.

Well, when I got back from vacation, everything worked great! Both cans had drained all the way to the bottom, but the float valve was keeping them watered. Though there was no fertilizer in the water, it did keep the plants from dieing of thirst.

Here is an updated picture of my container garden:

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From right to left, is Sweet 100 tomatoes, a grape variety tomato, Kentucky Wonder pole beans (x2), Sweet Green Bell (California Wonder), Sweet Pepper (Bonnie Bell), Clemson Spineless (x2). The two in the foreground are also bell peppers, but they are using different types of soil. The one on the right has a variety of tapla's soiless mix (5:2:1 pine bark fine:peat:perlite), and the other was an amended version of a potting soil that did NOT work out; kept the plants around to see what would happen. The container with the soiless mix is hooked up to the system, while the container with the potting soil is not.

Due to problems earlier in the spring, my garden is about 4 weeks behinds everyone else's in the area, but the tomatoes plants are going crazy! This is the first time doing grape tomatoes, and they look pretty cool! Here is a close up of one of the tomato clusters.

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The pole beans have started to put out some blossoms. I am concerned about the vines over reaching the top. Any one have any experience in "topping" pole beans??

The peppers are all growing well, but only a few blossoms right now. Some concern here, but I have never done well with them in the past. I have never got a pepper that looks like the nice blocky ones you see in the store. Need to do some more research on growing peppers.

The okra have no blossoms yet. They put out really nice yellow flowers; I will have to post a pic of them when they come out.

Ok, long enough! Comments and suggestions are always welcome!