new idea for tomato container

14 years ago

Hello everyone, this is my first post, although I have been reading archives for about 18 months. Thanks for all the great information. This is my second season of being a tomato gardener. My goal was to construct the perfect, (not necessarily practical) tomato growing container.

I decided to combine 3 gardening techniques, amending ground soil, raised bed, and container. Smart pots, with the advantage of air pruning, are my container of choice. I have no connection to smart pots. After purchasing several similar fabric containers, the smart pot seemed to be better quality, and had multiple size options. The 30 gallon size is ideal. It has a 24 inch diameter and fits nicely in a cage of 6x6 square wire made to the diameter of about25 inches. The cage is nailed onto a 2x2 foot frame made of 2x6 boards, which serves as the raised bed.

This is where it gets good. I made 6 long incisions on the bottom of the smart pot to allow some of the roots to grow through the smart pot into the raised bed, and then into the amended soil that is under the raised bed.

The ground soil was amended with compost and peat moss. The raised bed contains one part compost, one part peat and one part perlite. The smart pot is filled with a commercial potting mix composed of pine bark fines, perlite and peat.

Next I added a drip irrigation system. The 4 decorative panels are made of cedar 1x4Ã¯Â¿Â½s and 1x6, and were added after everything else was in place.

This idea hasnÃ¯Â¿Â½t been tested yet. I have a plant going in from a clipping I propagated, we will see!

What do you think? I will post more pics

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Comments (13)

Lem1
Original Author
14 years ago
more pics
Lem1
Original Author
14 years ago
more pics
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Lem1
Original Author
14 years ago
more pics
Lem1
Original Author
14 years ago
more pics
Lem1
Original Author
14 years ago
Yes, all this for one plant. Any comments or suggestions??
shermthewerm
14 years ago
I'll take one!

Is the tomato in the white planter a similar set-up? That plant looks healthy. What are the smart pots made of? I haven't seen them, but was thinking they might be good liners for my potato wire cages since a lot of soil keeps washing out.
Lem1
Original Author
14 years ago
The background containers are 3foot by 3 foot by 3 foot wood containers, with a wooden bottom. The cage is 3 foot diameter. Each of them has 2 plants. I had good results, not great. I probably watered too much. The potting mix I made was a little too dense for that kind of container. Should have made the container bottomless or used a soilless mix. Also one plant per container would have been better. I how have a better understanding of container drainage and potting mixes for different applications.
Smart pots are made of fabric that feels almost like heavy felt. This my first time using them. I did a lot of reading about these containers, and think they will work well. I can probably get away with using a denser mix with the smart pot, and plan on doing that experiment next season.
Lem1
Original Author
14 years ago
The background containers are 3foot by 3 foot by 3 foot wood containers, with a wooden bottom. The cage is 3 foot diameter. Each of them has 2 plants. I had good results, not great. I probably watered too much. The potting mix I made was a little too dense for that kind of container. Should have made the container bottomless or used a soilless mix. Also one plant per container would have been better. I how have a better understanding of container drainage and potting mixes for different applications.
Smart pots are made of fabric that feels almost like heavy felt. This my first time using them. I did a lot of reading about these containers, and think they will work well. I can probably get away with using a denser mix with the smart pot, and plan on doing that experiment next season.
Lem1
Original Author
14 years ago
Here is a pic of this years plants
Lem1
Original Author
14 years ago
This fall I plan on taking the boxes apart to study the roots!
cole_robbie
14 years ago
Nice plants. Good job painting the boxes white; that was smart. It will help keep them cool.

My best tomatoes are the ones I only watered about once a week, but soaked them all night with drip irrigation. All night might be too much for your setup, but I'd run the drip at least a few hours when you do water. You want the roots to chase that water deep into the ground.
Lem1
Original Author
14 years ago
That's the problem with the white boxes. They have a wooden bottom and the roots can't go any further than that. That's why I designed next years model which is the one with the Smart pots, in the other photos.. I agree with the deep watering with my new design. The white boxes really touchy to water especially since I had to heavy a mix in a container with a bottom.
Lem1
Original Author
14 years ago
At Robby. Thanks for the compliment on the tomatoes. They look pretty good in this picture. But trust me they have had a lot of issues!