"I'm wondering if I have let too many tomatoes growing at one time"

LOL! Most of us take whatever we can get when the getting is good!

All joking aside, you have done a fantastic job. The variety Better Boy is a great choice in my opinion though it will probably outgrow what you have there so you will deal with suspending it better at some point. Perhaps not, if the cucumber takes over, the plants might even serve to keep each others' excessive growth in check.

The trick is simply to keep up with the fertilization needs of the plants but never overdo that. Keep an eye out for nutrient deficiencies, but I don't see anything but good fruit so far!

The cuke will of course use some nutrients & there is the concern that root space will become expensive real estate there. But it looks like about 20 liquid gallons so I think you can pull it off. I have a Better Boy in a 9 liquid gallon container at the moment. It is not ideal, but by looking at your production, things are going well so far. I think you have the right idea about experimenting with other plants. Keep it up ;)
PC

i sure hope you're watering daily because in the hot weather a single tomato plant can drink a gallon of water a day or more. IMO there is no such thing as "too many tomatoes" on a plant unless you're trying to grow 1 lb tomatoes...

i would get some fish emulsion and feed at diluted strength, like 1 tsp a gal every other time you water, in addition to a slow release fertilizer added to the soil (i use tomato tone or garden tone).

Yes I'm watering daily. I'm not sure how much water it's getting since the patio picker container has a overflow drain hole. I just add water until it overflows. It's about 30 seconds worth of water, whatever that is.

The instructions specifically say to "NOT add any fertilizer during the growing season" A link to the instrucions is here: http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/a6/a6baf22e-f3cb-4830-a4be-79a1f518c4cb.pdf

so they want you to fertilize once for the entire season? because that is not enough for containers with big plants.. i would still use a low strength organic water soluble fertilizer for in between watering.

obviously something is not working, time to change things up ;)

"The instructions specifically say to "NOT add any fertilizer during the growing season"

Hi woodardhsd,

I was not familiar with the product you bought and assumed it was just a container. I read your link, though now I see what is going on. First thing to make clear is this is a "tomato growing" forum so most of us take a great deal of pride in following the needs of our plants and culturing them, which usually include fertilization program throughout the season, and other doting on the plants. Now let's put into perspective what you've got.

The City Slicker (or was it city wicker? lol) is an inexpensive mass market, general planter with a twist. Actually it is what we call a passive wicking system. There are many knock-offs of things like this since Earth Boxes became popular. The general idea is that someone who is not proficient at gardening can buy this thing and then set it up and with minimal effort have a satisfactory harvest, but the manufacturer is not keen on complicating the process. One simplification is to add fertilizer only once and never again. Sort of like eating breakfast and then packing the leftovers for the entire day. This is an interesting concept for the container gardening forum I bet, but in this forum it is the exception and for many of us takes some of the fun out of it. It relies on an initial setup that can carry you through the season. It sounds convenient and if things go your way I bet it does a reasonable job.

I looked at the fertilizer directions in your brochure and can confirm for you that there will be enough fertilizer for both of your plants if you used a high quality lime source, which unfortunately your instructions were not that precise about. So you are good to go for the season. You have enough to harvest about 50 pounds of tomatoes and cucumbers, so that is NO worry lol... Don't worry about the "nutrient theft", it doesn't really work that way. Both plants are getting the benefit of the fertilizer you set it up with. The ratios of nutrients may change over the season but you can start to develop a technique to improve that if you want to go the next step when the need arises.

Your results so far are great. How they end up will be interesting to see, please come back and post it! I don't see anything wrong with going with the flow the first time around. You need a baseline anyway, if you were to get more fancy in your growing methods.

As for the problems with flowering and fruit growth, you mentioned the high temperatures. I would place the blame squarely on that with the limited info you've provided. Many of us in the southern US have the same difficulties with heat (and humidity). Heat stresses the plant and blossoms drop and fruit development can pause. It is best to keep the setup in morning sun and some shade in the afternoon, and be careful that it is not in a hot place like a concrete patio.

The watering system is fine. The only change of heart I have is that it is a little crowded in there and sounds like there is only about 12-13 liquid gallons of space for the growing mix, according to the instructions. That and their approval to put even 3 tomato plants in there are very optimistic, but it really depends on what varieties you choose. Your cuke and tomato are still doable though, it's just a tighter fit as their root systems fill out. Of course it would have been better if the tomato plant had the whole container to itself...

PC

Being that it was my first time, I wanted something simple. The patio picker seemed like "Gardening for Dummies".

The lime I used was, I believe, garden lime from Lowes. I can't find it on their site (which sucks) right now. I made sure it did have the calcium and magnesium in it. The fertilizer I used was 10-10-10 that my wife had sitting around.

Are there any other details I should post? I'm not sure what all is relevant information.

Nothing wrong with simplicity, it's usually the best policy :) I think I bought some garden lime in Lowes that I wasn't happy about. The idiots called it dolomitic lime, so I assumed it had more magnesium in it than it actually did, and the bag said Garden Lime, I think the label was purple. Last time I buy their stuff. But don't worry, for your purpose I think you'll be covered. Even my feed store had the same "dolomitic" lime. I had to pay more for the prilled dolomitic lime to get what I sought.
Tomatoes and cukes eat a lot of magnesium. These are typical of the details of interest. There are so many details, but so few that are important when something goes wrong. I'd suggest the following for now. I would water less frequently. That means I wouldn't top it off every day. At 30,000 feet your container seems to hold about 13 liquid gallons of mix and 3-4 gallons of water. Unless you are in a really dry place, I'd fill it every 2-3 days, in case you are likely doing it every day now. As long as there is water in the bottom you are ok (can you see or feel it through the tube?), but as they mention it shouldn't be allowed to ever dry out. You can get a feel for this by putting a half gallon in at a time to see how much it takes to overflow through the hole. The design you have is a little risky for tomato roots which get waterlogged easily and keeping the water a little lower might help you. Eventually in this small container the roots will grow through the screen. Next time you take it apart, put a complete layer of premium landscape fabric in there, like this.

Other than that you have healthy tomatoes. Take the mellow approach and enjoy your container garden. If the leaves start getting pale something would have to be done, but for the moment you really don't have other problems besides keeping the soil from being perpetually soggy. Always remember a tomato in hand is worth two on the bush.

Cheers

PC

You plants, both tomato and cuke, are doing fine. While your support for the cuke is nice but the tomato needs a better support system.

Co planting cuke and tomato, OTOH, is not my choice. They have different set of needs/requirements in terms of fertilizing and watering. But now that you have done it should try to maintain it. JMO

Sey

Doing some quick math, the container itself holds 15 gallons, 3 of which is the water area. I measured the amount of water it took to refill it today. In 24 hours, it used 2.25 gallons of water. It has been really hot and dry here. 90+ every day for the last 2 weeks, hardly any rain.

I have been filling it up with water every day. Would you still recommend watering less often?

I believe the lime I purchased is the same as shown at the bottom of this thread: http://forum.earthbox.com/index.php?topic=3083.105 I didn't save the bag, but I can run by the lowes and see exactly what it was.

This is the first time I have measured the amount of water I have put into it. I'll keep track of it over the weekend and post back here.

With this hot weather, is there such a thing as too much sun? The container sits on my concrete back patio with no shade whatsoever. So basically is gets full sun from sunrise to about an hour before sunset.

I forgot to mention, I am located in Eastern NC, zone 7b.

You are really asking the right questions quickly - great. You'd be better off with a shady pm, but beggars can't always be choosers... Take the quantitative approach with the watering as you've suggested and then we can at least have the baseline. Nothing is critical now so you have this luxury to enjoy it as you work out the details (are you dropping any blossoms?). I don't know how much that cucumber plant is drinking but I'd think not more than the tomato.

Not really too much Sun (more than it needs, sure) ... but definitely too much heat which can be
related to the Solar exposure on the dry concrete base and sounds like
an issue in your growing location.

PC

I got home from work on Friday (5:30 PM)and took some temperature readings. It was 93F outside. The patio surface was 112F in the sun, 90 in the shade. The soil temperature in the container at the base of the tomato (about 4" deep) was 91.5F. The grass next to the patio was 85F. I decided the container would be happier on the grass in the shade. It had already had about 9 hours of direct sunlight that day. Also, I measured how much water it took to fill it back up on Saturday. It only took 1.5 gallons to fill it up that time.

We're in a cooler stretch right now that will continue for a couple more days. It was 89F yesterday, 84F today, and should only be 88F tomorrow. Later this week it will be back up onto the low 90's.

I have noticed some of the newer blossoms have wilted without setting fruit. Is that "dropping blossoms?

Yeah, when the weather people talk about temperatures, it is not out in the sun, on your deck or in your garden. It is a dry bulb temperature in the shade with good air movement. So really, plants under direct sun get a lot more heat than what the weatherman reports.

Sey

"I have noticed some of the newer blossoms have wilted without setting fruit. Is that "dropping blossoms?"

Wilt sure does sound like blossom drop initiating, but the new location will probably take care of that. To be sure about blossom drop, a pic would help, or if you mentioned that the wilting blossom color is going from a nice green to a paler yellow shade, starting about a half inch up from the blossom's calyx usually for me. They start drying up and falling off soon enough though. The temperatures you mentioned would cause it. Unfortunately it takes longer to recover than I ever have patience for anymore, but that's because my growing seasons are short and interrupted by Summer. 112 F isn't too bad for that scenario with concrete. Here I measured 145 F the other day on the surface of the ground which is sandy. But you measured at 5:30 PM, so who knows what it was at around 2:45 PM (peak radiant temperature here).

The water consumption sounds more in line with what I was thinking now so my approach would be filling every two days in the mornings but to keep tabs on consumption to make sure it didn't start increasing much more than that and if anything changed too much, to go with the flow and adjust accordingly. I can relate to the heat wave you had in Eastern NC, being 270 miles south of Wilmington's latitude. The same heat wave cut our normally short growing season shorter ... the last three (most important) weeks ... gone without even the wind. I should be finishing off my season awash in tomatoes but instead had all sorts of reactions to the heat, from cooking and scalding the tomatoes on the plants to ripening nicely developing beefsteaks prematurely at 1/8 their usual size. But it was mostly wholesale blossom drop that mostly got me.

Overall it sounds like you are in great shape now but I hope you keep us posted. Watch for iron deficiency.
Cheers
PC