Tomatoes In Grow Bags

[Potstubsdustbins]

My pots stand on concrete and I don't use any kind of water reservoir, however I am fortunate that I am available everyday to check them. In the height of summer I have to water everyday or they will dry out producing BER and splitting.

I do spray water on to the floor of the GH on the hottest day just to cool things down a little.

[Kristen]

In the height of summer I have to water everyday or they will dry out producing BER and splitting.

When i grew Tomatoes in pots, in the greenhouse (12" pots I think, certainly no smaller) they needed watering twice a day or the plants would wilt, sometimes even three times a day. I grew them that way when I was young, and for the first year that we were here (it was all I knew and I assumed that growing in the greenhouse border would be a lot of work changing soil), but I'm much happier growing in the greenhouse border now as watering is less of a chore and less of an art too!

[Bigmallly]

On the theme of growing in flower buckets can I run something past you.

Instead of drilling holes in the bottom of the bucket, would it be beneficial to drill the holes around the side of the bucket about 1/4"to 1/2" from the bottom? My thinking is that you could water the bucket until the water came out of the holes leaving a reservoir in the bottom to wick up as and when required. Or would this still be classed as plants standing in water?.................Just a thought, please give me some pros & cons.............Cheers.

[Kristen]

Sounds fine to me. Holes in the bottom (unless the base has "fins") can prevent water running out of the bottom anyway, so holes around the side (right at the bottom) are used to counter that [for containers with no fins / feet on the base]

I suppose if the water reservoir at the base is an issue then perhaps:

Drainage holes, say, 1" up from bottom

1.5" of gravel in the base

Cover with something to separate the soil from the stones - woven weed membrane for example

Some sort of capillary "wick" joining the compost to the water reservoir below

Possibly a vertical filler pipe so that the gravel reservoir can be filled directly. But watering the soil will percolate down into the reservoir.

I have some troughs that are built like that, they just have depressions in the separating-sheet so that a small vertical column of compost is permanently below the water reservoir level and acts as the wick - avoiding the need to faff about with capillary matting.



so perhaps a cut-out yoghurt pot in the bottom would do for that job?

[Bigmallly]

Cheers Kristen, a few years ago I made some self watering pots but left them behind when I gave up the plot.........http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ork_56411.html

I'm now trying to think of something more basic and easy to use.

[Potstubsdustbins]

#19 I have quite a few containers like that and they do work very well.

I wouldn't be wanting to any kind of 'crock' in a flower bucket when using them for large plants. They are only 10/12 litre capacity and that's not a lot of compost for a good size tomato plant and when I empty my pots at the end of the season they are usually more root than compost any way.

As to drilling the holes on the side I can see nothing wrong with it but how much you would gain at the height of the season I wouldn't know. I say that because if you thing about it, if you drilled your holes say 1/2 inch up the side if a standard black flower bucket I doubt whether it would hold much more than a cup full in the bottom.

[Bigmallly]

As to drilling the holes on the side I can see nothing wrong with it but how much you would gain at the height of the season I wouldn't know. I say that because if you thing about it, if you drilled your holes say 1/2 inch up the side if a standard black flower bucket I doubt whether it would hold much more than a cup full in the bottom.

Totally agree Potty, I wasn't sure if 1" would be too high hence the pros & cons request.

[lottie dolly]

I have drilled 3/8th holes around flower buckets,aprox 3.5in up from the bottom,aprox 3.5in apart,it seemed to work well with auegines in,cannot say regards toms,

[NatalieCooke]

Yeah that sounds like a great idea I'll try it this year and let you know! Saving me space on the floor and giving me more room to grow something else. I've never been keen on the plants standing in the water day in day out. Saying that it hasn't done them any harm.
My greenhouse is about 12ft long. Last year we only had four tomato plants. What's the most I could fit down one side? I've got quite a few different tomato seeds id like to grow but don't want to over crowd them.

One last thing.
I bought one of these last year for a couple of pound. JML Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors
Any thoughts on them? I was thinking about growing Gardens Delight in.

[Potstubsdustbins]

One ide of my 8ft accommodates 6 tomato plants and 1 cumber. They are slightly cramped but I seem to get away with it.

[Bren In Pots]

I use flower pots for my spare toms with holes drilled about 2 inch from the base, when we go away I stand the toms in a water trough with a piece of wick going into the pots. I've found thats enough to keep them watered for 4 days.

[rary]

when I was working I worked 12hr. shifts and watering was a problem,so I used grow bags all the time I made up a frame with 2"by 2" lined it with polythene (must be water tight) to make a trough, placed building bricks inside this and rested the grow bags on them I then pushed a length of folded newspaper, to act as a wick,(use whatever you think is suitable) through the bottom of the bag where the tomatoes would be planted, soaked the bag and added water to the trough, then as long as I kept the trough topped up I had no problems with the watering, when feeding this was direct into the bag.
ps. you can usually pick up a newspaper free

[rary]

[QUOTE=NatalieCooke;1311629]One last thing.
I bought one of these last year for a couple of pound. JML Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors
Any thoughts on them? I was thinking about growing Gardens Delight in.[/QUOTE ]
I meant to answer this in the last post
I have tried these bags but was not impressed with them the biggest problem was the watering as they dried out to quickly, so if you want hanging plants I would recommend using baskets.

[Bohobumble]

I have settled on Morrison Black flower buckets, very cheap, last year they were 99p for eight, put drainage holes in the bottom and away you go. Using these my 8 x 6 GH has 12 tomato plants and 2 cumbers down the sides and a couple of sweet peppers against the back wall.

Thanks for the tip, last week I stopped in at the local one; they said they threw them away normally and they'd put them by for the the following day, they gave me 20 of them for free I just need to drill the holes in now....

I wonder how many litres they hold..

[Potstubsdustbins]

dependent on the size on average they hold 10/12ltr.