23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
I have a family member who is better at growing plant from seeds, then I am.
I bought seeds for peppers,tomatoes for the whole family.
When the peppers grew & fruited I had two golden bell pepper that were HOT because I planted them next to some Hot cow horn peppers.
I do not eat hot peppers,so I gave them away.
Thankfully the rest of the golden bells in the row were fine & sweet.
Agree with Dave. I usually put a pole of some sort in the bucket/pot and tie the tapered cage to that...otherwise it does tip over.
To daninthedirt's comment... Our local garden center is selling Millionaire as the replacement for Ichiban. I also plant Ping Tung and prefer them a wee bit over the Millionaire... I plant both as I do have friends & family that prefer the Millionaire.
My Brother- in -law planted a egg plant in an plastic apple box with a stake, it grow to 5 feet tall out of the 18 inch apple box, that near 7 feet tall including the box.
This plant had large fruit,mid fruit, small fruit & covered with blooms all at once.
Wish I had taken a photo of it.
Your plants should do fine, but you could put a stake in the bucket before you fill it with compost & have a the stake to tie the cage to.
I do this in the ground & I push the cage down till the first ring touches the soil.
I use 48 inch cattle wire for tomato cages & drive T-poles into the soil at least 18 inches.
These cages will stay in place for 12 months or until I get around to removing them.
I will have to make more this year, I have over 30 tomato plants this year.
One of the first things a gardener needs to learn is how to recognize suitably moist soil. In general, plants like soil that is moist, but not sopping wet. You can recognize that kind of soil by feel (moist soil feels noticeably cooler than dry soil) and by color (moist soil is noticeably darker than dry soil). You sure don't want to be routinely squeezing water drops out of your soil. I think "finger deep" is too deep for dry soil. The rule I've hear is "first knuckle deep". Definitely NOT good to keep the surface moist. That just invites fungus and bacteria.
Of course, you can also just look at your plants. They'll tell you if they're thirsty by drooping. But if you're going to go that route, you'd better be looking at your plants every day. Once they droop, they're at risk. Some plants are more tolerant of dehydration drooping (e.g. squash) than others (e.g. peppers, tomatoes).
Bottom line is that you can't water by calendar or by volume. It's going to depend on temperature, sunlight, wind, and to some extent how much plant you've got sucking water. Don't assume Mother Nature will do most of the work for you. Mother Nature is very tolerant of a dead garden.
I live 18 miles from my garden, in Spring I water once a week, about 5 gallons of water per plant.
I do this by tilling my sandy loam soil(if you have heavy/clay soil, do NOT water as much as I do) the I dig a 12-24 inch hole, 12 - 24 inches deep according to the plant.
Tomatoes 24 X 24 with compost in the bottom of the hole.
Peppers,squash,collards 12 X 12 with a little compost in the bottom of hole.
I plant the plant in a dish 3-4 inches deep, add 1 inch more compost, water then mulch.
Each week I fill the dish up, in hot Summer & Fall I water 2 or 3 times a week.
Remember I travel 18 miles after an 12 hour day just to water my plants & harvest my fruit.
If you can walk out back to your garden then you can check,water,weed,mulch everyday.
I have not lost one plant to this system in 5 years.
And my orchard is doing great too.
They are a common gardening accessory used by many to make tomato cages, trellis for climbing plants, etc. Lots of pictures of them in use on both this forum and the Growing Tomatoes forum.
If you checked the older thread on this issue that I linked for you above it contains a link to numerous photos of them in use.
Dave
Very interesting! Thank you! Your program sounds awesome - I hope it's successful for you. I will definitely utilize this plan for learning purposes!
I have the same problem. Beets died for me twice this year - first in the ground, second in the deep cells. And not only beets. All root crops this year are terrible - carrots died, turnip, that I NEVER had any problem with wilting few in a day, and it is not a root maggot, as I have it covered. I guess the most problem at least in my area is a huge difference between soil temperature(bellow norm due to the long winter) and very high day temperature(90+F). I heard that cold roots can't pump water fast enough to keep up with what leaves evaporate. Naturally, we try to water already wet soil and create perfect fungus conditions... I seeded beets again in the ground, hopping that the weather finally getting it sense...
DTM is much longer in the Fall. I blame my lack of success with Fall gardening partially on the lack of sun, and the huge amounts of pests. Germinating and seedlings in summer heat is also a challenge. I am not sure I will try any major summer plantings this year.
Thank you guys so much for responding!
LoneJack I knew someone might say something about the squash and watermelon lol. I know that there's a possibility that they might not do too well :/ However, even if I only get a few squash and an itsy bitsy melon, it'll be a small victory for me. This year is just a learning experience (: Also, thanks for the counter clockwise info. I wouldn't have known.
Digdirt2 Yeah, those are the ones I'm talking about haha. I realized quickly after buying them that they're definitely not going to work for my tomatoes. I might just use them for the jalapeños and construct some kind of trellis with bamboo and twine for the cucumbers.
Container gardening sounded like such a great idea at first..... Next year these suckers are going in the ground.
YES, I grow tomatoes in 24" dia, cages, 48" tall & plant 3 -5 cucumbers around the edge of the cage with no harm to any of the plants & I am an organic gardener, so I can not throw a little more 5-10-10 around the cage. the tomatoes & cukes are all supported by the same 24 inch compost & pine straw mulch all season.
I agree that container garden form is a good one, but this is a good link too.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/vertical