Grow Your Own Magazine

Any ideas what size pot I need to put my toms in? I've seen some pots which are 5lt but grow bags with 3 holes in are about 27lt so will the pots be big enough? I used grow bags last year with drip feders to water them but they didn't work so I was thinking of trying capillary matting underneath the pots with a resevoir in addition to watering them in the evenings. I just need to know what size pots to get.

Personally, I wouldn't put three plants in a grow bag and 5 litres is very small.

I use 12-15 litre pots for a single (small or standard fruit) tomato plant. It can still be difficult to keep them moist in the summer.

Try the capillary matting approach, but be warned that Watering from underneath is much less successful with larger pots.

Do you know why didn't your drip watering work? They do need some care and attention in setting them up.

I spent ages working on the system, it was the little drippa one. SOmetomes it would let out all the water other times it let out none. I could never find a blockage as such just that it seemed very irratic in it's distribution. It often only gave water to the first few drippers in the line rather than all of them, just eneded up being a big hassle as I had to go down there every day to check on it anyway and sometimes they'd not have had enough water so I'd still have to water them with a can. I'm concidering trying a seaper hose but as I've not got mains pressure on the allotment I don't know if that would aid with the watering or not.

If you have a Morrisons near you get down ther and purchase 8 plastic flower buckets for 99p, cut the bottoms off, use your grow bags as per last year but when you cut the holes in the bag make them big enough to sit the bottom of the plastic bucket in plant your toms into the grow bag. as the plants grow you fill up the buckets with additional compost till eventually the bucket is full to the top. It will encourage more root growth as you fill up the bucket which in turn gives a healthier plant. You also have a lot more compost to hold water. You can also, when you cut the bottom off, cut the bottom 3 inches to look like the top of the wall on a fort. That way you can put the bucket well into the grow bag but the roots will still have access to the compost in the grow bag. Hope all that makes sense. I think you can buy special pots to do it and I believe the technical name is ring culture but Im not sure.

Ian

Nicky, those 'Drippa' systems are rubbish!! I bought 2 at the beginning of last year and one of them is still packaged The best thing I've found is a 1l water bottle with the bottom cut off, and the lid pierced with a couple of holes, put it lid side down ¼ to ½ way down into the compost at the same time as planting your tomato. Then just fill the bottle daily and leave it to seep down into the compost.

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Is it too late to pot your tomatoes on into bigger pots when they have 4 sets on them , some of which already have teeny tiny tomatoes on. I know my pots are too small , but i don't want to kill what I've got . I should have repotted them before I went away on holiday - I'll know better next year !!!

margo

i use the black flower buckets but i put 2 tomato plants in and cane them up like a big v.have done for several years and all had bumper crops[will post photo when know how to do it]

I haven't had much luck with the line dripping system watering system either. It may just be me connecting it all up incorrectly! I think I've conquered fitting the tap connector to the butt bit, but I find that the water only goes to the first dripper. I've kind of abandoned it for now and carried on watering from a water can! (Thought I'd bagged a £4.99 bargain as well from my local supermarket )

"Is it too late to pot your tomatoes on into bigger pots when they have 4 sets on them"

When I potted mine on - from around 6" pots to 11" - they were about 4' 6" tall. Its takes a bit to manage the plant, whilst re-potting, so you might want a second pair of hands to help. Try not to disturb the roots at all.

If you have a cane in the current pot then push that down to the bottom in the new pot, once re-potted, and make sure that in doing so the ties to the plant don't snag anything and break a shoot / leaf / whatever.

I don't know what would be best for automated watering, but anything with very limited water pressure is going to have a hard time driving some drippers efficiently.

Sawn-off water drinks bottles that you fill manually sounds like a good route to me.

Thanks for that Kristen. I'll enrol hubby to help tomorrow.

margo

I have always planted my tomatoes in the ground in the greenhouse borders and never need to water as the plants grow massive roots and the water table can always be reached by them. At the end of the season, I remove all of the soil from the borders and distibute it throughout the garden. Then, the following early spring, I fill the trenches with garden compost 50% and then top up with growbag compost - I seem to dig deeper each year, so it is about thirty five growbags. One added benefit is that it gives you added height for your plants.