Growing Tomatoes in buckets

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Has anyone heard of growing Tomatoes in buckets, something about drilling a hole in the bottom of the bucket and planting the plant upside down and hanging it and the plant then will grow up around the bucket? Some one said something about it the other day and i was wondering if any one else has heard of it dale

-- dale (dgarr@fidnet.com), March 10, 2001

Answers

I never heard of that Dale but I remember seeing something I thot was pretty cool. Start with a 5 gallon bucket. Drill some 1 1/2" holes around the bucket spaced about 5" apart. Line the bucket with a garbage bag. Fill the bucket with dirt for the maters and plant the mater. Then cut a small slit in the garbage bag at the holes you drilled and plant lettuce or favorite herb(s). Turn the bucket daily so all side gets sunlight---a salad in a bucket.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), March 10, 2001.

While living in apartments, I always planted six in 5 gal pickle buckets I got from the cafeteria at work. Drilled holes in a 12 , 3, 6 ,9 oclock pattern at the bottom side just big enough for a drinking straw to be stuck in and sealed with hotglue where it met the bucket. These were for drainage into cups when I had em indoors. This last season I put two of my buckets back in service so we could have fresh ones during the winter months. One was still bearing in Jan with me doing the "bumblebee thang" with a makeup brush.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), March 11, 2001.

I have seen this done with a regular type hanging basket with sphagnum liner, and leaf lettuces and lemon gem marigolds planted in the top. You have to be careful in keeping them moist enough, they dry out quite fast.

I grew several 'Tumbler' tomatoes in hanging pots last year, the difference being that you have to plant those in the top, because they drape down over the sides. Good potting soil and lots of compost, plus regular fertilizing and watering all summer gave me pretty good sized crops.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), March 11, 2001.


I used 6 five gallon buckets for my tomatoes last year. I just drilled a couple of small holes for drainage and put some rocks in the bottom to weight the buckets down some. The only problem I had was that I needed to water a bit more than normal. By the end of the summer the plant roots had grown just past the drainage holes and into the soil beneath it. When I noticed this happening I just moved the buckets around every few days.

-- Chris Stogdill (cstogdill@rmci.net), March 11, 2001.

I grew some tomatoes in buckets last year, in an aquaponic type setup. I had several holes in the bucket bottoms, and set the bucket on concrete blocks in a stock tank I am raising catfish in, keeping the water about 4 inches up from the bucket bottom. I used old filter fiber (synthetic quilt batting) for the planting medium, and put a few rocks in the fiber at the bottom to keep them from tipping over. They did beautifully.

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), March 11, 2001.


A organic garden friend of mine tried this 2 years ago,with some sucess. He was more sucessful the old fashion way, he said it was to much trouble. Mike

-- mike janik (mmjanik@safeaccess.com), March 17, 2001.

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