Here is a snapshot of some tomato plants I started in June and built self watering containers out of 5 gal pails. I have them in greenhouse now and hope to have fresh tomatoes this fall and winter.
Tomato plants for this fall & winter
Please explain your self watering containers. I've plenty of 5 gal pails and plants in need of watering assistance...
podster, give me a few minuits to put together some snapshots fo how I built them.
Great ~ thanks...
I'll have to do one at a time. I'm still new at working with my ditital camera and picture files.
First I cut down a 5 gal. pail to the last top rib. You could leave it full length but I wanted to save a little on the amount of soil I used.
I picked up a 10' length of 1 1/4" and a 10' lengh of 1" PVC pipe plus two 1 1/4" couplings. Next I drilled 3 equally spaced holes for the 1 1/4 pipe using a 1 5/8" hole saw and a single hole for the 1" pipe using a 1 3/8 hole saw.
The next step is to drill a bunch of small holes in botton of pail for air circlation. I drilled 1/4" holes but think small ones would work better (maybe 3/16") This pail is one of the first ones I did (I added the hole for the 1" PVC after the small holes were drilled.
Next I made the wicking tubes for the potting mix. These tubes extend into the water reservoir just below the bottom of the upper pail with the small holes. I measured from the bottom of the standard pail to the bottom of the pail that has the drilled holes in it then added 1/4" to this measurement. I sliced one of the couplings into 4 pieces and glued them to the wicking tubes as retainers to help anchor the tubes to the upper pail. I will continue the thread tomorrow evening.
Here are a few more posts on my containers. Here I have installed one of the tubes, I use a little PVC pipe cement when installing.
Here is one of the finished inner pails ready to be installed into the full size pail.
Before setting the inner pail into the outer one I drilled several 3/16" holes into outer pail for the water overflow. These holes are around 3/4" below the bottom of the inner pail when installed.
Here is a shot of the pails assembled and one of the water fill tubes. I used a tee and a 90 degree elbow with an extension (not shown) The extension is used as the support to tie the tomato plant to.
Here is one of the finished fill tubes with the extension. I am holding it in place with a c-clamp and a block of wood until I add the potting mix and tomato plant.
I use a peat based potting mix and add a fertilizer band to the top of the soil. I use about two cups of balanced fertilizer and make a ring on the top of the soil just inside the outer rim of the pail. Then I wrap a plastic trash bag over the top of the pail and around the tomato plant an fill tube. I secure the bag with electricians tape. I find that once a day watering is ok for my application but with a mature plant and in direct sun twice a day would be better. The plants will use only as much water as they need. There is some good information on the earth box web site and there are some other threads on this forum on self-watering containers. These containers are working great for me. Here is a little burry shot of my three tomato plants.
It's a little more technical than I am up to but a great system. As you have had many viewers, maybe other gardeners will take off with the system. Hope you enjoy fresh tomatoes all winter!
Thanks podster, there is a frost advisory up here for tonight so these may be all I have left. The only other thing I've got to do is add some supplemental light so my plants don't get too leggy. I am not pruning back at all so should have a bumper crop in a few months.
That is a definite improvement over the way we used to enjoy tomatoes while growing up. We would pick green and wrap in newspaper and store in the dark in the fruit cellar. We would take a few out set on the windowsill and patiently wait for it to ripen. This would keep a large family in tomatoes at least till the holidays. Good luck, we will look forward to updates.... pod
Bensen,
How much does each EB you made cost, and how long did it take you to do one from start to finish? Thanks.
Gymgirl, the cost was around $4 per unit with this being for the PVC pipe and fittings. The 5 gal. pails were free as we use them where I work. We generate around 25 used pails per week. The first one took me a while as I just had this idea in my head but nothing drawn out on paper plus I recorded the dimensions as I went along. The third one I made in one evening after work. I like these so well I'm going to use them next spring for a few of my tomato and pepper plants just to see how they compare to the ones planted in the garden. I now have this idea of making some with the bottom pail inverted to get a wider footprint on the ground and a little more water capacity. The ones I made hold around a gallon of water.
Bensen,
Have you seen these instructions? You might like to try these, cause they hold more.
http://www.josho.com/Earthbox.htm
Thanks Gymgirl, yes I've looked at this and I have the link on my favorite's list. This would work well for my plantings during the summer. The main reason I like the buckets is I can move them around if I need to. I usually start my plants in March but cant leave the tender ones outside permanently until after Memorial day as we can get frosts up here until then. This way I can bring them in at night or on a cold day. My basement is at ground level on the south side of my house with a garage door so I can carry them in and out. We've already had our first frost warning (got down close to freezing Monday night)
Wow, we have a cold front moving through Houston, too. It got down to 88 degrees yesterday. BRRRRRRRRR.....
Gee, we probably won't that high a temperature here until next summer