Bucket Tomatoes

When it comes to vegetable gardening, tomatoes are a staple! As you likely know, I’m an advocate of Square Foot Gardening. For maximizing your garden space (and harvest) SFG spacing is incredible – especially, when using the square-foot, seed spacing tool, Seeding Square!  However, as we all know - gardens are like snowflakes…each one is unique unto itself.  There are so many ways to grow vegetables, and not all of them work in conjunction with Seeding Square – you can’t put a square-foot spacing tool in a round container for example.

This past season an avid gardener, and Seeding Square fan reached out to me with his approach to planting tomatoes. It’s genius! If you’re a DIYer and want to add a few extra (portable) tomato plants to your garden, this is something you’re going to love - we're transforming 5-gallon buckets into the most epic tomato growing setup ever!

What you'll need:

- food grade 5-gallon plastic bucket (with lid)
- plactic tube or pipe
- planting pot or 2L pop bottle
- cotton string
- a drill and drill bit
- tomato cage
- paracord
- old blue jeans/denim

Start with the 5-gallon plastic bucket. Trim the lid to fit inside the bucket. It is going to become the false bottom. The bucket is probably tapered - you want the cut lid to fit about 6 inches from the bottom.

Here is the lid cut to size. The large hole in the center is where the wicking chamber will be attached. The other large hole is where the filler pipe will go. All the other small holes are for aeration. Don't worry about the potting soil falling through, it has rough edges so it doesn't slide easily. Use whatever you have for the filler tube.

 

Here is the wicking chamber. It will sit on the bottom of the pail. Use whatever you have for this. (ie. planting pots, peanut butter jars, 2 L pop bottles, etc.) Just make the hole size to match. You use a cotton string or paracord to hold it in place. Note: if you use a 2L pop bottle, cut the top off and it can be used as a funnel for the top of your filler tube!

Drill a hole just below where the false bottom sits. When watering, fill the bucket until water comes out the overflow hole. That way you can't overfill the bucket. 

Tomato cages are very useful for both the stability of your unit and of course to support your tomato plant as it grows. Put the cage legs in some of the aeration holes. Drill 4 holes around the rim of the bucket and then use paracord to hold the cage in place. (The growing medium does not pack tight enough to hold the cage, therefore the legs going all the way to the bottom combined with the support ties is needed.) Using paracord, make a bowline knot to fasten the cord to the bucket and then a taut-line hitch tied to the tomato cage. Paracord is used because it doesn't rot, and this knot lets you adjust the tension to keep the cage upright. You'll also want to attach the piller tube to the side of the bucket as well.

Now it's time for the soil and to plant your seeds or seedlings! 

Heads up, don't use garden soil. It's too heavy. Use a mixture of potting soil, vermiculite and ground-up eggshells for calcium for the tomatoes.

Sometimes tomato plants put out branches that have a hard time supporting the tomatoes. So tie them up! Daune says, do NOT use string. A breeze can cause the branch to be sawn by the string. His solution? Make your own support 'strings'. An old pair of bluejeans cut into strips about an inch wide is great to tie up the branches. If you do not pull the knot too tight, they come apart just fine. Even better, they can be washed and reused.

Here is a picture of Duane's tomato garden. Pretty spif huh?

Thank you Duane for sharing! Also, for those intrigued with Seeding Square spacing, here's a pic recently submitted of a budding green thumb using Seeding Square to plant his Square Foot Garden – please see the following (paid) link for more details on Seeding Square. (Seeding Square Product Details)  Pssst - it makes a great gift for gardeners young and old.