Suspended Basket for Tiny Tomatoes

SprigOfTheLivingDead

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So one of my favorite tomato varieties is the Sweet Pea Currant, but in order to grow it you have to really cage it up and be out there to train it upwards, lest it just flop on the ground and vine out horizontally. So given that I was thinking about planting one in a hanging basket this summer as an experiment to let it grow in the method it likes best. That being said, a normal tomato plant uses around 60 cubic feet of soil (research papers I have read on tomato plants root health), which is significantly less than a hanging basket would provide, not to mention the near constant watering in order to not let the soil dry out. So, I turn to the group to ask if anyone has attempted to grow a currant-like tomato in a hanging basket before. And if so then what hanging basket size/setup did you use?

Anyone?
 

digitS'

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60 cubic feet
!! Wow!

I'm not a very successful container gardener. Something I've also learned about myself, I have so much trouble not responding to tomato threads! This is true even when I know next to nothing about a particular tomato subject ...

This tomato root research must have been done by that same guy who did this with other crops (or, someone in his footsteps). It is "optimal" but is absolutely astounding!

To get this measurement in perspective: a 5 gallon bucket holds 0.668403 cubic feet, a Google search tells me.

Steve
& hey, i continue to advise us to switch to metric so weird gymnastics or our machines are not required with every conversion
 

SprigOfTheLivingDead

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The original paper I read on the subject was from the 1920s: ROOT DEVELOPMENT OF VEGETABLE CROPS by JOHN E. WEAVER, but I've ran into that stat in other places as well

I admit that 5gal buckets work fine, but you end up needing to supplement nutrients since the soil can't possibly hold enough yum yums for the plant over the course of its life. Hell, that's why the root system spreads out that far.

And yeah, I agree with the whole metric thing as well.
 

Circle-M-Farm

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Wow!!!
60 ft³ is a lot of root space for one tomato.
A container that is 5' long x 4' wide x 3' high is 60 ft³
 

thistlebloom

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What's optimal and what's doable are frequently yards apart. (What would that be metrically?)

Anyway, as you mentioned Sprig, a 5 gallon bucket will work, tomatoes seem to be pretty happy about adapting to our requirements. I grew a Sweetpea current in a 20 gallon tree pot one year alongside another variety that I don't remember.
They both did great, IMO, and that currant produced so well I finally just averted my eyes so I wouldn't feel guilty over not keeping up with the (tedious) picking.

Watering is probably going to be the big inconvenience.
 

digitS'

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Yards converted to meters or visa versa are easy to conceptualize, since 1 yard is .9 meters. Or, 3 of my feet plus 4 digitS' ... 4 digitS' are easy enuf to find. Now, if I just had 3 feet.

The thought of me growing Ildi this year is a little dismaying. I mean, I really like the fruit, the small plants are wonderfully productive, but the production is right down on the soil surface! The things would require a special kind of cage to have them otherwise. Ildi would also be a good candidate for your hanging basket, Sprig'.

Back off the topic: Mr. Weaver didn't give us the best number to work with since 60 cubic feet = 1.699 cubic meters. (I wonder how he measured that precisely.)

... 5' long x 4' wide x 3' high is 60 ft³.
It's interesting that if root systems reflect the plant above-ground, that's about right for many, nice, healthy, mature tomato plants! Not that too many of my plants look like that :\. I realize that there are shallow-rooted plant species, ones with extensive root systems, etc.

Steve
1.699 cubic meters is 1699 liters ;)
 

Circle-M-Farm

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The root system of a most plant reflects the plant above ground. I can assume that the tomato/ es that the test was done on were indeterminate type and they would get much larger that say a determinate tomato type or dwarf type so in turn the root system should be larger but still that is a lot of space. Make me think what type of root system those Giant Tree Tomatoes have.
http://tomatotree.weebly.com/
 

majorcatfish

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last year did an determinate tomato good lord they had a very substantially root system...
 

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