25 Gallon Pots with single vine tomato plants

25 Gallon pots with  single vine tomato plants.

I normally grow two single vine tomato plants in a 5 gallon pot or grow bag  in  the greenhouse  and they are set in a permanent   place and trellised .  I pruned them to single vines because it allows more air circulation, earlier tomatoes, and the fruits are about the same size all the way up the vine.
Last year,  I grew one plant in 25 gallon pots in the greenhouse and only pruned  a little  with cages  so I could hand truck the pots out of the greenhouse  when it got warmer outside and I needed the space for other young plants.  It took much longer to get that first ripe tomato because there was many more vines on the one plant instead of a single vine plant.
This year  I wanted to grow  6 to 8  single vine tomato plants in the 25 gallon pots ,  using 20 gallons of soil and I wanted to experiment with  using only organic method with Non-GMO amendments.  I also knew I would need to move those plants out when it gets too warm in the greenhouse.  Each pot has a reinforcement wire cage but the cages are only 5 ft tall minus a 6" portion that is in the soil.   I  will need to add another cage on top of the existing cages   if the plants are still healthy  and growing over 5ft. 

The soil in the 25 gallon pots is used soil from a fall crop that was grown in 4 gallon pots and some soil was already in the pot that was used for growing  cole crops and  previous to that was tomato plants. Since tomatoes have been grown in the soil before that had a few fungus problems,  it may  cause issues in this crop.
The soil mixture is 1/2 peat  or ProMix BX and 1/2 commercial compost from Marvin's Building supply.
I added to the soil :
1 cup of Azomite
1 cup of dolomite lime
1 cup of gypsum
1 cup of bonemeal
1/2 cup of OMRI   organic slow release 9-3-4  = kelp, feathermeal, and other.  = about 1 tbs per plant.
I also added a small handfull of earth  worms that included both adult and baby worms.

The seeds were sown Dec 28th, 2013
transplanted seedlings around Jan 20th
and transplanted to 25 gallon pots about Feb 15-20th.


                           As of March 9th

The plants are growing like crazy and most are already loaded with blooms.
Big Beef Hybrid
Big Beef Open Pollinated
Brandywine
Cherokee Purple
1884
Caspian Pink
Steakhouse Hybrid(burpee)
Beefsteak
Beefmaster Hybrid
Omar's Labanese
Indigo Rose
Artisan Purple Bumble Bee
Rose Quartz   multifloral cherry
Pineapple

The Big Beef Open Pollinated  has a mixture of extra large megablooms(more than one bloom fused together) similar to beefsteak  but these are more massive than I have seen on beefsteak.
The Big Beef Hybrid is a cross of Big Boy and Beefsteak and produces medium to large fruits with smooth red shoulders and good tomato taste.. Almost the perfect tomato.

A bloom on the Big Beef OP.(picture of just before it opened)    I tried to count the fused blossoms.  At first I thought it was two double blossoms fused together making  a total of 4 blossoms,  but after the flower  petals fell off,  It looked like a total of 5 blossoms===one blossom having 3 and the other having 2  that were all fused together, making it a total of 5 blooms fused together.  I don't know how else to explain it.  I will take a picture soon.

The same blossom after the petals fell off......Looks like three fused blossoms on the left and two fused blossoms on the right=  5 fused blossoms.

There are many  megablooms that have already flowered and pollinated and now have several small giants growing on Big Beef OP, Brandywine, Big Zac, and the Cherokee Purple.

                                   Plants as of March 19th 
                                     one with fruits up front  is a Cherokee Purple.

North Carolina Giant Cantaloupe (45 lbs)

 

North Carolina Giant Cantaloupe Bloom

45 Pounds

Spring/ Summer 2011 Raised Beds

Little bit of everything in these beds.  Mostly grown by the square foot.

Potatoes,  Russet and Red

 
Squarefoot   Corn

Same corn   later on=    Dog dug up a few and had to replace them   = tis why there are a few smaller plants.

Pepper Plants growing in 6 gallon pots.

Table Top Gardens   by the square foot

Constructing a Hoop House Greenhouse

For the month of December
I have a greenhouse business that sells bedding plants, veggie plants,  hanging baskets, and small planters.
I have to construct a new hoop house  that has a germination chamber.  The hoop house will only be 12ft X 40ft.
The height in the center is only 6 1/2 ft high.  This hoop house is called the  Seedling House. The germination chamber is a long mini greenhouse inside the hoop house  with heating mats and electric heaters.  After the seeds have germinated and had a chance to grow a few weeks,  they are moved out of the germination chamber  into the bigger portion of the hoop house and grown there until it is time to transplant  in the large greenhouse. (20x96)
Construction starts this week.  At first it is slow going cause we have to prepare the area and lay out commercial ground cover,  measure and set up ground stakes for the hoops to be attached to.  Then set the hoops and set the perlin.  The perlin is just a galvanized chain link fence top railing that is attached to the top of the hoops with galvanized U brackets  which keeps all the hoops in place.  There is actually a lot of hardware detail to constructing the hoop house and there will be a lot of photos posted.
I don't think I can complete the hoop house exactly the way I want it done  right now, but I can work on it and get it operational enough to get my germination chamber up and running.  I would like for the hoop house to have  manual  side curtains that can be raised when temps rise high in the early spring but I might have to wait on those details.   I have to sow seeds the last week of December.  Income is always limited between December and March.  It takes a lot to get the main greenhouse up and running.  My brain is scrambled.
So hang tight,  construction and pics start soon.


I made the hoop house shorter.....but wider 16x24
with a mini hoop inside for germinating seeds early.
double protection.

These little pvc clamps hold my poly onto the   Mini pvc hoops.
The  mini pvc hoops are just slid over a iron rod driven into the ground..
Since it is inside a larger hoop house,  there was no need to anchor it down.

ARBORS or ARCHED TRELLIS

I /  We,   want to make several Arched Trellises to grow small watermelons, cantaloupes, and Asparagus yard long green beans on.----I guess the vine veggie list can get pretty long and the possibilities are endless.  Our first Arched Trellis is made of  landscape timbers and 2x4s and will be covered with  concrete re-enforcement wire with  6" mesh squares.  The main post are concreted into the raised bed block holes.
the total width and length is   43" x 56"
This trellis is built for melons.

Tomatoes Years Past

Tomato plants grown in the past years.
Brandywine tomato plant grown in  a  5 gallon pot.  All this on two vines.
Big Red one is one tomato that weighed 3 1/4 pounds. his name was Hulk.

More Brandywine  grown in the ground.  So heavy with fruit the vines insisted on dragging the ground.

More Brandywine Tomatoes

Sweet Million Cherry Tomato

tomatoes grown in 5 gallon grow bags.   1st crop I ever grew for produce sales.   If I can
do this in a 5 gallon grow bag------YOU can do this in the ground soil.

Those same plants were lowered twice---and they grew out the top of the greenhouse frame
that was 8 feet tall.

tomato plants-------Big Beef  in 5 gallon pots.

more toms in 5 gallon grow bags

The green house   Ghost (orb)

One single  Sweet Million Cherry tomato cluster.

 25 gallon pot----One plant---pruned to have one vine every 6 inches around the pot/cage

2010

2

2011

Big Beef

B

2011

Brandywine

2011  Sweet Million Cherry

2011   Tommy Toe cherry=   my least favorite flavor......  but is a.beautiful plant!

Big Beef