Thursday, June 11, 2009

Self Watering Container Tomatoes One Month Later

I built and planted my first self-watering container on May 10th. It was planted with three tomato plants, Carbon on the left and Matina in the middle and right.

Tomato growing conditions have not been ideal, rain nearly every day and little heat. Average temp in the last month has been about 68 degrees.

Those conditions have not held back my plants at all. All three plants already have fruit on them, and as you can see, growth has been exhuberant! I've never had baby tomatoes this early in the season before. I am thrilled with how well these containers are working. To the right of them, the purple potatoes seem equally pleased with the container I made them.

Now if I could only get that dumb watermelon to grow!



6 comments:

islandgardener said...

Sounds successful so far for the tomatoes -- it's just not ideally warm enough yet for the watermelon to thrive, but it will!

Meredith said...

Grats on your success with the containers -- I'm glad for the detailed how-to on your May post, too!

Stacy said...

I hope so IG. Last year's watermelon was a dismal failure due to no growth whatsoever. I planted a couple of more northern varieties this year, so we'll see what happens.

Thanks Meredith!

Ellie Mae's Cottage said...

Wow the tomatoes have grown so much! I love this watering system you have. -Jackie

AnnF said...

My container warmth lovers are doing much better than their garden fellows - I think the containers have a warmer soil...

Stacy said...

Jackie, I'm loving it myself! : )

I know mine do Ann. I have a couple of remote thermometer probes out there leftover from the coldframe. The surface temp of the containers runs almost twenty degrees warmer than the surface temp of the garden soil so far. That and the pest free, loose and fertile soil and consistent moisture are making for some happy plants!