The Tomato Plant Container Size Experiment Part 1

So, around about October I begin to plant tomatoes out into their containers for the season. I usually plant the majority in the ground, but like to have container plants as well, as they often ripen quicker.

But then I am faced with the question, what size container should I use, and what happens if I use a smaller container?!

This year we find out.

Introducing the Tomato Plant Container Size Experiment

Last year I looked at what effect growing a range of different plants in different potting mediums would have on their overall growth and yield. The answer was surprising. There seemed to be little to no difference regardless of whether I used a special potting blend, Al "Tapla's" well-known 5-1-1 mix or straight off the shelf $2.50 potting mix. This flew in the face of everything I had read about soil properties and improved growth, and although by no means a conclusive experiment, it definitely was interesting to see such little difference.

This year I am going to look at how container size affects growth of tomato plants. The experiment will be simpler than last year, and will simply look at what happens to tomatoes as you decrease the container size.

Overview

I will be using three different container sizes for this experiment, and will have two tomato plants per container size, so we can see if there is wild differences in growth or yield even between plants in the same container size.

The containers I will be using are below, and from left to right are 13 liters, 23 liters and 42 liters.

By the time I has used all my soil medium, the containers were not quite full, and so I will estimate that the actual soil volume in each is somewhere between 9-11 liters, 18-21 liters and 36-39 liters respectively. 

From left to right 13L container, 23L container and 42L container (as marked on containers)

I chose a variety of tomatoes from the local hardware store, that were approximately uniform size and health. The punnet came with 8 plants, this experiment will look at 6 of those plants.

The tomatoes used in this experiment

More information, for those interested

I will simultaneously be growing other tomato plants in the ground, and in other containers which I may refer to, but these wont be used as a comparison for this experiment.

What sized container is actually recommended?

It is difficult to find a straight answer when searching for what size container to use to plant your tomatoes in, with some ranges between 10L as a minimum and up to 60L or more as being recommended. 

This site suggests 30L as a minimum stating;

I find the most important factor is volume of dirt. I use containers that hold 30 liters (7.3 US Gallons), and I find this is both the minimum but also an amount that usually works okay. More is obviously better, if possible.

This thread from GardenWeb seems to come to the consensus that 5 Gallon containers (18.9L) are sufficient, even for growing beefsteak tomatoes.

And this page from the North Carolina State University says that the range of container size is anywhere from 5 - 20 Gals (18.9L - 75L).

Why should we even care - just use a huge container!

Anybody that has planted a number of container fruits or vegetables knows that as container size increases, cost seems to exponentially go up. And the more you plant, the more you cop it.

With increased container size you need not only a more expensive container, but also more quality soil mix to fill it. As size increases so does the weight of the container, and a 60L container with soil and a plant (weighing up to 45kg itself) can be a nightmare to move around!

So the goal should be to find the very minimum container size that provides sufficient quality and quantity of yield to be worth the effort of growing. 

The soil mix used in this experiment

Despite finding in my last experiment that ordinary old potting mix performs just as well, old habits die hard.

The mix I used for this experiment is the same for all container sizes.

I started by rehyrdrating a block of coconut husk chips. I used the blocks sold at Bunnings, which go for about $12-13 and are far inferior to the chips I have used previously. They are much larger, and just seem less refined. I prefer the orchidmate brand, which can be found online.

The packet of the husk chips says that it expands to up 60L, but here it is after being wet, in a 62L container. I estimate it expands to a volume of about 30L or less.

Re-hydrated coconut husk chips

I split the husks in two even parts, and to each part added the following:

1 bag of orchid mix, which appears to be composted bark, of about 5-10mm grade.

Can be found at Masters hadware stores for about $8 per bag

1 bag el-cheapo potting mix

This is a $5 bag. Couldn't find a $2.50 bag anywhere!

2 large handfuls of organic tomato fertiliser, and 2 large handfuls of fig fertiliser, which is made up of super-phosphate, bonemeal and dolomitic lime.

Add fertiliser

Organic tomato fertiliser

Mix all together and we have our mix. It is a nice damp, loose and aerated mix that should allow for good root growth! Here is a quick vid, please excuse my shaky and unfocused camera-work!

Filled, transplanted and ready to go

After filling all my containers with my soil mix, I have transplanted my tomatoes and am ready to watch and record them grow! As the nights are still quite cool here in Canberra I will be lugging them in and out of the garage each night to protect them from any frosts.

All lined up nice and pretty!

So stay tuned. I feel I am lacking a really big container comparison, the 60L group, and I do have 2 more plants left over... so I might end up adding another two plants tomorrow !

Read More

Miracle Fruit in Canberra!

After a long absence, I'm back!

Well the past few months have been hectic. Am in a brand new house, with literally NO garden, just hard slate-filled ground, had the birth of brand new twins back in February and have generally just been tied up!

I hope to add something every month or so, having a yard that is so small compared to my last, and having difficult soil conditions to work means it takes a whole lot of effort to motivate yourself to get out there and start work.

Plus things being held up with a building dispute, so yay for that.

I thought I would post today about a plant I have a heap of interest in, synsepalum dulcificum otherwise known as Miracle fruit.

Miracle fruit - an amazing plant with amazing properties!

So for those of you who have never heard of the miracle fruit, here is the run down.It is a tropical plant originally from tropical West Africa. It is normally a smallish to medium sized plant, up to about 1.5 - 2 meters high, although in its natural habitat can reach up to 5 meters tall.

It is an evergreen plant that grows smallish red berries, with a mild sweet taste.

What is remarkable about this plant though is not the berries or look of the plant, but rather the effect of eating the berries. See a picture from wikipedia below of the berries (mine are still waiting to produce their first!).

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Miracle fruit turns sour foods sweet!

Yes you read that right. By eating the berries of the miracle fruit, previously sour foods such as lemons or even vinegar become not only drinkable, but delicious. Within the berries is a substance named miraculum, it binds to the taste buds in your tongue and gives this amazing effect.

Lemons are reported to taste like sweet lemonade, vinegar like a sweet delicious liquid. 

It also apparently has the effect of limiting the taste of bitter foods as well.

The miracle fruit has been investigated as a way to help diabetics, and to assist dieters to eat foods that are sweet, without having to pack on the calories that comes with sugar.

Miracle fruit is sometimes tricky to grow.

In Canberra the climate is about as far as possible from the native West African climate that miracle fruit enjoy.

In its natural environment the miracle fruit grows in warm humid conditions, in sunlight filtered through a tropical canopy.

It is slow growing, and will not tolerate cold.

I got the first of my miracle fruit almost a year today, back in September 2012.

  A few months later however, and I had only gone backwards. Miracle fruit it seems, hate too much direct sunlight, and after only an hour or so in the sun, both my plants dropped leaves, and then sat sulking for many months.

Miracle fruit CAN be successfully grown in Canberra!

I purchased five different plants because I was so sure I would kill them. Today, after a little trial and error at the beginning they are all still here with me today. 

It turns out they make great indoor plants.

Here is what you need to grow miracle fruit successfully indoors in Canberra.

1. Acidic soil. Miracle fruit need acidic soil much like blueberries. Without this, they will become chloriotic and die. If you read through forums regarding growing these fruit, many people will say they need filtered or distilled water. I have found this not to be the case, but the water must be acidified. I use the same sulfuric acid for my blueberries, and you can see my previous posts on this.
2. Warmth. My house has been set at a constant 22o C all winter with central gas heating. I have some of the plants directly under a vent, though I angle the vents so that hot dry air is not blowing directly on the plant.
3. Do not ever let miracle fruit dry out, it will be the end.
4. Lots of sunlight BUT only through a window. In direct September sun in Canberra I just about totally defoliated a plant in an hour, and lost about a quarter of my other plants leaves.Perhaps I introduced them too quickly after being shipped in a dark box, I originally thought. Nope, a second plant I received in November, I made the exact same mistake. Lots of direct light through a window, however they seem to love. In fact, since moving to my new house, with an aspect that allows for 3-4 hours good quality direct sun through the window, they have taken off.
5. Limit fertiliser. Too much fertiliser is reported to kill miracle fruit. I use half of the tiny scoop that comes with acid loving miracle grow, in a 4L watering can, and divide it amongst all my plants. Once I burnt the tips of the leaves of a couple of my plants, by having a little too much fertiliser. You can see this in some of the photos below.
6. Humidity. This one is contentious. At times, I have had humidifiers running right next to my plants, to replicate the humidity they reportedly love. They did seem to appreciate it, however, after not running the humidifiers for a months and seeing quick growth, with no ill effect, I am starting to think it was coincidence. We do however spend a lot of time boiling babies bottles, so perhaps that amount of water in the air is enough.

Today my plants are looking great, and I hope that within a few months I may get a berry or two to test the effects in person!

Leaf burn on tips from too much fertiliser one time

Read More

A Close Look at The Fig Collection - White Adriatic

I have been planning to update each of my figs for a long time now, especially as I am beginning to see fruit off of many of my trees. Today I will start with one of my favourites; White Adriatic.

Summary

Description; A vigorous plant that produced a number of breba and main crop figs. Performed poorly in 5-1-1 and enjoyed coconut husk chips in a larger pot.

Breba Crop? Yes

Breba taste? Sweet honey-nut

Breba appearance? Mottled, areas of deep red to light pink to pale pink

Main crop taste? Rich, sweet, berry

Main crop appearance? Uniform deep dark red

Problems? Rust

The Plant

I purchased my White Adriatic from Daley's Online Nursery in January 2013, it came nicely boxed, and I can still remember that of the three fig trees I bought when I opened the White Adriatic box I was greeted with a wonderful figgy aroma of the leaves.

In March 2013, my plant looked like this, about a week after transplanting;

5th Feb 2013 White Adriatic

I originally potted my White Adriatic into 5-1-1 potting mix, and had great expectation for growth. Sadly, however, this was not to be, and 28 days later my plant had gone backwards slightly, losing some leaves and colour.

3rd March 2013 White Adriatic

By April that year it had begun to put out a small amount of new growth, but lost it all shortly thereafter with the first frost.

5th April 2013 White Adriatic

I suspected that the soil mix I had used was the cause of my lackluster growth, and took the opportunity to repot the plant into a larger pot, with a mix made primarily of coconut husk chips.

28 July 2013 White Adriatic in a new soil mix and larger pot

Shortly after repotting, the plant took off. Buds broke about 2 weeks later, one of the earliest figs in my collection to break.

15th September 2013 - White Adriatic bud break

After this, growth took off in my new container mix, and just 8 days later my White Adriatic already had more leaves than in the months preceding dormancy!

23rd September 2013 White Adriatic

Another two weeks, and growth was speeding along! In less than a month from breaking dormancy this plant had put off more growth in its new container mix than the 3 months prior to dormancy! I was amazed.

9th October 2013 White Adriatic

By December White Adriatic was producing its first figs.

12 December 2013 White Adriatic

Today, about a month before dormancy, my White Adriatic barely resembles the plant I purchased a year ago.

18 March 2014 White Adriatic 

The Fruit

My White Adriatic ripened its first two fruits at the end of January, these were breba figs.

31 January 2014 - First ripened fruit

The first fruits were small to medium in size, with a varied interior ranging from dark red to light pink.

1 February 2014 - White Adriatic breba crop fruit

 

1 February 2014 - White Adriatic breba crop interior

 The flavour was sweet, honey like and tasty. 

Later in the season my White Adriatic ripened some of its main crop, which had different colour and texture to the breba;

20th March 2014 - White Adriatic main crop

20th March 2014 - White Adriatic main crop interior

The main crop was much juicier than the breba with a uniform deep red colour. Its flavour was rich, sweet and berry-like. Far superior to the breba.

My White Adriatic still has a number of unripe fruit on its branches, however as the season draws to a close for the year I don't believe too many more will ripen, the plant is still young however,and I expect a much larger crop next year!

Problems

My White Adriatic has been moderately affected by rust in the last few weeks, likely a result of a larger amount of rain in the previous weeks. Rust begins as brown spots on the undersides of leaves, and can cause defoliation. Once rust appears it is difficult to deal with. Rust is fungus that spreads its spores from leaf to leaf through water droplets and can be treated in dormant phase with a copper based fungicide. All dropped leaves from rust infected plants should be destroyed.   

Rust on White Adriatic

Read More

An update on my super-hot Chillies

Last year, I posted about some chilli seeds I bought, and then I germinated a bunch of them under grow lights for this season.

I also purchased some super-hot seedlings from a local store.

In the last few weeks these chillies have started to produce pods, ranging from sweet and mild to blistering hot!

Using some of my fataliis' I made a mango and peach chillie sauce yesterday, which I will put up in a separate post.

Here are some pics;

Fatalii

My fataliis', used in my container-mix experiment are producing heaps of beautiful bright yellow pods. I took a chance, and ate a whole fatalii and was greeted by the unmistakable smell of capsaicum, the compound that gives chillies their heat. As I chewed this chilli pepper, I did not taste the citrus flavour these chillies are meant to have, instead I was hit with an immediate, powerful heat. It was quite intense, and lasted about 10 minutes.

Moruga Scorpion

My moruga scorpion is producing a good number of pods. I have the plant in a large 50L pot, and it has become quite bushy and lush.

The pods on this plant look wicked and cruel. As of last year the moruga scorpion was the hottest chillie pepper in the world with measurements taken about 2 million scoville units, right about the strength of pepper spray. Hot.

I was silly enough to try a small slice of one of these peppers raw. It is so ridiculously hot, I am labeling one of the most painful experiences of my life. The searing heat lasted about 20 minutes, building hotter and hotter for the first 10 minutes before slowly tapering off. 

The small sliver of chillie I tried outdid the pain of an entire fatalii pepper by a good margin. After eating, I could feel the chillie sitting in my stomach and moving through my gut, a burning ember for the next 12 hours. It will a lot of convincing for me to ever consider eating one of these raw again!

My Moruga Scorpion Test Sample - HOT!

Chocolate Habanero 

My chocolate Hab is growing nicely, it is a small bush with a good number of growing pods. I actually have two of these.

I haven't tasted the habanero raw, but used half of it to flavour a dish, where it imparted a nice mild level of heat to 1kg of mince.

 

Peter's Pepper

I have not yet had any ripe chillies from my Peter's Pepper, named after the unique manly shape the chillies grow. I intend to overwinter this plant, and have it in a large pot where it has grown bushy and lush.

Bhut Jolokia

I have both a red and yellow Bhut Jolokia in containers. The yellow has begun to ripen some pods, however I am still waiting on the red.

Unripe Red Bhut Jolokia

Jalapeno 

My Jalapeno is a bit of a let-down. It is from the nursery, and whilst it is growing well, it has no heat whatsoever. 

Yellow 7 Pot

I haven't yet tasted my 7 pot, which is just now ripening its pods.

 

Read More

Great Container Mix Experiement - Week 10

As we enter the new year, I have done my next round of measurements. Canberra has had some very warm days, and warm nights, and this has allowed all my plants to get a bit of a boost. The Fataliis' in particular are going mad.

Lets get straight into it.

Summary of Results

My Okra stunted from the cold a few weeks ago has begun to move again, and put on 6cms in the last 3 weeks. It looks as if it is ready for a real growth surge, and I have hope it will catch up to its taller brothers. The banana chillies are also growing quickly. They are in smaller pots, and the plant in pure potting mix needs watering every day or else it wilts quickly. The plant in 5-1-1 wilts if not watered every day, and it is a very hot day. Interestingly the plant in coconut husk chips has never wilted once, I am not sure if this is due to the plant being smaller than the other two, requiring less water, or a property of the mix itself.

Percentage wise, between week 7 and 10, the Fatalii in 5-1-1 grew the most, with 88% change in height. In total height gained, the Okra in pure potting mix put on the most height, adding 21cms.

The chart below shows total percentage growth for all plants in all mixes from week 1 to week 10.

Total Percentage Change in Growth week 1 - week 10

Okra

All the okra have put on size over the last 3 weeks, and have begun producing pods. I have only harvested 1 or 2 at this stage, but I think things will pick up as summer goes on.

The okra in plain potting mix has started to close the gap with the plain in 5-1-1, putting on 21cm and 16cm respectively. The okra stunted from the cold has put on 6cms, a 33% change in height over 3 weeks. The rate of growth for the okra in 5-1-1 is reduced compared to the plant in plain potting mix and coconut husk chips, over the same 3 week period.

Fatalii

The Fatalii peppers have really taken off, add density and size. This experiment only measures plant growth on a height scale, however if other considerations such as width were taken into consideration, it is easily seen that the plant in plain potting mix is performing the strongest followed closely by the coconut husk chips.

This can be seen in this picture, of all three plants side-by-side. The coconut husk chips are to the right, the plain potting mix in the center, and the 5-1-1 on the left.

The plain potting mix (center) is denser, and slightly larger than both other plants

Here are the numbers for each;

Banana Chilli

The banana chilli in the plain potting mix continues to put on size, and the coconut husk chip plant is picking up steam quickly. The plant in 5-1-1 is also performing extremely well.

The plant in plain potting mix requires watering every day, or else it begins to wilt before the days end.

Below is a picture in their current size. You can see that the plant in pure potting mix has more chillies, and is taller than the other two.

5-1-1 on the left, plain potting mix in the center, coconut husk chips on the right

Here are the numbers;

Photos of Measurements Week 10

Okra Coconut Husk Chips

Okra Plain Potting Mix

Okra 'Fine' 5-1-1

Fatalii Coconut Husk Chips

Fatalii Plain Potting Mix

Fatalii 'coarse' 5-1-1

Banana Chilli Coconut Husk Chips

Banana Chilli Plain Potting Mix

Banana Chili 'coarse' 5-1-1

Read More