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soil Moisture retnetion in potting soil

W

wordwiz

I have three containers with plants in them - a beefsteak tomato (indeterminate), Siletz (determinate) and a Banana pepper. The pepper is still doing great but the toms: they had jumped out to a huge lead over the ones in dirt in the garden, but have slowed tremendously. Bottom leaves are turning yellow. I presumed it was because of all the rain we have had, though the ones in the backyard (in dirt) look great.

My trusty 4-N-1 meter made me wonder. The soil (soilless potting soil) was nearly bone dry and the amount of fertilizers was next to none. Now the meter may be off a bit, but not that much - the dirt in the yard is wet and it has a decent amount of nutrients. Yet, I have added water with Tomato Tome fertilizer and Fish Emulsion regularly.

My guess is the PS is not holding anything - when I picked up the 5-gallon container with a decent size plant growing, it weighed next to nothing. But that is after all the rain (about 4 inches in the last two weeks) we have had plus the water the ferts I added was dissolved in.

1) Would mixing compost with the PS help maintain moisture?

2) I have a boatload of really silty dirt that does not compact - should I add some of it with the compost and PS or just to the PS?

3) Is a 5-gallon container perhaps too small for tomatoes?

I have until the middle of August to figure all this out and experiment!

Mike
 
I think a 5 gallon container may not be big enough. I had indeterminate tomatoes in 5 and 7 gallon containers last year, and they did the same thing. I think they just need more room to send roots deep. All mine did the same thing. They shot up fast, and then stopped growing. Leaves yellowed, fruit set sucked, and what fruit did set either rotted or stayed really small. I think your determinate tomato might be okay, but the indeterminates need room to run. For potted plants, I think bush types may be the way to go. Dwarf Giant comes to mind.
 
I've found you need large containers for determinate tomatos, and for me the best seem to be ones that are twice as tall as they are wide. The problem is that tomato roots grow so fast that they become rootbound in no time
 
Fivestar,

OK, I'll throw this out for critique. The whole idea is to grow plants in a Greenhouse this fall, winter and spring. I wonder how a "raised bed" would compare to containers. I can easily make it 18" wide and 12" deep and not use much more PS/Compost than I will if I grow the plants in containers. I figure in a 16' span, I can grow 14 plants such as Siletz or Legend, though it will take some work. That would be 42 plants.

I suspect it will take me a couple of cycles to see what works the best.

Mike
 
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