Self watering bucket garden

[mark02tj]

I did the self-watering buckets a few years ago. I had mixed results.

I didn't know about the baskets you found on Amazon, so I cut a hole in the bottom and then put window screen down in it. It seemed to work pretty well.

You might find that you can buy food grade 5 gallon buckets from donut shops or bakeries. A shop around here will sell the buckets, already clean, for $1 each. Kroger will sometimes give them away for free, but often you have to clean them yourself. Well worth the $1.

With many things gardening related, you'll find many opinions. I was told that bigger tomato varieties (Beefsteak, etc.) were too big for a 5 gallon bucket. I'm no expert. I guess that smaller varieties would be OK since there are so many places selling "patio tomatoes".

One issue that I had was that Sweetie absolutely hated the way they looked! She couldn't stand seeing the 5 gallon buckets all over. Part of this is that our "sunny areas" are pretty limited as most of our property is wooded. I would have purchased some of the better looking self-waterers, but they're expensive!!

Keep us all appraised of your progress!!

 

[RSKY]

So far so good. The buckets are kind of a hassle in a lot of ways. You must water every morning when plants start producing though several people have them on timers. But I got tired of fighting critters in the big garden. So this is all the garden we will have.

Obviously this is not my first year doing this but I have been a little more careful at the beginning. I made sure to buy the vine type, indeterminate, tomatoes instead of the determinate bush type. Then I trimmed all the limbs off about 2/3rds up the stem from the roots. Buried all but the top third of the plant with the roots resting on about an inch of dirt on the bottom of the inner bucket. As the plants have grown I have trimmed the branches and put more dirt in the buckets. After about two and a half weeks the plants are much above the top of the buckets and all have blooms and some have small tomatoes on them. After the lower parts stop producing I will trim the branches, called singe stemming, and force the plants to grow up. I am going to weave the branches into a fence panel instead of using baskets. The cucumbers look to be thriving also but don't have them on a trellis yet. Squash also seem to be thriving. I am still watering the cucumbers and squash from the top but the tomatoes are all taking water from the outer bucket reservoir. I can tell by how much water they take each morning.

Oh yeah, if you do grow vine type tomatoes in buckets you must sucker them once or twice a week or the suckers will weigh down your baskets.

Put in three rows of Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans (is there any other kind?) in my small 15'x20' garden. Will use fence panels for them to climb on. If they produce as the last ones we put out three years ago we will be able to put up at least a two year supply for us and both daughters. Also put out six or seven okra plants.

That is the extent of my gardening this year.

I will post pictures as the plants mature.

RSKY