Hanging plants

[Bucker]

I have seen the buckets w/ Tomatoes and other veggies growing out the bittom. What is the set up and what is the trick to making them?  Would i fill a whole bucket of dirt, how big a hole in the bottom? I have a raised bed garden on limited space, if I can lift those up and hang them over my ground garden it would be great. Any help or ideas on how to do these ia appreciated. 

[wtxbadger]

Bucker,

Saw the ads for this last year and the idea really interested me. Not wanting to spend a bunch of money I used 5 gallon buckets i had at the house. Cut a small hole in the bottom just big enough to slide the plant through and filled the bucket with potting soil. I was not sure which variety was best so I tried several different ones.

The plants seemed to do really well for a few weeks and grew well. The problem I ran into is that in West Texas the wind tends to blow a good bit of the time and the only place I had to hang them did not provide enough shelter from the wind. As the plants got bigger they would swing and twist in the wind until all of them were damaged at the base of the plant and died.

If I could have moved them to a more sheltered spot I think they would have done well. I have heard this is a pretty common way to grow tomatoes in East Texas where the wind does not blow so much.

I also wonder if a better variety of tomato with a stronger stalk would have done better.


wtxbadger

[charles p]

There is a product you can mix in the soil that absorbs and retains water.  Looks like little jell globs.  These help the hanging baskets a lot.  Mine dry out badly during summer days.   Water runs right through the baskets.

I grew some peppers in mine last year with success.  Tomatoes vines seem to break in the wind pretty bad.  Lettuce works well this time of year.

[wtxbadger]

I wonder if a patio type tomato plant would do better in an upside down container? Most of the patio tomatoes seem to have a beefier stalk at the base.

I may give it another try and see if the patio tomatoes work better. I think most patio tomato plants are determinate in their growth and would make easier to manage if they survived the wind.

[longwinters]

I am going to try the hanging bags planted with strawberries.  Every year I try one thing new and this will be this years experiment.

Long