Hopefully a successful start to a world of wonderful tomatoes

February 1, I “started” some tomato and pepper seeds to germinate… And immediately began wondering what was the most successful way I could bring these plants productivity. That lead me to adapt a design from a fellow Tomatovillian and this is how my version of Raybo’s EarthTainers came to be. I apologized to him because my ‘tainers have a common ancestry (plastic “tote”) and self-watering container concept. Anyway, here are some pictures of the insides of my “BobbiTainer” as Ray christened them – shortly before I gashed my finger with a box cutter ;0)

BobbiTainerCarcass

The inner portion of the lid was cut out, then cut down to sit down inside to make the “water table/planting medium support tray”, and holes were drilled to allow drainage. Most of my 10 ‘tainers have cut-down 1 quart Dannon yogurt containers for the wicking basket – but this one has a scrap piece of the perforated drain pipe my cohort in building decided would be a great support… then we decided to cut longer pieces and lay them horizontally.

The wicking basket is held in place with zip-ties, and the water fill-tube is just standing in the corner, through a hole cut with a hole saw.

TainerWFillTube

Anyway, I have all the components of the planting medium and plan to get it mixed, and the ‘tainers loaded this morning, giving the water time to drain some before transplanting my tomatoes and pepper plants later today. And hopefully, when I come home from work tomorrow, I’ll see happy plants growing in my “BobbiTainer Farm” ;0}

My garden area/container 'farm'