This is my garden - one tomato plant. Grown in a 3.5-lb. bucket. Supposed to use a five-pound bucket but the smaller one seems to work ok. The plant has gotten large from all the rain we've had plus two feeds of Miracle-Gro.

original plant
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/5387/tomatoplantoriginalpot0xe0.jpg

plant today
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/1972/tomatoboxovenracksupporpb5.jpg

So far have eaten eight fruits off it; there are at least 30 more green fruits still growing. Taste quality is high; I've grown light bulb and cherry tomatoes before but never grape. Wish I'd done a larger size like Early Girl as well as the small ones.

Plants are nothing but green straws. That's the first observation you'll make if you've never gardened before. Green life is a function of water. Almost nothing else matters.

This is my garden - one tomato plant. Grown in a 3.5-lb. bucket. Supposed to use a five-pound bucket but the smaller one seems to work ok. The plant has gotten large from all the rain we've had plus two feeds of Miracle-Gro.

original plant
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/5387/tomatoplantoriginalpot0xe0.jpg

plant today
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/1972/tomatoboxovenracksupporpb5.jpg

So far have eaten eight fruits off it; there are at least 30 more green fruits still growing. Taste quality is high; I've grown light bulb and cherry tomatoes before but never grape. Wish I'd done a larger size like Early Girl as well as the small ones.

Damn; you DO have a green thumb, I must take some pictures of my pepper plants and post them:) btw, do you give them full sun all day?

You don’t have to stop there, I have seen cucumbers, zucchini, hot peppers, bell peppers and more grow from a bucket with great success.

Another thing you could do is cut a hole in the bottom of the bucket and put a plant through the hole, fill with dirt then hang the plant. This will grow all the above mentioned veggies. I currently have around 40 plants growing that way and they always do exceptionally well. You must water them daily though. The upside is you can easily construct any type of structure to hand the buckets from and they take up very little space and almost no ground space. I posted some pics a couple years ago. I get the buckets very cheap, at the most $1.00 each but usually cheaper then use them over and over again.

This year I sprouted and planted 500 seeds of various veggies and flowers for less than $20.00. Right now bell pepper plants are $3.00 each at Wal-Mart and no stores are moving plants because they have quadrupled in price in the last year.

I enjoy seeing innovative gardeners that use practical methods.


Edit

I use gallon sized buckets 3/4th's full of potting soil and they produce almost identical results as the 5 gallon bucket method. My experiance has been that 4 times the soil will yeild perhaps 10% more crop and it just isn't worth the effort and cost.

Rather than use a bucket for tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, hot peppers and suchlike,I prefer old used tires.The black rubber really soaks up the heat,which is real important because I life in a much cooler climate than most people here.Sometimes I'll grow stuff in a bucket though.I usually poke lots of holes in the bottom and put it in another container or trough and try to keep an inch or two of water in the second container.

Damn; you DO have a green thumb, I must take some pictures of my pepper plants and post them:) btw, do you give them full sun all day?

i moved the pot around when the plant was small; now it's too big

You don’t have to stop there, I have seen cucumbers, zucchini, hot peppers, bell peppers and more grow from a bucket with great success.

I know. I just don't like any of those. Just tomatoes. When I had space I did grow some carrots and radishes, also melons.


Another thing you could do is cut a hole in the bottom of the bucket and put a plant through the hole, fill with dirt then hang the plant. This will grow all the above mentioned veggies. I currently have around 40 plants growing that way and they always do exceptionally well. You must water them daily though. The upside is you can easily construct any type of structure to hand the buckets from and they take up very little space and almost no ground space. I posted some pics a couple years ago. I get the buckets very cheap, at the most $1.00 each but usually cheaper then use them over and over again.

This year I sprouted and planted 500 seeds of various veggies and flowers for less than $20.00. Right now bell pepper plants are $3.00 each at Wal-Mart and no stores are moving plants because they have quadrupled in price in the last year.

I enjoy seeing innovative gardeners that use practical methods.


Edit

I use gallon sized buckets 3/4th's full of potting soil and they produce almost identical results as the 5 gallon bucket method. My experiance has been that 4 times the soil will yeild perhaps 10% more crop and it just isn't worth the effort and cost.

There's all kinds of info on the net about growing tomatoes in buckets upside down. All I really need or want are 2-3 plants, 1 with large and couple with small so tomatoes are ripening up every day in the summer. When I had space and had six plants going, a lot of days in the summer I could get half a pan or even a panful of light bulb tomatoes every day in the peak stretch.

Rather than use a bucket for tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, hot peppers and suchlike,I prefer old used tires.The black rubber really soaks up the heat,which is real important because I life in a much cooler climate than most people here.Sometimes I'll grow stuff in a bucket though.I usually poke lots of holes in the bottom and put it in another container or trough and try to keep an inch or two of water in the second container.

Yeah, I poked some holes in the bottom, then put in some rocks and newspaper over rocks. You're supposed to use peat moss, I think, or some kind of prepared mix, but I just dug up some nice dirt, seems to work fine. I threw in one egg. The calcium's supposed to be good for the roots. But I put mine on top because the roots were already transplanted. I guess that's kind of retarded, but what the heck. Maybe a little filters down from all the rain we've been having.

Halloween anyone?:D4912

You like potatoes?

A 5 gallon bucket and a few seed potatoes. You'll enjoy a bumper crop.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/200723/how_to_successfully_grow_patio_potatoes.html

I might try the potatoes. They must be pretty small though. When I've done potatoes in a garden, each cut piece with eyes has to be planted a couple feet from the others. Would seem doing multiple potatoes in one bucket would reduce the size of the average potato significantly.

This is my first garden ever. It is just three tomato plants. I've already eaten two of them, and they tasted great. My neighbor gave me the plants, the tags just said "healthy choice tomatoes." Sorry about the shitty pics, I took them with my web cam.

http://i535.photobucket.com/albums/ee355/krom30/tomato2.jpg
http://i535.photobucket.com/albums/ee355/krom30/tomato1.jpg

They look good! Nothing better than tomatoes. Funny thing, how tastes change. I disliked tomatoes as a child, now they're among my favorites.

They look good! Nothing better than tomatoes. Funny thing, how tastes change. I disliked tomatoes as a child, now they're among my favorites.

Thanks, they're about the size of racquet balls. I also hated tomatoes, but loved ketchup. Now my wife and I eat the hell out of them.

I planted tomotoes in a bucket last year. I got one good crop and then these huge tomato worms started eating every leaf off the plant. I had to go out in the dark and pick the worms off. After that, birds or something always ate a hole in the tomatoes before I could get to them. After awhile I just "donated" the plant to the wildlife.

I planted tomotoes in a bucket last year. I got one good crop and then these huge tomato worms started eating every leaf off the plant. I had to go out in the dark and pick the worms off. After that, birds or something always ate a hole in the tomatoes before I could get to them. After awhile I just "donated" the plant to the wildlife.

Yeah, I been watching for those worms, but haven't seen any. Lots of slugs around here, but haven't seen one trying to get in the bucket. Really, the advantage of buckets is much harder for disease and pests to get hold.

did you prune the first few sets of buds or is that just the size it got? for those that dont know if you cut off the first few rounds of flowers the plant will grow much larger then if you dont as once the first fruit starts to grow all the energy is put into making fruit and not growth of the plant it self.

It's a little late but I'm doing squash and will try beans next growing season. I was told by a person who lives very close by that (of all things) you can have cantelope in a box only 2 feet square.

I'm willing to try anything once. My hot peppers are doing extremely well and are only 18 inches high.