I wasn’t going to plant any produce this year due to the severe drought, but I just can’t say no to TOMATOES! A neighbor brought me six tomato plants of dubious ancestry. He’d started from seed. And my husband, who I’d ask to buy me ONE “Sweet 100s” tomato plant because they produce so well here, bought me a six-pack because they “cost less than a single plant”. I had 12 tomatoes that I didn’t really want but would eventually find a place for.
We decided to try growing tomatoes in some old wine barrels that had once held cymbidium orchids. We placed the three wine barrels on a slight slope. As we were moving them, the bottom of one of the barrels had roted, and it fell out. Oh, well, who needs a bottom. Gardeners need to improvise occasionally.
I concocted a soil mixture that I thought would have good drainage, last the entire growing season and not be too expensive. The recipe for the soil mixture is as follows:
- 5 parts pine bark (as fine as you can find)
- 2 parts sphagnum peat moss
- 1 part perlite
- 1/2 cup dolomite lime
- 1/4 cut controlled release fertilizer like Osmocote
- 1 lbs of worm compost or other compost
I wanted a soil mixture that would hold moisture but still provide good drainage. I’ve used Miracle Grow moisture control potting mix from Costco in the past and it has been too moist. The tomato plants actually shriveled and did not thrive.
After eight weeks, my tomato plants in wine barrels are growing nicely. Here in Cambria, due to the cool climate, we seldom get ripe tomatoes until August. It looks like this year, I’ll get an early crop!
