Comments on: Plant Tomatoes In An Earthbox

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 21:14:55 +0000

I’ve had some end rot issues with my tomatoes, too, but usually it’s not with all of the plants, just some of them. Do you start your seedlings yourself, or buy them? I have read that sometimes the way the seedlings are grown can affect the blossom end rot kinds of issues. Do you add the Dolomite, or lime to your soil?
If it is only with some of your boxes, do you think it might be because of variations in sunlight or drainage? Have you called the Earth Box people themselves?

By: Edward Nevalsky

Edward Nevalsky — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 15:26:58 +0000

i have 20 earth box’s and only have problems with tomato end rot , summer squash starts out great some yields then end rot starts. My pickling cukes do well but then after about 150 cukes plants turn yellow then die out and i think too quickly.That is a total of (1) tomato, (2) summer squash, and (4) pickling cukes.i have followed every step using 10-10-10- and all 13 other container doing very well. Any sugestions?

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:24:23 +0000

Now that our temps are finally above freezing in Minnesota, I’ve got to figure out what I’m going to plant this year. I might even try some cucumbers and summer squash this year.

By: Gail M Woodburn

Gail M Woodburn — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:34:30 +0000

I did put three cherry tomatoe plants in one earth box. It worked great but I watered twice a day in the early morning and at night. I weeded the small sprouts and I had over 800 cherry tomatoes Mine went into the fall also. I would not plant three in the earth box if I had cherry toematoes. I tried it with roma toematoes and got a lot of them but it was too crowed the plants were extremely heavy and were seven feet tall so this yr I am only gonna plant two romas in one and three cherries in the other. I also had good luck with cumcumbers in earthboxs and summer squash together.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:30:27 +0000

Did your plants have blossoms on them? Family members and friends have run into similar problems, and we did research that suggested that a very hot environment could have been the problem, or that there could be a problem with having enough pollenation. My MIL bought some spray for the blossoms that she has put on the blossoms of her plants to aid in this situation.

Where did you get your tomato plants to begin with? I’ve had very good luck with plants that were started by local gardeners, but I know a few people who’ve had terrible luck with plants from big box stores. This could be that the big box plants are varieties that might not thrive in your location.

I hope that this information helps. Sorry for the delay- I’ve been away for several weeks.

By: eliz

eliz — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:59:33 +0000

2 healthy looking plants but NO FRUIT-did EVERYTHING per instructions…..plants are waist high including box-what happened-what to do?

By: admin

admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:41:50 +0000

Are they just drying out and turning yellow? Or are they all green and limp? If the former, just pick those leaves off at the main shoot. If they’re all green and limp, is it because there’s a break in the shoot further down, where it bent over due to wind? I sometimes lose a branch that way. If none of the above, I’d see if I could get the Earthbox into a little more sun.

I hope this helps!

By: Gail Hahn

Gail Hahn — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:08:46 +0000

Help! I put three tomato plants into my EarthBox this season. Watered religiously, and all was well until about a week ago. The top third of my plants’ leaves are starting to wither—as if the water isn’t getting there. I do have some fruit, which seems to be growing, but this doesn’t look good. Any advice?

By: admin

admin — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:34:45 +0000

I do mix Dolomite into the potting soil when I am planting tomatoes, and since I’ve always done it, I can’t tell you if it works better than without. The Dolomite helps change the acidity of the soil.

For fertilizer, I’ve used organic ones and regular ones. I usually go to my local garden supply store and find something that is meant for vegetables, especially if it has tomatoes on the label. Don’t use fertilizer for grass, which is mostly nitrogen. Usually they have 3 numbers, the ratio of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium (NPK). The sources I’ve seen from university horticulturists say that 1-2-1 or 1-2-2 are the appropriate kinds of ratios. Try and find one where the first number is smaller, or even to the other numbers and you should be OK.

By: Lenette

Lenette — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:16:46 +0000

Hi,
Thanks for the post. What kind of fertilizer do you recomend ? Is Dolomite any good ? We want whatever kind you add at the beginning on one end, top with the red plastic mulch (or black cover as you did) and thats it. We did this last year with great results for the first time, but misplaced the name of the one time fertilizer. Any info you can provide will be so very appreciated.

Thanks a million
Lenette