welcome to the rustic garden what I
thought I would do today it's actually
Monday it's evening I just got home from
work I'm going to start a new series
called kiss chaos keep it simple the
whole purpose behind it is to help new
gardeners and if you're just getting
started and been doing a couple years to
really get a tomato plant growing you'll
get a vegetable growing and hopefully if
you watch some of my videos and I show
you how to make the potting mixes how to
use peat moss and it can get a little
bit complicated if you're just getting
started so today I want to start with
how to grow the cherry tomato and a 10
gallon container and I'll go over all
the pieces in a constructing container
and what you need to do and this will
probably be a three-part series where
we'll do some tending pruning and all
that kind of stuff in harvesting but to
get started this is about a 10 gallon
container I just got it at Home Depot it
was actually only nine dollars it was on
sale so right now is a great time to
find a lot of things on sale we're going
to fill it with plain old gardening soil
so to keep it simple any product this is
garden soil on it you can use it as a
lot of peat moss in it a lot of organic
matter and that will get your containers
started so you don't need to go and make
anything fancy just go look for any
product that says garden soil before you
get started I also want to put the hole
right in the side two inches up this is
going to create a water reservoir so
when you water some water will fill in
here it's not going to create root rot
or anything for your tomato plant it's
going to be too hot in June July August
so any water that's sitting in there you
know the water is going to evaporate off
the top that water will quickly wick up
through the rest of the soil and gives
you a little bit of play area now I used
to talk about doing this in a
five-gallon container you can do it but
when you're growing a tomato plant or
pepper plants and five gallon containers
or any vegetables you could have to
water more so to keep it simple a 10
gallon container gives you more room for
wiggling around watering so if you have
to go away for a day or two you don't
have to over worry so let's get started
with the soil
again any garden soil works this is on
sale was 250 a bag it has some
fertilizer in it I'm going to go over
organic fertilizers and process
fertilizers that fertilizers I'm not an
organic gardener I don't use chemical
insecticides except on occasion and that
might be Sevendust
and I use both processed fertilizers
chemical fertilizers and organic
fertilizer so first bag fills it up
about half way ready to go with the
tablespoon and a hole key for
fertilizing is going to be 5 5 5 and
that's how I want to keep it simple
nitrogen 5 phosphorus 5 potassium 5 try
and keep the n P and K at about a 5 5 5
plus or minus 1 or 2 is perfectly fine
this is a 5 4 6 organic fertilizer and
we're going to put sprinkle in 2
tablespoons and this is a chemical
fertilizer it's processed by human
beings and it's a 9 12 12 that's too
high so instead of putting in two scoops
like I did with this I'm just going to
do one and that pretty much cuts it in
half so you're nine 12 12 becomes a 4
and a half a 6 is 6 these are both
slow-release fertilizers so what we're
mixing into here is about a 5 5 5 and
piqué give or take plus or minus 1 and
it's a slow-release we're going to use
water-soluble x' to take care of the
plants where they're growing mix in
those fertilizers well right into the
soil you don't want to ever set your
plant root ball on any fertilizer
process or organic that you put into the
planting hole so now we got to finish
this off
this was three dollars a bag on sale so
it's going to take about one and a half
well almost two bags to fill it up now
this is a garden soil too it has a lot
of composted wood and air a lot of peat
moss that's perfect for containers it's
nice and loose and all the wood and the
peat moss will hold water and that's
what you want so we have some fertilizer
in the bottom it was two scoops of the
organic one scoop of the processed
fertilizer and we're going to put in the
cherry tomato and this is all going to
be at about how to simply grow a cherry
tomato in about a 10 gallon container
we're going to plant it to this depth it
will route out across the top this is
something that I started indoors and you
can check out my videos if you want to
do that next year
dig the hole deep enough that you can
bury it about a third of the way
and now we'll get your cherry tomato
setup
I also recommend and you saw I left
about an inch or so mulch the top off
this bag of mulch is $2 ours actually
was three dollars and 25 cents I use the
shredded hardwood or the shredded Caesar
Caesar and shredded cedar mix this will
keep moisture in and that's really going
to be the most difficult thing growing a
tomato in a container and other
vegetables is keeping the moisture and
if you let the entire soil dry out just
once it damages the plant so much it's
really gonna hurt production so we have
the cherry tomatoes set up let me just
grab a steak
and just drop a stake in the cherry
tomatoes are going to go really quickly
this is just a starting stake I'll tie
this to it after the video once it gets
to this size I'll be doing the next
video and showing you really how to
stake it up now one thing the tomatoes
do is they suck the life out of the
container soil so you're going to have
to feed this again to keep it simple
every 10 to 14 days with a water-soluble
fertilizer let's start with the chemical
ones or process this is a fifteen thirty
fifteen fertilizer that's too much so
cut it in half it's a seven point five
fifteen seven point five still too much
cut it down to a quarter strength so
it'll be a quarter strength per gallon
of water and you can use that in there
if you want to this is another chemical
fertilizer it's an eighteen eighteen
twenty one again that's too hot cut it
in half you get a nine nine
what's a ten point five so again you use
a quarter strength of this to get it to
that five five five level and you're
going to be watering is to get our water
you're going to be feeding it every 10
to 14 days through the whole lifecycle
of your tomato plant now I like to use
the Miracle Grow or this expert garden
product to start why the tomatoes
growing because it has all kinds of
micronutrients in there all six of the
macronutrients the N P and K of course
but it helps set up your soil the one
thing that's different between the soil
in the container and the soil in your
garden is there's not a lot of soil life
in here there's not a lot of nutrients
in here so you're not really harming
soil light by using the chemical
fertilizers so go ahead and use them if
you feel comfortable if you don't stick
with the organic fertilizers and once
this gets to a good size I'll be
switching over to jobs which is a great
organic fertilizer and this is a five to
three now because it's close to that
five five five you're not going to need
to cut this in half or cut it into
quarter just use this at full strength
in one gallon of water which is one
tablespoon
when you're going to feed the plant
after you set up the solution just soak
the leaves for a couple of seconds and
then soak the soil enough for you know
in your mind for the water in the
solution to drip down to here you don't
want to fill it up down in the bottom so
just enough to sink in excuse me
I swallowed a bug just enough for the
solution to sink down into the soil and
that will feed your tomato plant and
again you're going to do this every 10
to 14 days so this would probably be a
three part series we'll come back when
this is bigger we'll talk more about
disease prevention pruning and I'll just
take you through the whole process of
getting it into the container and then
hopefully we get to harvest and this is
by the way is a Matz wild cherry if I
didn't mention it it's a delicious small
cherry tomato that really needs the heat
to grow so just a side note if you ever
get Matt's wild cherry if you're trying
to germinate with your other Tomatoes at
70 or 80 degrees inside it won't
germinate until it gets up until the
higher 80s and even 90s these seeds
don't pop I hope you enjoyed the video
please check out my blog at
www.micaelaferrero.com