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My upstairs neighbor in Cleveland showed me her tomato trick and I've never gone back
Back when I lived in a 3rd floor walkup near West 25th, my neighbor Ruth grew tomatoes in nothing but old paint buckets on her fire escape. I had killed 4 plants that summer, so when she saw me tossing another dead one, she grabbed a bucket and showed me she pokes 5 holes in the bottom with a hot nail, then lines the bottom with 2 inches of gravel from the dollar store. Now I use that same setup on my balcony here, and I haven't lost a tomato plant in 3 summers. Anyone else got an old neighbor trick like that they still use?
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leer1218d ago
Man, people act like draining holes and gravel are some kind of lost secret, but this is just basic container gardening. Every potted plant on earth needs drainage or the roots rot, that's not a trick, that's just how dirt and water work. The gravel part is the one thing I'd push back on, because a lot of folks say it actually makes things worse by raising the water table in the pot, though plenty of gardeners swear by it anyway. If your plants lived, great, but I'd bet the real fix was watering them right and not drowning them, which is what kills most tomato plants in buckets. Not trying to rain on Ruth, she sounds like a good neighbor, I just don't buy that a hot nail and two bucks of rocks is the magic here.
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