Bought Tomato e-book...still had a few questions

by Suzy Weast
(Carlsbad)

I bought your tomato e-book, but I still have a couple of questions. By the way your site is great!


Mulch—would you do that in containers..if so what would you recommend?

** I do not mulch my containers - commercially we'd use orchid bark to hold down some algae and liverwort problems in long-term crops but this isn't a problem with short term vegetable crops.

Would you grow anything in the planter w/tomatoes? Are there complimentary plants?

**No. A tomato is going to suck up more water and nutrients than you can imagine. So unless you're growing in a large 24-inch container (and then you could tuck a few basil plants around the base because these are said to be complimentary) you're better off to focus on growing the tomato.

Would you put compost tea on plants in containers or just go w/Fish emulsion

** You can do either. I only use fish emulsion on my containers unless I have extra and then I pour it anywhere handy.

Would you suggest using plastic “mulch” cover on container garden?

**Absolutely not. I don't use any kind of plastic mulch on anything. Defeats the point of growing "organic" and environmentally soundly.

Hope that covers it for you Suzy.

Doug