Bucket Tomatoes VS Ground Tomatoes

              Tomato in the ground. Sorry it's hard to see.                 Tomato in a bucket.

The Challenge:

Which plants will grow the best? The ones planted in the buckets or the ones in the ground?

Early in the spring I started tomatoes from seed. They were SO SLOW to get going. I almost gave up and bought transplants. I am slowly learning the how and why of growing my own food. Apparently my seedlings were not getting enough light. I though they were, but once I got them outside they went crazy.

I decided to put most of them in buckets mostly to save space, but also to do an experiment to see which plants would do better...those planted in buckets or those planted directly into the ground.

May

Back in May I really thought I would lose the ones I put in the ground. They just did not seem to grow and I almost couldn't find them with all the weeds trying to crowd them out.

I kept babying them and keeping them as weed free as possible. I think one thing that made the biggest difference was all the  rain we had in May. It was possibly drowning their roots. There was just more rain then the ground could handle.

At the same time the bucket tomatoes were growing really really fast. My guess would be that they were able to drain most of the excess water off.

June

Through out June the plants in the ground really started to catch up and the bucket plants started to put out blooms, but started to wilt under the intense heat and the lack of rain. The ground plants were able to reach down into the ground for extra water.

July

It is now July and so far the bucket tomatoes are doing the best and have lots of green tomatoes all over them.

The ones in the ground are slowly getting there. I think by the end of the season they will be producing.

The Verdict

I am so excited that I decided to keep trying with my seedlings and that I didn't toss them. The thought of starting plants from seed was a bit overwhelming for me since I have almost always bought starts.

I think the tomatoes in the buckets are going to be the way I go from now on since it saves so much space in my garden and I can move them around.