Tomato plants grown in Growstones and Rockwool 30 hours without irrigation

10 month old TOV plants growing in an hydroponic greenhouse at The University of Arizona in Tucson show first visible signs of wilting after 30 hours without…

Question by Apathy: Growing a tomato plant in a can?
Hi, I have gotten one of those free tomato seeds from Cambell’s and I was thinking of planting them ina soup can. Is this possible if I poke holes into the can? I know it eventually has to move to a bigger pot, but I don’t have a balcony or something of that sort.

If it is possible to start growing it, any guide or guidelines? Thanks

Best answer:

Answer by snowman
If it will hold soil a plant will grow in it.A can is not going to give you much room but it will work to start the seed.

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23 Comments

  1. @nfsmw6 bees used are bumble bees. not honey bees.

  2. @mrktaylor76 During the production season these plants were properly
    irrigated based on integrated radiation levels and water balance from
    weighing stations inside the greenhouse. Air temperature was aligned with
    radiation. With the proper climate and root moisture content, we had great
    yields in all different substrates. At the end of the crop season, we did a
    water stress, and observed how long did it take for each media to dry out.
    The stress test was never intended as a growing condition.

  3. i have a lot more questions, like you, than i have answers. looks to me
    like if people can grow illegal herbs in basements with growlights, why
    cant we grow fresh tomatoes and maybe even lettuce in the same sort of
    conditions? why doesnt the usda put out some good info about the
    fertilizer, which varieties, how to trellis and other info? beats me.

  4. @mrktaylor76 did you have a real comment ? Those are
    appreciated….anytime!

  5. yes way….of course it was cloudy but still prety amazing! however, you
    would be surprised how much water is present in a 25 liter slab in the
    mornings.

  6. again, what variety of tomatoe are they? hopefully not a gmo strain. And
    where can i get the seeds from? thanks

  7. @wojowut – hope you understand this was a water stress test at the end of
    the crop season. the plants were comming out, so we decided to do the test
    and watch when we start observing signs of witlting. This was interesting
    for us as we had plants growing in very different substrates regarding
    their water holding capacity.

  8. Sorry I do mumble in the video….uhhhh…. just bare with me.

  9. I’m confused, I see flowers but no fruit? how old are these plants. Did you
    say 10 months and how long has it been since they were allowed to flower.
    Are you using lighting to offset flower development.

  10. bumble bees are what my neighbor uses ot pollinate. back in the 70s they
    used vibrators with humans selecting the next fruiting location. bees are
    raised and die in the green house, do you have any suggestions for people
    who want to grow half dozen plants outside their house in cold weather and
    how to get them enough light to keep them healthy? fresh vine ripe tomatoes
    are much better than green picked greenhouse tomatoes. just learning.

  11. Where’s the tomatoes? Better check your nutes.

  12. I’m interested in your opinion of growstones. the specs on their site are
    favorable. I like that they claim to be 95% recycled material. The only
    clue to their effectiveness is that they showed water stress equal to
    rockwool. I assume they are comparable media. Been difficult finding
    reviews on the growstones though.

  13. no way!

  14. @KingRyltar The tomato cultivar was ‘Rapsodie’ from Syngenta. No GMOs.
    These are F1 hybrids. Search Syngenta if you are interested or any of their
    distributors

  15. wow, never knew rockwool could hold so much

  16. F1 means that the variety is a cros between two originals and can NOT be
    duplicated from seed. do you remember the seed shortage back in the 60s?
    the stores wer selling F2 hybrid seed. production and quality both went
    down and i want to know how to access the world seed bank. how? we only
    have a few adulterated varieties of indian corn left. can you buy original
    varieties from the world seed bank?

  17. those bees are make honey?

  18. @watercatwn6535nd – These are 10 months old undertermined tomato plants ie
    plants grow like vines, which is why they have to be supportd by a wire
    that is anchored to a cable above the plants in the GH. No assimilation
    lights. Every week, each plant develops a flowering truss + 3 leaves from
    the growth tip. Flowers are polinated by bumble bees, fruits set and
    develop till they are ripe. Ripe fruits are harvested every week. Each
    plant has produced ca 32 fruit trusses (8 month production).

  19. YOUR DOING IT WRONG!!!

  20. @magprob – can’t recognise a tomato plant ? What seams like too many leaves
    left on the plant allowed me to have a better control over leaf
    temperatures via plant transpiration during a very hot spring/summer
    months. Believe me tomatos were developing in the vines. However we did
    this water stress test after we harvested all ripe tomatoes, which is why
    there is no red showing through the leaves.

  21. It would be better if you could use a plastic party cup to start it off..because when you transplant it it would be hard to do if you would use a soup can..And just make shure it has water and your good to go…

  22. How about a plastic container cause you can grow seed any where but in a soup can you will eventually have rust get a plastic container and poke holes in the bottom for water drainage and if you really want to use the can i would place a plastic bag in the can then place the soil to prevent the rust on the soil this will eventually have to be repotted any way cause a soup can is small and you will cause this plant to be root bound the roots will not have enough room to develop and results are not good which could mean your plant being small or not developing tomatoes try using a coffee can folgers makes plastic or a maxwell can with plastic in first good luck and regardless of what you decide to use dont forget to poke holles

  23. I think it’s a great idea.

    Leave the label on (tomato soup!) and poke holes for drainage. Raise it off the saucer you put it on to catch the runoff; that way you’ll reduce the amount of rust to the bottom of the can. When it’s around 6″ high, take a picture of it (label in front!) and send it to Campbell’s.

    Good luck and be careful when you transplant it.

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