Tomatoes & Peppers

[addicted]

Hello everyone,

I’m new here. I got a great deal on a used FarmXL and a Farm Plus last night and I want to plant tomatoes and sweet peppers. I’m wondering if I should do two plants per side or just one each. Does anyone have any advice?

I’m starting to grow some cucumber seedlings in my 12XL but ideally I want to transfer those three plants over to the 24XL because I think they will need the room.

Thoughts?

[maskedsonnet]

It really depends on the type of plant you’re growing - some of the tomato varieties I’ve seen grown on here stay pretty small, others get big enough that I’d say two plants would max you out. If it’s a micro dwarf variety you could probably grow 4 plants on one side. Red velvet tomatoes did really well for me in a bounty, they actually topped out around 12 inches tall, you could easily fit 4 of them on one side of a 24 plus. The tomatoes were pretty small - largest one I pulled off was about the diameter of a nickel - but had a really nice, sweet/tangy tomato flavor that went great in salads. It’s best to check the seed info to see how big the plant is supposed to grow, and add a couple inches to that height so you’re not growing up into the grow lights.

Peppers are the same - I usually do 4 plants per side in my 24XL, one in each corner. Jalapeño plants have been the best behaved and required the least trimming of the all the types I’ve grown, and the pot-a-peno has been my favorite jalapeño variety, it stayed nice and compact for me. But different peppers require different amounts of work and trimming to keep them under control - superhots, for example, generally make rather large plants that you have to top and keep trimmed even in an XL while sweet varieties generally stay shorter (though keep in mind that’s not true for every variety of pepper - as with tomatoes when in doubt Google or check the packaging for mature plant height so you know what you’re getting into).

I’ve only grown 1 variety of cucumber in AG (mini munch) and you can probably get away with the three plants you mentioned in a 12XL. The root system didn’t get huge on my vine, plenty of room left in there for more plants, and so long as you’re paying attention and giving them a trellis or something to climb, you’ll be fine. But I can really only speak to a one-time experience with a single vine when it comes to cucumber. It tried to grab onto the cords attaching the grow light to the Farm, so watch out for that.

[judib]

Feb 10, 2022 3:01:54 GMT -5 maskedsonnet said:

It really depends on the type of plant you’re growing - some of the tomato varieties I’ve seen grown on here stay pretty small, others get big enough that I’d say two plants would max you out. If it’s a micro dwarf variety you could probably grow 4 plants on one side. Red velvet tomatoes did really well for me in a bounty, they actually topped out around 12 inches tall, you could easily fit 4 of them on one side of a 24 plus. The tomatoes were pretty small - largest one I pulled off was about the diameter of a nickel - but had a really nice, sweet/tangy tomato flavor that went great in salads. It’s best to check the seed info to see how big the plant is supposed to grow, and add a couple inches to that height so you’re not growing up into the grow lights.

Peppers are the same - I usually do 4 plants per side in my 24XL, one in each corner. Jalapeño plants have been the best behaved and required the least trimming of the all the types I’ve grown, and the pot-a-peno has been my favorite jalapeño variety, it stayed nice and compact for me. But different peppers require different amounts of work and trimming to keep them under control - superhots, for example, generally make rather large plants that you have to top and keep trimmed even in an XL while sweet varieties generally stay shorter (though keep in mind that’s not true for every variety of pepper - as with tomatoes when in doubt Google or check the packaging for mature plant height so you know what you’re getting into).

I’ve only grown 1 variety of cucumber in AG (mini munch) and you can probably get away with the three plants you mentioned in a 12XL. The root system didn’t get huge on my vine, plenty of room left in there for more plants, and so long as you’re paying attention and giving them a trellis or something to climb, you’ll be fine. But I can really only speak to a one-time experience with a single vine when it comes to cucumber. It tried to grab onto the cords attaching the grow light to the Farm, so watch out for that.

Pot-a-peno, is that a shorter variety of Jalapeño?  I want to grow those in my Harvest, so have started the AeroG Jalapeño pods, but not sure if I will have success if they are a tall variety.

[addicted]

Thank you for your response maskedsonnet.  I planted Spacemaster cucumbers, California Wonder Peppers and Super Sweet tomatoes.  

I love cucumbers, and always grow those outdoors.  I think that I will use the whole 24xl for those as they grow big and will need lots of trellis.

I still have an Aerogarden bell pepper pod and an Aerogarden Golden Harvest Tomato pod.  Space left is a 24Farm Plus and a 12XL Farm, the latter was delivered new with a defective pump so I am waiting on a new one.  Do I put two tomatoes and two peppers into the Plus unit or just one plant per side.  I don't want to crowd the plants but I also don't want to waste space.  Thank you for your advice!

[lynnee]

addicted , My Mini Munch cucumber likes having a Farm 12XL all to itself. It can be held to 1/2 of one, though. The plant shown in the photo (on the left) has lots of blooms but hasn't fruited yet.

My peppers do well with 2 or 3 in a 12-pod grow deck. The AG green pepper and AG banana pepper in the photo (on the right) are mature plants that have produced lots of peppers. They have recently been pruned to remove lots of branches that were done producing.

Peppers do okay for me when planted 2 to a 9-pod Bounty. Tomatoes do well when planted 2 or 3 to a 9-pod Bounty--you can easily plant 4 tomatoes in a 12-pod deck.

[addicted]

Thank you for the photos lynnee that was very helpful!  Your plants look great and I am jealous of your cucumber plant!  I haven't seen that variety anywhere.  I will have to search for this seed!  May I ask where you found it?

[lynnee]

addicted , you can get Mini Munch cucumber seeds from Territorial Seed Company. maskedsonnet  originally documented its progress in an AG in this thread.

Looking at that thread again, I think I'll take back my comment about growing anything more than one cuke in a 12-pod deck.

[maskedsonnet]

judib the pot-a-peno from Park's is a shorter variety, 12-18 inches tall. It does require some patience to grow, as the green peppers are not very tasty or hot. All the flavor and heat (and these are pretty mild jalapenos anyways) come in when they turn red. But once they turned I enjoyed the flavor a lot! I'm not sure how tall the AG pod jalapenos get, though, as it doesn't say on their website and I haven't grown them.

addicted most of the peppers I've grown have comfortably fit 4 pods in a 12-pod deck. This is a photo from when I was growing a cucumber on one side and 4 peppers on the other side of a 24XL:



When it comes to the AG tomato varieties, I'm not actually sure how big they get as I've always used my own seed for that. But from photos of other peoples' projects I think they stay pretty compact, and you could get away with 3-4 plants in a 12-pod deck.