Planting herbs and tomatoes together

[raymoose]

I planted 4 cherry tomato plants and 5 herbs in my Bounty Elite, with the intention to permanently remove the 5 herbs in a couple of months. Do you think I will be able to do so, or will their roots be entangled with the tomatoes? Also, do you think trying to grow 4 cherry tomato plants is too ambitious? Thank you.

[maskedsonnet]

I think others have had success rotating their plants (as in, spinning them around in place) in order to form a root ball for each plant that’s not so tangled with the others. But if the roots seem tangled when you try to pull them out you can always just cut the plants off at the base instead of pulling them out root and all.

[raymoose]

That's a great tip, thank you! I'll try rotating them... I guess once a week?


If I were to cut the plants at the base and leave the roots, wouldn't those rot and affect the rest of the plants?

[lynnee]

Four cherry tomato plants in a Bounty Elite is the maximum, I'd say. It would be a good idea to rotate the plants (herbs and tomatoes) to keep the roots separated, because the plants are so crowded--although you can simply cut the roots apart later.

If you don't rotate the pods, the roots will drape outward from the pods and form a solid mass at the bottom of the bowl. I just cut straight up between the pods, making sure that each pod has a reasonable root mass. Or I pull the plants apart, keeping the roots that stay with each pod, and trim and/or discard the excess roots.

Plants will accept a lot of "root abuse" without dying. It will take them a little while to recover, is all.

FWIW, my recent experiment with growing AG heirlooms and herbs in a single Bounty Elite didn't go very well. The tomatoes hogged the nutrients, and the herbs never amounted to much. You may do better than I, because I neglected the garden and didn't prune the tomatoes until they had far too much foliage.

[maskedsonnet]

Mar 2, 2023 18:55:01 GMT -5 raymoose said:

That's a great tip, thank you! I'll try rotating them... I guess once a week?


If I were to cut the plants at the base and leave the roots, wouldn't those rot and affect the rest of the plants?

They might. Herbs are also kind of like weeds and may try to come back, too. I've had mint do that to me. If you're concerned about root rot (understandable!), start out by trimming the roots as CLOSE to the pods you're removing as possible, and kind of gently tug what you can out of the general tangle. But like lynnee said, plants (especially healthy hydroponic ones) can take a fair amount of root trauma before they die, and last time I chopped a plant off at the base without bothering with the roots nothing actually rotted in there.

In this post, Shawn recommends turning them daily or at least a few times a week to form a root ball.

[lynnee]

raymoose, many times I have cut pod roots apart, knowing that some roots from the removed pods were still in the bowl. This has never caused a rotting roots problem.

Roots seem to be fairly impervious to water and everything else. If you've ever tried growing plants in soil outdoors, you know that planting beds need to be prepared every spring. You have to pull up the old plants and roots, or use a cultivator to break them up so that the new plants can grow properly. Roots from outdoor plants can last for years (and even send up new shoots every spring).

Root rot comes from an infection (viral, I think). Plants that are submerged in water after a flood, or consistently overwatered, will die because their air roots are underwater or soaked. The air roots grow in the stem area close to the soil surface, and take in air from tiny spaces in the soil. With hydroponic gardening, the air roots grow in the stem area between the grow deck and the surface of the water in the bowl.

[scarfguy]

Yes, lynnee...   I always wondered how important that space is between the water level and the underside of the deck.  Seems to me there needs to be sufficient space for some air roots to grow.  If you overfill your bowl will it be detrimental to your plant?   Likewise, if you consistently keep the water level a bit lower than the recommended maximum will the plant benefit from the additional space for air roots ??

Inquiring minds want to know...

[lynnee]

scarfguy , it depends on how much you overfill the bowl! A little bit of overfilling doesn't matter.

I frequently fill the Bounty bowls to a level that is very slightly above the "Fill to here" marker, simply because it's hard to stop pouring from a gallon container of water. Also, my Aerovoirs keep the Farms filled with about 1/8" of water in the "add water" area.

I doubt that underfilling would affect the air roots, and consistent underfilling will stress your plants. My plants love the Aerovoirs because they keep the bowls filled to the maximum all the time. None of the roots are ever exposed above the water surface because the water level has gone down to medium or low.

I don't use Aerovoirs for my Bounties, though, because they require extra space alongside the gardens. They're great for the Farms, which are hard to fill from the regular openings because the bowls are at floor level.

If you're curious about air roots and water levels, you might try a few Kratkys!  I managed to grow a couple of strawberries in a Kratky (from a retail bare-root plug), and it was instructive to be able to remove the light shield and inspect all the roots.