PlanterTomato Vegetable Gardening

Container Gardening: Container Size and Soil Quantity

In this posting, I provide a table which tells you the approximate amount of soil you need to fill a pot or container of a given number of inches in diameter.  I also provide the metric equivalents -- centimeters and liters.

If you grow your vegetables, fruit trees and herbs in pots you know it can sometimes be a challenge to figure out how much soil you need to fill a pot of a given size.  I pulled together a chart to provide the amount of soil required for pots of a given diameter as a resource for myself and my readers.  Please note that pots vary in shape and degree to which they taper, so the below table provides approximate amounts.

In my next posting, I'll provide information about the size of container required to plant a variety of fruits and vegetables.

How To Grow Tomatoes If You Have No Space, No Time, and A Black Thumb

The most frequent questions I get about tomatoes, are from people interested in growing them but who have very limited space.  In addition, the same folks often express concern about their own gardening skills.  In this posting, I'll show you an almost fail-proof way to grow delicious tomatoes, even if you have almost no space and lack a green thumb. 

The Best Container for Tomatoes

If all you have is a balcony or a small patio, the best approach is to grow tomatoes in containers.   I've been testing a type of self watering plastic container called an Earth Box for two seasons and believe it to be the best system for gardeners who have limited space and who don't want any of the hassles associated with traditional gardening.

The Earth Box has many advantages over other container systems and is particularly well suited for new gardeners and those who tend to over-water their plants.  Here are some of the advantages of the Earth Box:

• Self-Watering - The Earth Box is a "self watering" container.   You "water" your plants by filling a reservoir that sits at the bottom of the container.  When the reservoir is filled, excess water spills out from a drain on the side of the container.  When you see water coming from this drain, it's time to stop watering.  Once filled, the reservoir provides a steady source of water for your plants.  The water is drawn upward towards the roots by capillary action.  All you need to do is keep the reservoir filled.  At the beginning of the season, this means once per week, but during the heat of summer, you will need to fill the reservoir more frequently, perhaps even once per day.  That said, it's very easy to do and no bother.
  
• No Worries About Soil Preparation -The Earth Box kit contains all the fertilizer you need for a single season.  Just fill the container with potting soil you purchase at the garden store and the fertilizer that comes with the Earth Box kit.  That's all there is to it.  You can buy additional packs of fertilizer each year to replenish the nutrients in the soil.  Earth Box even sells organic fertilizer re-fills for those interested in organic gardening.
  
• No Weeding - After filling the Earth Box with soil, you cover it with a black plastic cover that comes with the kit.  The cover has elastic around the edges so it easily fits right over the top of the Earth Box.  You then slit two holes in the plastic and plant your tomato seedlings in these two holes.  The plastic keeps weeds from growing in the Earth Box and it also helps retain moisture.
• Easy To Move - The Earth Box is built with four wheels on its base.  This makes it easy to move if you need to do so.
  
• Tomato Cages - While not part of the standard kit, you can buy an accessory cage that fits right over the Earth Box.  I recommend this since it keeps your tomato plants properly trellised.
  
• For more detailed information about how the Earth Box compares to other container systems, check out my prior posting on Vegetable Containers Compared. The Earth Box costs about $45 and can be purchased from your local garden store or via Amazon.com.  If you have Amazon Prime (free shipping) it won't even cost you anyting to have them deliver the Earth Box to your door.  A very similar product, The Tomato Success Kit, can also be ordered for $65 including the trellis from Gardener's Supply.
  

Tomato Seeds and Plants

Tomatoes plants can be either determinate or indeterminate in their growth habit.  For container gardening you should select a determinate tomato variety because this type of tomato only grows 3-4 feet high. By contrast, an indeterminate variety will grow over 7 feet tall, making it impractical for container gardening. 

Fortunately, there are many good varieties of determinate tomato available on the market today.  If you are willing to start tomatoes from seeds, there is a very wide selection available from companies like Baker Creek, Tomato Fest, Parks Seed, and others.  When you shop on line search for "Determinate" and you should get a list of determinate varieties from which to choose.  Tomato varieties such as Burbank Slicing, Carnival, Grushovka, Bison, and Manitoba are all reputed to be good, but there are so many varieties in various shapes, colors, sizes, and for various climate conditions that I'm hesitant to make a specific recommendation.

If you really want to make it really easy for yourself, go to your local garden store and buy tomato seedlings instead of seeds.  Seedlings are several weeks old by this point, so you don't need to fuss with germinating seeds in trays or run the risk that the delicate young seedlings will die.

Buying seedlings at the store also gives you a jump on the growing season because by the time you buy them at the garden store, the seedlings are already several weeks old.  If your garden store doesn't offer determinate tomatoes that appeal to you, some catalog merchants sell plants as well as seeds.  Check out Burpee and Territorial Seed Company.  Both sell live plants through the mail.

Seedlings at the garden store are generally labeled with information about the variety and and a picture.  The description should say whether the variety is determinate or not.  If you are not sure, just ask the garden store staff for help.

Extending Your Growing Season

When growing determinate tomatoes, you may want to stagger the timing of your plantings since determinate varieties produces all the fruits at once.  If you have one Earth Box, buy and plant one seedling early in the season, and then purchase and plant a second tomato seedling a few weeks later.  If you have multiple Earth Boxes, you can stagger both the timing and include more varieties of determinate tomatoes in the mix of things you grow.

Sunlight Is the Only Requirement

If you use the Earth Box and a determinate variety, I'm very sure you will be successful.  However, sunlight is a requirement for success. Tomatoes can't be grown in the shade.  During the summer months, tomatoes need a minimum of 8 hours direct sunlight to bear fruit and will do even better if they get 12 hours sunlight.  As long as you have a location that gets sunlight, it really won't matter if the space you have is a balcony, small patio, fire escape, parking lot or roof top.

If you have questions about growing tomatoes, just leave a comment.

Automatic System To Water Your Raised Beds

Regular readers know that I use the Australian Autopot Hydroponic system to grow tomatoes and other vegetables.  Now there's a system called Aqua Box that automatically waters a raised bed garden using a valve very similar to the one employed in the Autopot. 

The system places a small box containing a water valve in the center of the raised bed.  This box is kept filled with water by the valve which regulates the flow of water into the box.  Strips of absorbent material then radiate outward from this box into the raised bed.  The absorbent strips wick moisture out of the box using capillary action and this is what waters your plants.  The whole system is fed by an external reservoir.  Fill the reservoir periodically and the system does the daily watering. 

A very interesting system that I will add to my spring shopping list.  Pretty Clever those Aussies!

Below is a video that demonstrates how the Aquabox works.

One more thing....Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I plan to post Thanksgiving recipes, so you may want to visit this site each day next week.

 

Growing Tomatoes In Containers: Four Systems Compared Part II

A review of four container systems used to grow tomatoes.

In April, I posted about four container systems for growing tomatoes.  These included the EarthBox, SmartPot, AutoPot and the highly advertised TopsyTurvy. (Click here for part 1 of this review)

In that first posting, I covered the methodology I would use to conduct the test, so I won't go into detail about that or the claims made by the various manufacturers.  However, I will just mention, that I tried to make the comparison as fair as possible by planting the same variety of tomato in each container, using seeds planted on the same day, and putting the containers in close proximity to each other so that they would receive the same sunlight.

After 3 months testing, here are the number of tomatoes that have set on each of the plants in the test:

Autopot - 39 tomatoes

TopsyTurvy - 16 tomatoes

SmartPot - 21 tomatoes

EarthBox - 30 tomatoes

Autopots:

I've used these before and found them to be very effective in growing tomatoes.  Autopots are a hydroponic container where the plant is given water and nutrients via an external reservoir.  My test pot was placed inside a greenhouse, so it was the first to both set tomatoes and also to produce harvestable fruit.  To date, the tomato plant grown in the Autopot has set 39 fruit, the most of any of the containers systems tested. 

While effective, the AutoPot system also requires more maintenance;  the valves in the AutoPot can be finicky and you need to check that they are functioning and clear any clogs that might occur.  Additionally, the watering schedule can be time consuming.  With other containers, watering is straight forward -- just use your garden hose.  But with Autopots, you water and feed simultaneously.  This means that you need to fill the systems reservoir with water, measure out the proper amount of nutrient solution, and mix it.  The frequency with which you need to do this depends on the number of plants you are growing and the size of your reservoir.  I have 6 plants hooked up to a 15 gallon reservoir and need to fill this every day or two.

The AutoPot does seem to yield more tomatoes, but it is also more expensive to maintain because you need to continuously buy nutrient solution.  I'm tracking the cost of nutrient solution and tomato production to determine the true cost of running this system and will report about this in a future posting.  But I strongly suspect that it will be more expensive on a per tomato basis than other systems, but possibly considerably less expensive than buying tomatoes at the store or farmers market.

Bottom Line:  I like and do recommend AutoPots.  But given the cost and maintenance requirements, Autopots will work best for gardeners with limited space or those in a city environment where their access to soil, compost etc. is limited. 

TopsyTurvy:

I've seen forum postings where people complain that they could not get their tomatoes to set fruit using this container.  I did not experienced this problem.  However, the TopsyTurvy has set the least amount of fruit of any of the container systems tested, about 16 fruit so far. 

Prior to testing this product, I was under the impression that plants would grow like traditional tomatoes, just upside down.  In point in fact, tomatoes, like all other plants, want to grow upward towards the sun.  The plant in my TopsyTurvy has sections growing upward and downward depending on the weight of the branch. 

After testing the TopsyTurvy for over 3 months, I just don't see any advantage to this system versus other types of containers.  It takes work to hang the TopsyTurvey and wet soil in the TopsyTurvy make the container very heavy, raising the possibility that one day it might come crashing down.  It is not self watering or self-fertilizing so there's no labor savings on that front.  And while you don't need to weed when using the TopsyTurvy, the same is true of all other container systems.  Worse yet, the TopsyTurvy does a pretty lackluster job producing tomatoes -- in my test, the TopsyTurvy set 25-50% less fruit than the other containers in this test. 

The Bottom Line: Not recommended. 

SmartPot:

The SmartPot is a simple fabric pot.  It's closest to traditional plastic or ceramic containers.  The manufacturer claims that more air circulates to the roots and that the pots stay cooler.  So far, 21 fruit have set on the test plant.  The smart pot is very easy to maintain; water once a day and fertilize periodically based on the plant food manufacturers instructions. 

Easy to set up, light and cheap, this seems to be a reasonable substitute for traditional clay or plastic pots.  I did not have a traditional clay pot in this test, so I can verify the manufacturers claims that plants do better because the SmartPot drains better and keeps roots cool.  That said, I don't have any reason to believe that this would do worse than a clay or plastic pot. 

The Bottom Line: The SmartPot is probably best for gardeners who want the option to move pots around or store them easily in the winter (fabric is light and folds when not in use).  I would feel comfortable recommending these to a friend.  Recommended.

EarhBox:

This is a self watering container.  All the fertilizer the plant needs for the year is added at the beginning of the season.  To water the plant, you fill an internal reservoir via a tube on the top of the planter.  When the reservoir is full, additional water spills out through a exit valve.  This lets you know the planter is full and prevents over-watering.  In practice, I've found that I need to fill the reservoir every day.  So far,  30 fruit have set on the plant in the EarthBox.

The EarthBox was more expensive than both the TopsyTurvy and the SmartPot.  It required a little bit more effort to set up than a traditional clay pot, but not that much more.  Watering is easy, but not less frequent than traditional containers.  The EarthBox does seem to produce more fruit, probably owing to the nature of the system which provides a consistent supply of water and fertilizer.  In my opinion, it's also an attractive container. 

The Bottom Line: The EarthBox provides a good balance of easy-of-use, cost and performance. Highly recommended.

This Spuds for You: Harvesting Potatoes

A quick update on this first potato harvest.

In early May, I posted about growing potatoes in bags.  Last week, I made the decision to harvest.  Under better circumstances, I would have waited longer before harvesting, but this year we are having an extremely wet summer and this effects potatoes negatively in two ways:

• Too much water causes the potatoes to rot
• Too much moisture causes the potatoes to contract a fungal disease called early blight

In point in fact, my potatoes were suffering from early blight which shows up as small black spots on the leaves and spreads as the disease progresses. Not wanting to risk the whole crop or spread the early blight, I decided to get while the getting was good.

Harvesting Using The Flaps on The Grow Bags

The bags I purchased in which to grow my potatoes, have flaps on the side.  You can open a flap and reach into the bag to harvest a potato.  This feature lets you harvest some fingerling potatoes and leave others to grow to full maturity, or just harvest over time.

I tried this method of harvesting and after several seconds of searching, found and removed a potato.  However, the skin on the Yukon Gold is very soft and I ended up damaging the skin in the process of removing it from the bag.  Since I was going to harvest all the potatoes at once, I decided on a different approach.

The Dump 'em Method

I "harvested" by first cutting off the plant stems and throwing them away (Normally, I compost leaves and stems but I didn't in this case because they were infected with early blight and I want to prevent the spread of this disease.)  I then dumped the contents of the entire bag onto the ground and enlisted my 7 and 8 year old helpers in digging around to find the potatoes.  The kids had a blast doing this, each kid competing to see if they could find the largest one.

The dump 'em method was very easy and we were able to quickly find all the potatoes without damaging any of them.  This is the way to go in my opinion.

Based on the instructions that came with the grow bag, I should have expected about 12 pounds of potatoes but I ended up with 7.  Still, I think this harvest is good enough to call it a win and the potatoes are just beautiful as you can see in the attached photo.

One more t thing.... unless you like having dirt under your finger nails, where gloves when you harvest potatoes.  Same for the kids.

How To Grow Potatoes the Easy Way: Potato Containers for Couch Potatoes

Learn an easy way to grow your favorite variety of potatoes in containers.

In early April, I was visiting our local garden center and I saw a container system designed specifically for potatoes.  It's essentially, a fabric bag with handles.  You fill the bag with 6 inches of soil and plant 3 or 4 seed potatoes in each bag.  Cover with soil and add additional soil as the plant grows.  By adding soil progressively, you create additional space for the plant to send out roots.  As a result, the plant produces more potatoes. 

Versus growing in traditional beds, the container systems offer the advantage of being space efficient.  They also make harvesting easier because the bags have flaps on the side that are secured with Velcro.  To harvest, you can just open a flap, stick your hand into the center of the bag and feel around for potatoes.  Alternatively, you can just spill out the contents of the bag and hunt around until you find the potatoes.  Either way, makes harvesting potatoes easy for both hard-working gardeners and couch potatoes alike.

The purchased containers are convenient, but there are less expensive alternatives if you are on a tight budget; people grow potatoes in plastic garbage bags, trash cans, and I've even heard of folks stacking old car tires to create potato beds. 

Growing Information

• Buy seed potatoes.  These are small potatoes grown specifically for planting.  They differ from potatoes you buy at the grocery store in that they have been inspected to insure they are not carrying any diseases that could effect future crops of potatoes.  They are also not treated, as are many supermarket potatoes, with chemicals to prevent sprouting. 
• Plant in the spring when the soil temperature is over 45 degrees Fahrenheit.  To get things moving quickly, put your seed potatoes in a sunny warm environment (70 degrees Fahrenheit) for 1-2 weeks, prior to planting.  You want them to sprout and send out shoots. 
  
• Plant using a mixture of garden soil and compost.  Fill the bag with six inches of this mixture and then put 3-4 seed potatoes on top.  Cover the seed potatoes with compost.
  
• Water every few days so that the soil stays moist.
• Add additional compost as the potato plant grows so that you fill up the bag over time.
• After the plant has flowered, it will die back and turn brown (generally about 90 days).  Potatoes are now ready to harvest. 

Potato Varieties:

I added potatoes to my garden this year as an impulse buy and so I'm growing pretty standard Russet and Yukon gold varieties.  However, there are many, more interesting, varieties you can grow.  Next year, I'll probably try a few varieties that are a bit more exotic like All Blue - an heirloom variety with dark blue skin and a lavender colored flesh, or Desiree, a red potato that's a favorite in Europe.

If you are interested in learning more about potato varieties, the University of Washington has a comprehensive list of potatoes with a description of each and generally a link to a picture.

By the way, you'll probably harvest about 3-5 pounds from each container... and that's no small potatoes.

Growing Tomatoes In Containers: Four Systems Compared (Part 1)

If you grow vegetables in containers, here's a description of four very different systems you may want to consider.  This season, I'll track the effectiveness and report back periodically on how each is producing tomatoes. 

This year, I'm testing the performance of four container systems;  specifically, their effectiveness in  growing tomatoes, the most popular garden vegetable.  In this first posting, I'll describe each of the four systems in the test, the methodology used to conduct the test, and the preparation required to plant a tomato seedling using each of the systems.

Later in the season, I will assess the performance of each system, identify the pros and the cons, and provide ratings and recommendations.

Methodology

Test Plants: To make comparison between the systems as fair as possible, I used the same variety of tomato in each of the four systems, an early bearing determinate variety called Oregon Spring. 

The seedlings were all planted in trays on the same day and then transplanted to their respective containers on the same day. 

Location: All plants are being grown outside, with the exception of the AutoPot hydroponic system which is placed inside my greenhouse, as is normal with a hydroponic system.  All the containers in the test are placed within a few feet of each other (including the AutoPot hydroponic system)  to ensure that each plant gets a similar amount of sunshine.

Fertilizer Schedule: Each system is designed to deliver fertilizer or nutrient solution in a different manner.  For this test, fertilizer is going to be applied based on the manufacturers instructions.  In the case of the SmartPot, the manufacturer does not make a recommendation, so the tomatoes planted in the SmartPot got the same fertilizer schedule as the TopsyTurvy.  

Watering Schedule:  The AutoPot and EarthBox use a reservoir to supply water to plants.  These reservoirs will be filled up periodically as needed to keep water in the system.  That probably means once a week or less.  Neither the SmartPot nor the TopsyTurvy use a reservoir.  Plants in these containers will be watered in the morning and evening if required to keep the soil moist.

The Four Systems

EarthBox -- This is a self watering container box.  It is designed to minimize effort on the part of the gardener.  The EarthBox works by wicking moisture out of a reservoir in the bottom of the planter.

With the EarthBox, you add fertilizer to the soil just once at the beginning of the growing season.  The fertilizer, which is supplied with the EarthBox, is placed into a trench you dig in the center of the planter when you set up the Earthbox.  You then cover the soil with a black cloth which is supplied with the kit and cut slits into the cloth to plant your seedlings.  The black cloth minimizes evaporation and prevents weeds from growing around your plants.

You water your planter with a garden hose by filling the reservoir through a black tube that sticks up through the top of the planter.  You can't over water with an EarthBox; once the reservoir is filled, any additional water spills out through and overflow hole in the planter. 

The Earthbox will support a variety of vegetables in quantities based on the size of the plants: two artichokes, or 16 beans, or 16 corn plants, or in my case, 2 tomato plants. 

Cost: about $45 with all the fertilizer you need for one season.  Can accommodate two tomato plants.  I also purchased a tomato cage which is sold as an accessory. 

TopsyTurvy -- We've all seen this on TV and I couldn't resist trying it out.  Like the EarthBox, the TopsyTurvy is supposed to make gardening easier.  It does this by eliminating the need to weed, and making it easier to prune and collect tomatoes.  This is accomplished by growing the tomato upside down -- roots to the sky and plant facing towards the earth. 

At its core, the TopsyTurvy is a plastic bag hung from three wires.  Perhaps the most interesting technical feature of this planter is that the tomato plant is held in place by a foam disk.  You slide the plant to the center of the disk through a pre-cut slit and place the disk into the center of the planter.  You then fill the rest of the container with garden soil.  The growing instructions tell you to add fertilizer when first planting the TopsyTurvy and to fertilize on a periodic basis.  You add water and water soluble fertilizer through the top of the planter. 

The company supplies a strong eye hook that you can use to anchor your planter into a beam or other structure.  In my case, I used a hanging planter crane.  However, the TopsyTurvy is so heavy when soil and water are added, that I needed to reinforce the planter crane with metal garden stakes and also a rope tied from the top of the fence to an adjacent fence. 

Cost: about $12 (without fertilizer, planter crane or stakes).  Can accommodate one tomato plants.

SmartPot -- This is closest of the systems to a traditional clay pot, but the SmartPot is made out of fabric.  The main advantages to the system are that they are lighter, will not crack like ceramic pots, and the company claims that a fabric pot offers the advantages of being cooler and providing more air to your plants roots than traditional pots. Ostensibly, this results in healthier plants.

Smart pots come in a variety of sizes from 1 to 400 gallons.  I'm using a 5 gallon size for one tomato plant.  Planting is the same as with traditional clay or plastic pots; you add garden soil and then plant your tomato in the center of the container.

To compare as accurately as possible to the other container systems, I'm going to fertilize the the plant in the SmartPot on the same schedule as the TopsyTurvy. 

Cost: about $6 (without fertilizer).  Can accommodate one tomato plant.

Autopot -- The AutoPot is a hydroponic system that requires no pumps or electricity to function.  The heart of the system is the  3" x 4" plastic valve that regulates the amount of water and nutrients supplied to your plants.  The valve sits in a saucer and the pot containing the plant is placed in the same saucer.  Water and nutrients stored in an external tank flow to the valve via plastic tubing and the valve feeds water into the saucer as needed.  Water and nutrients are then pulled into the pots via capillary action where the roots of your plants can absorb them. 

Hydroponic systems don't require soil, but they do require some type of media in which the plants will grow their roots.  In my case, I'm using a mixture of 90% pearlite and 10% vermiculite.  The plants will be fed Cutting Edge Solutions brand nutrient according to manufacturers instructions. 

I did a complete review of the AutoPot system in a prior blog posting if you are interested in learning more about AutoPots. 

Cost: about $65 without nutrient solution or external nutrient reservoir.  Can accommodate two tomato plants.

First Impressions & Next Steps

• The easiest and least complicated system to set up was the SmartPot; just add soil to the pot and you're done.  That said, none of the container systems in this evaluation were particularly difficult or time consuming to assemble and plant.
• I would caution anyone using the TopsyTurvy to make sure that whatever you use to hang your plant is secured well.  I didn't take an actual measurement, but I wouldn't be surprised if it weighed 50 pounds when loaded with wet garden soil.  You don't want this to fall on your head.
• Over the course of the growing season, I'll provide updates on how well the tomatoes are doing in their respective pots.  I'll be commenting on the advantages and disadvantages of each system.  And of course, where the rubber meets the road, is how well they produce tomatoes - quantity and quality. Stay tuned for more details on this as we get deeper into tomato season.
  

AutoPots Reviewed. Hydroponic Container Gardening for Small and Not Small Gardens

Last year, I began experimenting with a hydroponics system for growing vegetables and I've been very happy with the results.  This review covers key features and benefits of the AutoPot system.  AutoPots will work for both indoor and outdoor gardening in pots.  If you have an interest in growing vegetables in containers, this may be the product for you.

How It Works

The heart of the AutoPot system is the  3" x 4" plastic "Smart Valve" which regulates the amount of water and nutrients supplied to your plants.  The Smart Valve sits in a saucer and the pot containing the plant is placed in the same saucer.  Water and nutrients stored in a reservoir (large plastic tank) flow to the Smart Valve via plastic tubing and the Smart Valve feeds water into the saucer.  Water and nutrients are then pulled into the pots via capillary action where the roots of your plants can absorb them. 

What's cool about the Smart Valve is that it uses a unique air pressure system to control the amount of water/nutrient mixture dispensed into the saucer.  As the plant uses this mixture, the level in the saucer drops, causing the air pressure within the valve to change.  The Smart Valve responds to the change in pressure by releasing more water/nutrient into the saucer until an equilibrium is met and then the flow stops.  The Smart Valve keeps the water level constant and responds to the unique needs of each plant; Watermelon and squash that demand lots of water get more water, and lettuces that need less get less.  Yeh, very clever! (see below videos)

 

 

Advantages Over Other Hydroponics Systems

• Ease of Use -- All you need to do is to keep the reservoir filled with water and nutrients.  The Smart Valve fills the saucer based on the plants needs.  If you typically have a problem with over or under watering, this product will suit you well.
• Simple To Maintain -- Oh, so elegantly simple!  Other hydroponics systems are designed to recirculate water and nutrients to the roots of your plants.  As the plant uses nutrient, the concentration of nutrients in the water changes.  So recirculating systems need to have nutrient levels monitored and adjusted.  With AutoPots, there is no recirculation.  Once you mix the nutrients into the water you don't need to think twice about it.
• No Complicated Set Up -- You don't need pumps to run the system.  Just raise AutoPots about a foot above the ground and gravity pulls water to the Smart Valve.  That means you can put your Smart Pots anywhere because you are not dependent on being near an electrical outlet.

Last year, I successfully grew tomatoes, watermelon, winter and summer squash, salad greens, pepper and other vegetables.  I was also able to grow beets in AutoPots, but I think root vegetables like beets and carrots grow better in traditional soil beds. 

For enhancements to this system, see my posting:  Improvements to Auto Pot Hydroponic systems.