I have mixed reviews depending on the plant. I started in milk jugs; tomatoes, cabbage family (broccoli, cauliflower, bak choi etc..) lettuces, spinage, swiss chard. There were flowers too, zinnia, nasturium, cosmos and marigolds. What survived? Well the swiss chard, spinage, and lettuce was a smash!! Although, now that I have a cloche set up this will go by the wayside and I'll plant the seeds directly into the ground in early spring.
The flowers did well too, I got all the zinnias, cosmos and marigolds started early and set into the ground. However, Jack Frost came out of late retirement and screwed me over as usual! Anyone who knows Jake and I know we watch the weather obsessively, our projected low was 39*. I woke up to a frost, hard enough that the all the neighbors roofs were still covered. I hate that! Opening the curtains to welcome the day and receiving a poop pie in the face... guess what?!?! all your plants you didn't cover are toast!!! Ok back to the facts. I lost nearly all the marigolds, and zinnias but my mom who had not planted her's yet, survived the frost and she gave me some. They have done well so far and are now about double what a normal "planted after last frost" plant would look like.
The cabbage family was a bust. I am not sure if it was weather, or if they didn't like there roots disturbed or the ants that attacked the roots and made the whole thing wither and die. We also got a strange heat wave in early May, the temps soared to upper 80's which caused the bok choi to bolt. Regardless, Neighbor Kara gave me a head of cauliflower since our crop was toast. Her's did just fine, but was store purchased and planted much later than mine was. I've had very little success with the cabbage family in this garden.
The tomatoes did so freaking awesome!! WOOT!! Most of the tomatoes in my garden are the ones I grew inside the "traditional" way that I've been growing tomatoes for years. Traditional way: starts inside, pick the best ones, re-pot into 4" pots, harden off in May, get into the ground. Milk Jug way: prep milk jug, dirt, seed, water, set outside... wait.... plant!! The 3 tomatoes that are milk jug grown are just as big as the traditional grown. When we got the late frost, all the other tomatoes had frost burned leaves and looked a little sad. The milk jug tomatoes looked great, they had been coping with cold temps there whole life! The milk jug kids are not the same size plant when they go into the ground, they are maybe the size of my fist or smaller. The traditional grown ones are about as big as a small basketball (not in thickness but height). When I planted the milk jug tomatoes they looked so sad and tiny, I was sure they'd never amount to much. It's nice to be wrong about that. The two varieties that I chose to plant are Black Krim, and Currant. Two varieties I got from Neighbor Kara's sister. Both these tomatoes are newbee's here. Looking back I should have transplanted something I've grown before so I could have a comparison as to which method is better. But I think I'll still get that regardless of tomato type.
I don't have a tiny in the ground picture. But the comparison is similar to the tomatoes in this picture vs. the peppers. The milk jug tomatoes were about the size of the peppers when I put them into the ground.
And now they look like this. Waist height and the same size as everyone else! Now it's just a matter of time to see how they perform as far as fruit production. But I will likely next year have tons of milk jugs again! Can you tell who's who? The last 3 cages are the milk jug kids, everyone else is the traditional method.
