Growing Tomatoes in a “Hugel” Barrel

We normally put 24-30 tomato plants in our garden every year. This usually gives the two of us enough homemade paste and sauce to last through the winter. We decided to try to double up on the tomato harvest this season.  I realized pretty quickly that we didn’t have enough room inside our Deer Fence / Greenhouse to accommodate and had to come up with another plan.

A couple years ago I happened to notice an interesting method for growing tomatoes in a large garden owned by Eastern European immigrant. Their method didn’t involve planting a single tomato plant inside of a funnel shaped cage, which is the method I grew up using. Instead, they planted a tomato “patch” and surrounded the entire patch with a single tall fence. They didn’t trim the “suckers” or pamper their plants in any way. It was just a matter of watering and waiting for the harvest. And, judging by the quantities of tomatoes inside their cages, their harvests were impressive. I really wanted to give that method a try, it seemed like a great way to save time and space, so I saved 6 plants to use in this experiment.

Last year, we dedicated a small portion of our garden space to try out “HugelKulture”. This is a permaculture tactic of burying rotting wood beneath the topsoil to provide nutrients and water to the plants above. We did see a slight difference in our turnip yields between the hugelkulture plants and the plants growing in our normal soil and compost.

These two methods were combined into what we have here. I call it the “hugel” barrel for lack of a better name. It’s a simple project, but it’s one that I can already see will most likely be a success.

Hugel Barrel Tomatoes with cage

One half of a 55 gallon plastic barrel was used for the container. A layer of wet,rotting maple firewood was placed in the bottom third of the barrel. The barrel was then filled to the top with a 50/50 mixture of composted cow manure and composted plant material leftover from last fall. Six tomato plants were planted in the barrel, 5 were planted around the circumference and one in the center. A five-foot tall piece of welded wire fencing was wrapped around the barrel as a cage.

The results are promising. These plants are roughly 50% larger than our tomatos planted in our normal garden space. They are also beginning to blossom. I’m guessing that these plants will give us tomatoes about 3 weeks earlier than the other plants and I’m hoping that it will also yield a higher quantity.

The benefits to this method could be huge. More tomatoes taking up less time and less garden space!