Well I have made some changes to this tomato plant system. While I was at the hardware store I was talking to someone there that informed me that even though the polyurethane/epoxy glue was superposed to bond to plastic, the type of plastic I was using probably will not bond well. Apparently the Tupperware plastic containers have a stain resister in it that resists stains and makes it hard for the glue to bond well. I decided it would be wise to rebuild the containers now while the plants are small rather than doing it when they were too big to do much about it.
I decided to go with 2 gallon paint buckets, they are twice the size in volume as what I had before. Because these buckets would be too big to be supported completely by the P.V.C tubing I placed bricks underneath them. The bricks support the weight of the buckets and keep them from toppling. The P.V.C. tubing is suspended in the air because it is connected to the buckets.
I am glad to have the extra root space because that was/is my biggest concern. The old containers were just over 4 litters (about 1 gallon) the new buckets are 2 gallons. Because the buckets are made of a thicker plastic than the Tupperware containers there was no need to reinforce the bottoms. I did make some spacers so the connectors will have a solid connection. I used 100% silicone to seal it all up with. I cut the tops off the P.V.C. connector that are inside the buckets (see pictures). This way when the water drains back, it drains as much out of the buckets as it can. I don't think that I mentioned that when I first posted this thread.
I got the buckets for $2.34 each, and about $6 for the 100% silicone. I made the spacers from spare plastic that was lying around. Then painted the buckets black to light proof them, then white again. So it cost me about $20 redo all 4. I would of liked to have started with these buckets in the first place because they were larger, but I didn't want them to wobble and break the tubing. I don't know why I hadn't thought of using the bricks to support there weight before, but live and learn I guess.
Also, I finally got around to building the trellis that will support the tomatoes and vines. It's not completely finished but I think it gives you an idea what I have in mind. I need 3 more 10 foot pices of tubing. I will cut one in half then connect the haves to the other two to make 2, 15 foot pices. Then conect them kitty corner to sturdy up the whole thing. The structure is 9ft square and 8ft tall, this is slightly smaller than I originally planed but think it will do nicely. You can see the green stretch tape strung across the tubing. This will be strung all around the structure to tie the vines and tomatoes to as well as provide additional support to the whole structure.
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