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Tomatoes in containers

P. Dreadie

P. Dreadie

Hello All ,

Those of you that grow tomatoes in containers what size do you use ? Now I know small stuff like cherry or pixie type tomatoes can be grown in a 5 gal bucket and do fine . But I plan on growing larger plants.

I'll be growing JETSETTER VFFNTA HYBRID , JULIET HYBRID , and Martino's Roma.

What type of containers ..... like a large trash cans or what have you found. And on plastic trash cans how do you tell if the plastic will last more than one season ?

Thanks for any info & Peace,
P. Dreadie
 
Generally I like to use containers that are approximately twice as high as they are wide. Trash cans work well but really aren't big enough for the complete growing season for bigger plants
Tomatoes will usually outgrow any normal size container. Last year I used a huge water softener tank which is the biggest container I could find and the tom still ended up totally rootbound but produced fairly well
This type of pot is great for smaller plants but they will eventually get rootbound which means constant watering or potting up required
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I used #5 nursery containers last season and they provided me with plenty of tomatoes, but I had to water them once per day and even twice per day after they got over head high. This year I'm trying out some 18 gallon totes with an automatic watering system.
 
I'm using seven gallon nursery pots in the GH and the plants seem to be doing great. I buried them to almost to their top and I only need to water them about every ten days or so. In a month or two, I'll let you know what the roots look like!

Mike
 
Well, it seems I have learned why my tomatoes were so unproductive last year. I only had them in five gallon pots. The plants grew tall, but produced very few tomatoes and the ones they did were small.
 
Thanks everyone ! POTAWIE .... I couldn't find anything twice as deep as wide that I liked , but I hope what found will work. If not Silver_Surfer and me may be in the same boat. What he got sounds like what I found.

Peace,
P. Dreadie

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I use the 18 gallon totes, they are pretty cheap, and My tomato plants seam to do really well in them. In the past I have tried smaller containers, but the plants didn't really reach their full potential like they do with the 18 gallon totes.
 
Ciao all-

I only grow smaller determinate containers in 5 gallon IKEA waste baskets with 1/2" holes drilled into the bottoms. I put a few broken pieces of brick in the bottom of each one to weigh them down. This keeps them from falling over during heavy thunderstorms, a fairly common occurance here in Toronto. I stake them with el cheapo wire tomato cages and a bamboo stake. The containers are placed into children's wading pools on the driveway. I use the pools as giant saucers so the containers can be watered with a hose from below. This keeps water from scorching the leaves and also splash-back from the soil which can cause disease. I also mulch each of the containers with 2-3" of straw to retain as much moisture as possible. I fertilize only at transplanting with a scoop of Osmocote time-release granular fertilizer. This regimen works very well for me. Using the pools means I normally only have to water every few days or so even at the height of summer heat.
 
FWIW,

I'm growing D's and I's in my GH in 7-gallon pots. They are buried, and I made my own mix but I have to water them only once every 10 days or so. Lots and lots of blooms and toms per plant, though I can't cite specific numbers - yet. IMHO, if you have lots of dirt and stuff to fill as many containers as you can, and you have room for them, I would go with 10 gallon pots or larger. But, mine are doing great in the 7-gallon ones which use a lot less mix and take up less room

To each their own!

Mike
 
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