Container Tomatoes

[epaul]

Easiest.

Go to a good local nursery or well-stocked big box store (up here, Lowes does a pretty good job) and get a suitable plant that is already started. Look for a plant that is labeled “bush” or “ideal for containers”. Such plants will be been selected to stay on the smaller side of the tomato fence and will do well in a limited space. I won’t make any variety recommendations as the choices are limited to what the nursery stocks, and what the nursery stocks will be fine (it’s their business).

An advantage of going to a good local nursery is there will be knowledgeable staff on hand that can answer questions and help with selection (not much chance of this at Big Box). If you go during a mid-day weekday you will have a better chance of finding helpful staff (as they get swamped with customers during prime time weekends).

Just remember to check the plant’s label. Look for descriptions that indicate reduced plant size such as “bush variety” or “suitable for containers”. For example, “Celebrity” and “Early Girl” are two mainstay tomato varieties that have enjoyed great popularity over the years. Breeders have come up with more compact versions of each and they will be labeled “Bush Celebrity” and “Bush Early Girl”. Either of these “bush” varieties would be an excellent choice for container growing. There will likely be several good choices as “container gardening” is a growing market.

While you are looking at labels, also look for an indication of the maturity date, such as “early”, “mid”, or “late”. Generally, a maturity range between 60-70 days is early, 70-80 is mid, and over 80 is late. If you are doing more than one container, you might want to spread out the maturity ranges. If you are just doing one, get the mid-range as that is sweet spot between getting a great tomato but not having to wait too long for it.
You will have a choice ranging between small plants in small pots that will need to transplanted into a larger container to large plants in large pots that are all caged up and ready to go. And there will be others in-between are good-sized but will need to be transplanted.

When you do transplant a tomato into a new container, plant it so a couple inches of its stem are buried in the soil. This will leave less of the new plant flopping about in the wind and the buried portion of the stem will put out roots and lead to a better root system. Not a big deal but a good deal. Bury the stem up to (or close to) the first set of “true leaves”. True leaves are lobed leaves that look basically the same from the top of plant to he bottom. Those two skinny little leaves poking out like sticks on the very bottom of the stem don’t count as true leaves. They are the cotyledon leaves, the sheath that protects the emerging growth of the sprouted seed www.britannica.com/science/cotyledon-plant-anatomy

Always bury the stems of “leggy plants”… weak-looking plants with long, weak-looking, leaf-less stems.

[epaul]

Less easy.

You can grow any tomato plant you want in a container. It just will require more work than going to a nursery and selecting a plant that has been selected for container growth.
You can pick out a full-sized plant of any type and grow it in a container, it will just require more management (and water) as it starts to get really big. But, with proper staking and pruning, all is possible (hint, it can’t grow too big if you and your clippers don’t allow it to).
And you can start plants from seeds, which is fun and opens the doors to hundreds of available choices rather than a half-dozen or so available at the nursery/big box. [warning: unless you want a new hobby and want to start buying lights and seed starting stuff, don’t bother.] But, seeing the process from seed to sprout to seedling to plant is enjoyable and rewarding. And you can do it all on the cheap if you have a sunny window and limit yourself to a half-dozen plants or so. If you want to give it a go, the variety “Sweet Tangerine” (Burpee Seeds) that I linked to elsewhere would be a great choice.

And if you want to explore the world of “heirloom” plants, here is a seed source that offers a wide selection of line-bred heirloom type plants that have been selected to produce smaller plants, plants that are excellent in containers. This will open the door to all the colors, shapes, tastes and sizes that are available in the tomato universe. I can personally recommend “Tasmanian Chocolate”, ”Fred’s Tie Dye”, “Rosella Purple”, “Brandy Fred”, and “Adelaide Festival”. These “small heirlooms” from the “Dwarf Tomato Project are hoot and they work great in containers. And, if you care (I don’t) all are line-bred from existing non-hybrid “heirloom” varieties.

victoryseeds.com/collections/dwarf-tomato-project

[epaul]

How to grow.

Generally, use a container that is roughly the size of a 5 gallon pail (a 5 gallon pail is perfect). If it doesn’t have holes on the bottom for drainage, pull out your drill and give it some (use a 1/4 to 3/8 bit).
Use a quality grade potting soil mix. Do not use dirt. Buy a bag of Miracle Grow or equivalent. A potting mix is much lighter and easier to work with and it will retain moisture more efficiently than dirt. Do not skimp on this part.

Buy a bag of timed release fertilizer like this The bag of potting mix will say it contains fertilizer, which it does, but it doesn’t contain enough for a growing tomato plant. Augment the potting mix with a couple tablespoons of the timed release stuff. (or choose to add your own dollops of liquid fertilizer throughout the growing season).

Locate or move your containers so the plants get eight hours or so of sunlight. They can get by with less, but shoot for the eight. A spot protected from wind, to whatever degree possible, is good. Wind does the plants no favors (strong winds topple the plant/ hot windy days can desiccate it).

Provide a support system for the plant. A cheap tomato cage from Big Box store is fine. A stake or something connected to some other structure of some type is also fine (a railing, post, porch something or other). Once a plant gets top heavy with fruit, again, beware the wind. Support may need to be augmented. This will require some creativity on your part and will depend on what structure you have at hand to work with.

The key to container growing is managing moisture. Too much when the plant is small will waterlog (saturate) the soil and inhibit the healthy root growth the plant will require as it matures. Too little moisture when the fruit is developing will stress the plant into aborting said fruit. Going back and forth from too dry to too wet will screw everything up.

Tips:

If the potting mix is real dry, fill the container only a fourth full, then water it some. The fill another fourth and water that batch. Reason? When potting soil is dry, it can be tricky getting it uniformly moist as it almost seems to repel water at first (especially if it contains peat. Dry peat is a bitch to moisten.)

The soil when properly moist will hold together lightly when you clump it but it won’t form a muddy snowball the drips when you squeeze it.

Use your finger as a guide. When the top two or three inches feel dry when you stick your finger in the soil, it’s time to water. The danger lies in over-watering young plants that have just been planted and not providing enough water to plants that are trying to produce fruit.

At first, watering every three or four days may suffice. As the plant is starting to fill out and look like a bushy plant, you may have to water every other day. If it is hot and windy and the plant is blossoming, you may have to water every day. This just takes experience, and your finger.

If you have to leave a growing plant alone for several days while you are off to Vegas or at week-long banjo concert, move your plants to a shady location, the most wind-protected shady location you can muster. A week of no sun won’t affect the plant much; a week of being exposed to hot, windy days in full sun while it runs out of water will desiccate it. Any day that is super hot and windy is a good day to move your plants to a shaded, protected from wind, spot.

[epaul]

Once you master the growing of tomatoes in containers, you will be ready to move on to this:

[jdd2]

Should this thread be stickied, or will there be enough posts that that's not necessary?

[Cosmic Wonder]

I found some great tomatoes in a container at Costco this morning!

Mike

[david]

Jan 19, 2023 20:35:04 GMT -5 Cosmic Wonder said:

I found some great tomatoes in a container at Costco this morning!

Mike

Sometimes good products and ingredients do not come from a plastic container!

[Cosmic Wonder]

Jan 19, 2023 21:06:07 GMT -5 david said:

Jan 19, 2023 20:35:04 GMT -5 Cosmic Wonder said:

I found some great tomatoes in a container at Costco this morning!

Mike

Sometimes good products and ingredients do not come from a plastic container!

What are you, some kind of commie?

Mike

[david]

Mike, You are in Newberg for gosh sakes. What else do you have to do other than grow tomatoes and become involved in school board politics?

[epaul]

fertilizer link fixed

There are as many ways to fertilize as there are colors of cats, but timed-release pellets are safe, simple, and convenient.


______________________________________________________________________________________


I use liquid fertilizers of different compositions on my "in the dirt" crop. Very generally, it is good to use a fertilizer that is high in nitrogen content during the early "vegetative" stage of plant growth, but when the plant is starting to flower and set fruit, it's good to back off on the nitrogen content and use fertilizers that are higher in phosphate and potassium.

Very, very generally:

- nitrogen is used by the plant for vegetative growth; producing stems and leaves, just plain growing. (if plant is lacking nitrogen, the new growth will be pale or yellowish (lacking chlorophyl).

- phosphate is used by the plant for flower, seed, and fruit development (the reproductive elements)

- potassium could be thought of as a general tonic that promotes overall plant health, especially promoting sound stem and root cell structure (but it won't grow hair, so don't dose yourself with it). Potassium aids the plant ability to withstand the vicissitudes of daily plant life. (again, this is for a plant, humans use Scotch or beer)

These three, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, a gas and two minerals, are the big three of fertilizers. N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium).

The reason you want to cut back on nitrogen when the tomato plant (or any other plant) is starting to flower and set fruit is that you want the plant to transition its proportional use of energy away from growing stems and leaves and devote the lion's share of its energy to developing and maturing its fruit (or, if it's a rose, more and more flowers). The plant needs to move its focus from vegetative growth to reproduction at this point and you want tailor your fertilization program to this end. Simply put, if you dose a flowering tomato with lots and lots of nitrogen, you will get a big, beautiful green plant with a late and paltry set of fruit.

A couple examples of a good early season fertilizer blend for tomatoes would be 10-10-10 and 14-7-7. (the first number is always the percentage of nitrogen by weight or volume; the second number is always the percentage of phosphorus; the third number is always the percentage of potassium) So, for early season fertilizer, look for the highest number to be the first one.

A couple examples of a mid-season fertilizer blend (the plant is good-sized and has a nice set of flowers with some fruit the size of marbles) would be 5-15-10 and 7-20-12. The first number should be the smallest of the three and the middle number the largest. At this point, you want a good set of fruit, you don't need the plant to get taller.

Late season. Stop fertilizing. You want the plant to wrap up its business before a good frost ends the season.

(Arizonians, don't worry about the frost. You inhabit a different planet than I do and I have no advice for you other than good luck, good growing, and keep your toenails trimmed nicely).


But, to repeat, if you are starting a new container garden, just sprinkle some extra timed-release general purpose fertilizer into the potting mix and don't worry any further about fertility. Keep your focus on managing moisture in that every changing microcosm of dirt and tomato.

(but not dirt, potting mix)

((note: a young tomato can produce an set of flowers early in its life. This is not the flowering stage I'm referring to (even though it is a set of flowers). The stage to cut back on N and kick up the P is when it is a decent sized plant that is setting flowers all over the place and is getting ready to produce a serious crop of tomatoes. Young tomato plants can often produce an odd early little tomato, but then there is a long gap before the plant gets down to serious fruit production, and this is the time you cut the N and kick up the P.))

[Cosmic Wonder]

Hey David, did you see yesterdays news that the board had to reverse their ban on BLM and Pride signs due to the court deciding it was a unconstitutional infringement on freedom of expression?

Mike

[TKennedy]

For sure sticky this. Thanks ePaul!

[jdd2]

Can you pickle tomatoes?

[Marty]

Jan 19, 2023 23:11:03 GMT -5 jdd2 said:

Can you pickle tomatoes?

Kimchi is proof you can pickle damn near anything, even Lord Nelson.

Try watermelon rind.

EDIT: pickled beets are great.

[epaul]

Addendum: a young tomato can produce an set of flowers very early in its growth stage, even a little tomato. This is not the "flowering stage" I was referring to (even though it is a set of flowers) when I said it was time to cut N (nitrogen) and kick up the P (phosphorus). The stage to cut back on N and kick up the P is when it is a decently sized plant that is vigorously setting flowers all over the place and is getting ready to produce a serious crop of tomatoes.

Young tomato plants can often produce an odd early little tomato or two (genetic insurance?), but then there is a long gap until the plant grows to a decent size and gets down to serious fruit production, and this is the "get down to business time" when you cut the N and kick up the P. Again, let the plant get to a decent size with flowers and marble-sized fruit hither and yon, then cut N and kick up the P))

(((at the very least, cut the N, especially in the midwest and north. The window is short and you want that plant to concern itself with developing and maturing fruit, not growing to be a 8' or 9' monster. The plant doesn't know it's no longer in the tropics, only you know how short the season is.)))

[jdd2]

Are tomatoes going hermaphrodite as much a concern as when 'growing' some other things?

[Marty]

W C Fields pickled himself.

[howard lee]

Would "Container Tornadoes" be like a tempest in a teacup?

[millring]

If you love your tomatoes, set them free.

[jdd2]

"Call any vegetable, and the chances are good..."