10 Tips For Growing Tomatoes In A Container

Looking for tips on how to grow tomatoes in a container?  Do you lack a garden or yard space? Would you love nothing more than to grow your own tomatoes?  Well you can – even if you only  have a porch, a patio, or even a walkway – simply by growing tomatoes in containers and/or large pots.  Continue reading the 10 Tips for Growing Tomatoes in a Container and get started today as there’s nothing better than homegrown tomatoes. It’s as simple as this:

1. Purchase your tomato plants (or your seed starts)
2. Location – at least six hours of sun
3. Choose the right pot
4. Use premium potting soil
5. Plant tomatoes properly
6. Support your tomato plants
7. Cover the soil
8. Water regularly
9. Fertilize / feed your plants
10. Prune your plants

10 steps and you’re probably thinking this is too much work.  But it really isn’t.  Once the tomatoes are sitting comfortably in their containers, your only job after that is making sure they get plenty of water, they don’t get overstuffed with sucker shoots, and feed them with fertilizer according to the package directions.  After that – YOU CAN SIT BACK AND REAP THE BENEFITS THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER AND INTO THE FALL.  Are you pumped?  Let’s get started:

10 TIPS TO GROWING TOMATOES IN A CONTAINER

1.  GET YOUR TOMATO STARTS – So depending on the size of your family and your love for tomatoes, start with what you can handle.  ONE cherry tomato or ONE grape tomato plant will yield enough fruit for salads, etc for an entire summer season.  Don’t get carried away with these tomatoes.  If you like roma and beefsteak tomatoes, one plant has the ability to yield up to 200 tomatoes.  So choose accordingly.
2. LOCATION – Tomatoes need at least six hours of sun. And if you’re potting more than one plant, make sure they’re not too close that leaves rub against each other.
3. CONTAINER / POT SIZE – The best container/pot size is 18-inch diameter – 24-inch for roma and beefsteak tomatoes.  If you’re using a 5-gallon or 10-gallon container, it’s best to grow the smaller patio or bush type tomatoes(and also keep in mind that tomatoes in smaller pots require more watering and feeding. Make sure ALL your pots have drainage holes, so be sure to drill some if your containers have non.
4. POTTING SOIL – don’t use soil directly from your yard as it tends to be too heavy, will over-compact, and may contain disease organisms.  So fill containers with a premium quality potting mix from your local store.
5. CORRECTLY PLANT THEM –  If you’re using tomato starts / plants,  dig a hole deep enough to cover two-thirds of the tomato stem to encourage more root growth. And always wait to plant until after your area’s last frost date.
6. SUPPORT YOUR PLANTS – most of your larger starts come with a support stick, which you can use – but I would suggest replacing it with a taller one since your tomatoes will grow tall.  Stake the main stem now because doing so later will only disturb the growing roots.  You can also use a traditional tomato cage to keep them from draping all over your patio or porch. Put the cage in now because it gets really difficult getting the plant in the cage once it’s full of growth.
7. COVER THE SOIL – make sure to keep the soil at least one inch below the pot rim, so you can add a layer of mulch to help keep soil moist. Mulch can be anything from straw, chopped leaves, newspaper (no glossy circulars), or decorative shredded bark.
8. WATER REGULARLY –  this is the key to growing tomatoes in pots. Keep the soil consistently moist, but not saturated, and don’t let them dry out. Place a saucer beneath each pot to catch water that runs through the soil, so plants can absorb that extra moisture over the course of a hot day.
9. FERTILIZE / FEED YOUR PLANTS – the premium potting mix will give your tomato plants a nutritious start, but you’ll also want to continue to feed them regularly throughout the growing season. I have used Miracle-Gro with fantastic results – strong plants and lots of juicy tomatoes.  And the Miracle-Gro also contains calcium to help protect them the tomato plants from blossom end rot.  Just follow the directions on the package.
10. PRUNE THE PLANTS – Remove all leafy suckers beneath the first fruit cluster (do this when they’re small enough to pinch with your fingers, so you don’t leave a gaping wound on the stem) and remove them so they won’t slow the development of the fruit, The leafy suckers are the little shoots that form in the axil, where the leaf stem attaches to the main growing stem. As you can see by the photo I’ve circled all the axil areas of this newly planted tomato start, that should be pruned of sucker growth.

And there you have it – the 10 Tips For Growing Tomatoes in Containers.  I hope you find these tips helpful for getting you on your way to growing your best container tomato crops this year.  Try it and let me hear your tomato success story.  Ciao 🙂

Thanks to Bonnie Plants for their tomato tip insights as well