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June 22, 2018 · 9 Comments

Why Grow Tomatoes in Containers?

How to

This is the first year that I am growing the majority of my tomatoes in containers, and wow, are they doing well! I decided to go with containers because I’m using my raised beds for a cutting garden, and I’ve found that growing tomatoes in my regular garden beds results in slow growth and late-season diseases. I planted one tomato in the ground and it is definitely lagging behind the guys in the containers.

Why grow tomatoes in containers? A few reasons:

An 18-inch container may be a little tight, but most tomatoes do well in 18- to 24-inch containers.

1. You control the soil. For my container tomatoes, I used large containers and a high-quality potting mix.  The mix has most of what the tomatoes need in terms of nutrients and I will add some bone meal or liquid fish emulsion as the tomatoes produce fruit to keep the calcium and fertility levels up.  The potting soil also lacks all the soil-borne diseases that tend to hang out in the ground—that’s a good thing!

2. Decent drainage. We’ve had a pretty wet early summer in Minnesota. (We had a solid 3 inches in the past week and many areas of Minnesota had much more.) Unlike the ground, which can get water-logged, containers drain well. (I’m considering adding pot feet to my containers to ensure even better drainage.) They have holes in the bottom so excess moisture moves away from the roots, preventing root rot. One disadvantage of container tomatoes is that in dry spells you have to stay on top of watering. Tomatoes need consistent—but not excessive—moisture throughout the growing season to perform best and avoid blossom end rot.

3. Air circulation, easily. Every time I plant tomatoes in the ground, I end up putting them too close together. They look so little when they go in the garden and it’s hard to imagine how big they will get — and how entwined in each other.  With tomatoes in pots, I can move the pots if they get bigger than expected and start encroaching on their neighbors. Air circulation is another important factor in the health of tomatoes.

4. Easy to cage. The pots I chose for my tomatoes are all 18 inches in diameter. For really large tomatoes, you could go even bigger, but the 18-inch pots are a perfect fit for the standard size tomato cage, which I put on the tomatoes a few days after planting. Don’t wait to cage your tomatoes.

Green tomatoes already on some of the plants!

5) Easy to pick. Container tomatoes are elevated by the height of the pot so it’s easy to see when fruit is ripe. The elevation also makes it harder for rabbits and voles (though unfortunately, not squirrels) to get at the tomatoes. For squirrels — a bit more engineering may be necessary.

Many of the usual instructions for growing tomatoes apply to container tomatoes — place them in a very sunny spot, plant them deeply in the container to allow roots to form, and pinch extraneous foliage to keep the plant focused on producing fruit. Generally, determinate tomatoes are recommended for container growing, though I’m growing several types of heirloom tomatoes and I think most of them are indeterminate.

I will report how things go as the season progresses! Do you grow tomatoes in containers?

 

 

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Comments

  1. Emilia Shanti says

    June 26, 2018 at 2:33 pm

    I do! And consider it very convenient.

  2. commonweeder says

    July 7, 2018 at 7:03 am

    Because I have so little suitable space in my wet urban garden I am planting my tomatoes in Smart Pots (big ones) which are located right by my back door. They are just starting to ripen and it is great to pick a little cherry tomato when I walk by. I also use good potting soil and occasionally some soluble fertilizer.

  3. Mary Schier says

    July 7, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    Still mostly green tomatoes here, but so far the containers are working well! I did add a little fertilizer because we have had so much rain.

  4. Wendy Kolzow says

    May 27, 2020 at 6:08 pm

    My mom has been trying to grow tomatoes and they just dont do great. Any ideas?

  5. Mary Schier says

    May 28, 2020 at 11:55 am

    Tomatoes need sun, a well drained soil (not water-logged) and good air circulation. If she’s planting her tomatoes in soil, she could try large containers with potting mix. That might work. Good luck!

  6. Becky Arenivar says

    July 26, 2020 at 5:02 pm

    I did this for the first time this year. I had struggled with early blight for 3-4 years and this was mentioned as a way to avoid it. So far, so good. I’m starting to harvest and I don’t see any signs of blight and lots of healthy (so far) tomatoes. I put the containers on top of a layer of mulch on a grass/weed space near my veggie garden. It helped me expand my tomato-growing space easily, without having to dig up more lawn.

Trackbacks

  1. Growing Vegetables in Containers at the Fair - Minnesota State Horticultural Society says:
    August 31, 2018 at 8:46 am

    […] or basil, can be grown in fairly small containers while tomatoes require a larger pot. For my home garden, I chose containers with a diameter of 18 inches or more. At the fair, we chose a variety of […]

  2. 5 Superfoods to Grow in a Northern Garden - My Northern Garden says:
    November 11, 2020 at 2:00 pm

    […] that tomatoes are the favorite vegetable crop of home gardeners in the United States. I like to plant a mix of cherry tomatoes for quick, earlier harvests and lots of in-garden snacking, paste tomatoes to make a few batches of […]

  3. Seed Starting Basics - My Northern Garden says:
    February 24, 2022 at 9:58 am

    […] you information about days to harvest, the kind of plant you are growing (bush beans or climbers? indeterminate tomatoes or determinate?), and whether the varieties are heirlooms, hybrids, or something else. I would add, read the seed […]

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