Tomato Growing Adventures

I always grow tomatoes and always from seed started in my kitchen window. You don't need a huge container or anything special to grow tomatoes, just lots of sun and water. There are so many varieties to choose from and everyone you ask will have varying opinions on what works best. What follows is an account of some failures and successes I've had growing a few different varieties of tomato in containers on my balcony.

Beefsteak Giants

The tangled mess in this image is a single tomato plant.

One of my favorite beefsteak varieties are the Brandywines. They don't produce many tomatoes and they are massive plants, easily growing to over 6 feet tall. The tomatoes you do get are thin skinned and crack easily and the taste varies. Sometimes you get an amazing tomato and sometimes they suck.

Even with your plants under stress you can get a couple of these but how will they taste?

The first summer I tried growing brandywines in a container I planted a pair of plants in a single 15 inch round plastic container that held maybe 8 gallons of potting soil. I managed to get a pair of light-gauge tomato cages around them for support. At one point I was watering them twice a day and adding Miracle-Gro every week or so. Despite being crammed into that tiny pot and being provided with practically no support from the puny cages, the pair of plants gave me a half dozen tomatoes.

One of these was amazing and the other tasted like a boring hot house tomato.

The following year I smartened up (just a little) and instead of two plants in one container I planted two containers with one plant in each. Same container size as before. And again, I used the same tomato cages but this time added lots of bamboo sticks lashed to the cage for extra support. I was watering these things like mad and once the plants grew up over the top of the cage they eventually collapsed under their own weight and stretched out over top of whatever they fell on. And again, despite the stress, I got a few large tomatoes from each. And just as in the previous season, some tasted amazing and some did not.

I've decided I don't have the space or patients to properly grow Brandywine tomatoes in containers. It's certainly doable though and I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying. Just remember to keep the container large and provide lots of support, water and nutrients.

Not So Tiny Cherries

I had no trouble getting cherry tomatoes to grow, it was getting them to taste good that was a problem. house tomato.

The only tomatoes I really enjoy eating right off the vine are cherry tomatoes and they need to be really sweet for me to enjoy them. One year I got ambitious and planted three Sweet 100 cherry tomato plants in a single 26x10x10 inch plastic container. I also planted three Sungold cherry tomato plants in another similar container. I was really impressed with the size of the plants and the yield. Both of these are indeterminate varieties which means their vines continue to grow until the frost kills them. Don't be fooled by the size of the tomato. Just because the tomatoes are small doesn't mean the plants will remain small also. These things grew big.

Both cherry tomato containers are on the right, one next to the other. Notice how they reach out for the sun.

Just like the massive brandywines I grew, these eventually overgrew their cages (again, the same cheap flimsy tomato cages I used with the Brandywines) and collapsed under their own weight. Each plant was carrying loads of tomatoes. Enough to make me sick of them. In fact the plants got so top heavy that I had a hard time keeping them upright despite occasional pruning. And every time they'd fall over I'd lose a dozen tomatoes. There were little green, yellow and red tomatoes all over my balcony for most of August and September. I couldn't believe how tight the roots were packed into the containers. As the summer temperatures peaked, I was watering the containers twice a day, with gallons of water.

Watering spikes with pop bottles attached. I cut holes in the side of the bottles for filling instead of removing the bottom to keep things from falling in.

To assist with keeping the plants supplied with enough water through the day I used some watering spikes. These are plastic hollow spikes with a few holes along their sides. On the top of the spike are threads so you can screw them onto a pop bottle. You cut the bottom off the bottle, screw on a spike and ram the spike into the soil. I cut holes into the side of the bottle instead of removing the tops to help keep leaves and things from falling into the bottles. When you fill the bottle with water, over time the water will drain out into the soil. In theory it's a great idea. In practice though, they just didn't work for me. Some would drain too fast and some wouldn't drain at all. And even with two in each of my overcrowded containers, it just wasn't enough water to keep the plants happy over an entire day.

I got lots of tomatoes that summer. Too many actually. The problem with packing all those plants in the containers was that each plant was starving for nutrients, even with regular applications of fertilizer. It also meant that whatever water I gave them in the morning was quickly used up by mid day so the plants were constantly going through wet-dry cycles. This led to thick skinned fruit which I can tolerate on a large tomato but not on a cherry tomato. I think a single cherry tomato plant would be quite happy in a homemade 5 gallon self watering container.

So Now What...

If you're looking for some reading material, check out McGee and Stuckey's Bountiful Container. Ed Smith's The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible has a section devoted to growing tomatoes. And there's always the beautifully photographed The Heirloom Tomato: form Garden to Table by Amy Goldman. But your best source of free information is the internet. Search the forums at GardenWeb for advise. They also have a tomato growing FAQ with some useful information

You can read about how I made out with the self-watering container here