Tomatoes are one of the most rewarding crops for the home gardener to grow because the flavor is much better than store-bought tomatoes. Tomatoes that are grown to be sold in supermarkets have been bred to be able to travel well and to look good on shelves for as long as possible; their number one priority is not making you feel like your taste buds are being tickled.
Many commercially produced tomatoes are grown using an artificial fertilizer solution and are picked before they are ripe; both of these practices result in tomatoes that look nice but don’t taste great. Research has also shown that organic, homegrown tomatoes have a much more complex chemistry than commercially produced fruits. The deeper flavor of homegrown tomatoes is not only due to the chemistry, but also the higher levels of the pigment ‘Lycopene’. Lycopene is known to help unclog arteries and is thought to be a contributing factor to the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet.
Tomatoes that are grown by farmers have a more limited variety in size, shape, color, and flavor. There is a large range of different types of tomatoes, from very large beefsteak varieties to small and sweet cherry fruits. Vegetables are fun to grow and provide such great rewards that they must be one of the stars of the home vegetable plot.
Where to Grow
Tomatoes thrive in full sun. The importance of this increases in areas of the UK and Ireland where there is less sunlight and warmth, even during mid-summer. It’s best to plant your garden close to a wall or fence so it gets enough water. Don’t plant it near a hedge, though, since the soil won’t be moist enough. Tomato plants thrive in raised beds because the soil conditions offer perfect drainage and moisture retention.
In the cooler parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland, tomatoes are better grown in a polytunnel or greenhouse. In poor Summers, outdoor tomatoes can either fail to ripen or fail altogether, depending on the size of the tomato.
Site and Soil
Tomatoes require very fertile soil. Remember that a healthy plant may be up to 2 meters tall and produce hundreds of fruit while taking up a relatively small space. If you want your plants to thrive, add a lot of well-rotted manure to your beds at planting time. For every 3 square meters, add a full wheelbarrow of manure.
You will need to feed tomatoes grown in pots and grow bags more often because they have less space for roots. The pots you use for planting should hold at least 40 liters of soil, and you should only plant two plants per grow bag. These conditions are not ideal, but they may be the only option if you have a small city garden or are growing plants on a balcony. Make sure to use the best compost you can, and supplement it with a generous amount of seaweed and poultry manure pellets. Also, be sure to give your plants a liquid seaweed feed once they’re planted.
Mycorrhizal Fungi
Mycorrhizal fungi that form a symbiotic relationship with tomatoes help the plant to grow well. The fungi and the tomato plant form a symbiotic relationship in which the fungi provide the plant with water and minerals, and the plant provides the fungi with sugars. Coating your seedlings with mycorrhizal fungi powder or placing a coconut fiber ‘biscuit’ in the bottom of the planting hole can help improve the plant’s chances of success.
When to Grow
If you want to sow seed indoors, do it from late February to mid-March. Use a heated propagator or a warm, South facing windowsill. The ideal temperature for compost when planting seeds is 22 degrees Celsius. Seedlings should also be kept warm until early summer, when the soil temperature is above at least 10 degrees.
The following text can be paraphrased as: Tomatoes can be sown in seed trays and transplanted to larger pots, but I prefer to sow them in modular trays and then move them to a 10cm pot after the third leaf has formed. Plant your seeds 2cm or 3/4 inch deep into a low nutrient seed compost. Once they have grown, transfer them to a richer potting compost.
We need to maintain a balance with our seedlings at this point as we are keeping them artificially warm at a time of year when light levels are not really sufficient. Seedlings will be tall and weak if there is too much heat and not enough light. The heat should be reduced to a minimum (10 degrees), and the plants should be placed in a bright position. If you are growing plants indoors on a windowsill, you may need to provide extra light using a grow lamp.
When growing plants in pots, it is important to space them out so that their leaves are not touching each other. This will avoid overcrowding and help the plants to stay short and stubby rather than becoming elongated and ‘leggy’. You should keep your compost moist, and never let it dry out.
Transplanting
Tomato seedlings should be transplanted into their final positions when they are approximately 15 centimeters (6 inches) high, before the roots become restricted by the pot or ‘potbound.’
Before planting your tomato plants outside, acclimate them to the change in temperature by slowly introducing them to the outdoors over the course of a week or two. To harden off your seedlings, leave them outside during the day and bring them in at night. This will help them get used to outside temperatures gradually. To harden off starts, you leave them out for a few hours a day, gradually increasing the amount of time they spend outdoors until they can be left out all day and night, provided all risk of frost has passed. It is especially important to be mindful of the weather in the United Kingdom during the months of May and June as these months often have cool and windy weather.
Prior to planting, dig holes for each plant that are 5 cm deeper than the pot. The holes should be 45 cm apart. If you are growing indeterminate or cordon varieties, you will need to provide support, such as a stake or a cage. Bury a length of twine under the root ball when planting and tie the other end to support above the plant. This is easy in a polytunnel where you can tie it to crop support bars. A wide range of tomato supports are available for outdoor planting.
Remove the tomato plant from the pot, keeping the root ball un disrupted as much as possible. Put the plant in the hole, and then fill the hole with soil until it surrounds the plant. The soil should be 5 centimeters, or 2 inches, higher than it was in the pot. Tomatoes will grow more roots if they are planted deeper in the ground than in the pot. Water well if conditions are at all dry.
How to successfully grow tomatoes in containers
So what’s the first thing you need to know?
If you want to be successful in growing tomatoes in pots, you need to plan ahead.
Choose a location for your garden that gets at least 8 to 10 hours of sun each day. Six hours is the minimum, but more sun is much better.
My tips below will show you how to make the most of a small space and grow healthy tomatoes in a container garden.
- Choose the right type of tomato.
Determinate types of tomato plants are usually the best ones to grow in containers since they only grow to be 3-4 feet tall. They also set flowers and fruits all at the same time, making them more reliable and predictable in small spaces.
Indeterminate tomatoes can still be grown even if they are given a large container and good support for their vines.
A good guideline is to grow determinate tomatoes if your growing season is short, you started planting late in the season, or you have a very small garden.
If you have enough space for a large, tall plant and a decent growing season, then indeterminate tomatoes will give you an abundant harvest all summer long. They are also doable in containers.
- Start with a strong and healthy transplant.
It’s best if the tomato plants you start with have been repotted at least once and have acclimated to living outdoors so they can handle being in the sun.
When you repot your tomato plants, it helps them develop larger root masses. This makes them more resistant to pests and diseases, and helps them overall.
You should look for thick and sturdy stems as well as healthy green foliage that is free from insect damage, sunburn, and yellowing. This indicates that the plant has been well taken care of and is unlikely to have any issues.
- Don’t be shy about container size, and choose a fabric pot over a plastic pot.
The more room a tomato plant has to grow, the better it will do.
The minimum container size for determinate varieties is 10 gallons, while indeterminate varieties need at least 20 gallons to thrive.
If your plants are any smaller than these sizes, they may not be as productive as they could be.
Pots made of fabric are good for plants with a lot of roots because the fabric will cut off the roots that extend outside of the pot.
When air pruning is used in breathable fabric pots, the plants contained in those pots thrive more than plants contained in non-porous plastic pots.
The roots of plants in plastic pots will continue to grow in a constricted pattern if they are long enough to hit the sides of the pot. Eventually, the roots will become rootbound if they keep growing in this way.
The roots of plants growing in fabric pots are exposed to air, which helps them to grow. This exposure “burns off” the tips of the roots, which inhibits their growth. Instead of continuing to grow longer, the roots branch off and form new, shorter, fibrous roots that act as feeder roots.
The plant’s growth is not just on the surface, but penetrates the soil deeply. This allows the plant to absorb more water and nutrients, as well as be more resistant to diseases.
- Use high-quality potting soil.
To ensure that your plants in containers have a good growth rate, make sure the potting mix you use has a good combination of breathability, absorption, and moisture retention. This will allow the roots to access the water and nutrients they need while also preventing the mix from becoming waterlogged and stagnant.
The topsoil in your garden is usually too dense for potted plants and this increases the risk of your tomato plant getting a disease that is otherwise easily preventable.
Cover the bottom of the container with 3 to 4 inches of potting soil.
- Feed your tomato plant well.
Tomatoes need a lot of nutrients in order to produce well and for a long time.
Before putting the tomato transplant in its final planting hole, add the following amendments to the soil and stir them around a bit:
- 1/2 cup of tomato/vegetable fertilizer
- 1/4 cup of fish meal
- 1/4 cup of bone meal
- 2 aspirin tablets
- A handful of crushed eggshells
After adding the amendments, spread 2-3 more inches of potting soil on top.
- Bury the stem of the tomato plant.
Pinch or snip off the lowest leaves on the stem until about one-third to one-half of the stem is left.
Center the tomato plant in the pot and fill the remainder of the pot with more potting soil until it’s filled just below the last set of leaves. To add more soil, gently shake the pot to settle the current soil, and then add more on top as needed.
Apply 1/2 cup of all-purpose fertilizer to the top of the soil and lightly rake it around the base of the stem.
- Water thoroughly and consistently.
Water the zone where the roots are thoroughly until the soil is wet all over. To water my plant, I do the following: I water it in, wait 10 minutes, water it again, wait 10 minutes, and repeat the process until the water flows out of the bottom of the pot.
From my experience, it takes at least a gallon of water to fully saturate the soil the first time. Just because water drains immediately after watering does not mean that the soil is completely saturated.
Watering is the key to success when growing tomatoes in pots. If you give your plant too little or too much water, it will prevent it from growing correctly, cause blossom end rot, or make pests more active during hot weather or when the plant is already stressed.
You should water your plants using a watering can, garden hose, drip irrigation, or soaker hoses so that you can control how much water each plant gets. Overhead watering can result in giving plants too much or too little water.
You won’t need to water your plants again for three days after you initially water them. If the top 3-4 inches of your soil feels dry, water it thoroughly.
As summer continues, check the moisture level of the soil a couple times each week.
Plants that are in containers usually need to be watered more often than those that are in raised beds or in the ground. It is not uncommon to water plants every other day when it gets hot outside. The pot size correlates with how often you’ll need to water it.
Tomato plants need to be watered deeply, so make sure to saturate the soil until the excess water drains out the bottom. Water your plant again only when the top 3-4 inches of the soil feels dry.
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