How to Build Hanging Tomato Pots

Tomato pots can be made from many different containers.

Container gardens allow apartment dwellers, people with limited mobility and others who don’t have space for a garden to grow plump, delicious tomatoes. Gardeners adapt the size and location of container gardens to suit their needs. Hanging tomato pots are small container gardens hung from porch roofs, tree branches or posts buried in the earth. Hanging tomato pots are built of buckets, baskets, pickle barrels or other available containers. Building a hanging tomato pot is not difficult, requires few tools and takes no more time than an afternoon. The benefits are an attractive tomato plant and pot and tomatoes ripening on the vine.

Things You'll Need

• Plastic bucket
• Electric drill
• ¼-inch drill bit
• Tape measure
• Heavy-gauge galvanized wire
• 1/8-inch drill bit
• Planter hooks
• Sandy loam soil
• Vermiculite
• Mature compost

Instructions

1. Use a 3- to 5-gallon plastic bucket approximately 12 to 15 inches in diameter and at least 10 inches deep to act as the hanging tomato pot.

2. Use an electric drill to punch ¼-inch holes 2 inches down from the top rim of the bucket that are spaced an equal distance apart, as measured by a tape measure. These holes will be used to hang the tomato pot.

3. Drill ¼-inch diameter holes, located 2 inches above the bottom of the bucket and spaced at intervals of 4 inches apart, around the circumference of the bucket. These holes provide drainage for the hanging tomato pot.

4. Tie one 3-foot-long strand of heavy-gauge galvanized wire securely to one hole in the top of the bucket. Attach another strand of wire to one of the holes next to the first one.

5. Lift the strands of wire, one in each hand, approximately 1 foot above the rim of the bucket, and intertwine or weave them together from that point up; tie a loop at the end to fit over the planter hook when hanging the hanging tomato pot.

6. Repeat the process of tying a 3-foot strand of heavy-gauge galvanized wire to each of the remaining holes in the top of the bucket. Begin to intertwine the wires approximately 1 foot above the rim of the bucket, and a tie a loop in the end of the wires.

7. Drill two 1/8-inch pilot holes in a solid wood base, and screw in 3-inch-long heavy-duty metal planter hooks. Space the planter hooks at a distance apart that allows the supporting wires to hang straight down from the planter hooks to the hanging tomato pot.

8. Fill the tomato pot with a prepared potting soil, or a well-mixed combination of equal parts of sandy loam soil, vermiculite and mature compost.

Tips & Warnings

• Plant a single tomato plant in the exact center of the hanging tomato pot to aid in the balance of the pot as the plant grows.

• Do not hang the tomato pot where it may fall on top of someone below.

References

• University of Florida IFAS Extension: Minigardening