How to Make a Hanging Basket for Tomatoes

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Everyone has seen the adds for the hanging basket tomatoes. With this technique you can grown tomatoes without spending a bundle on a kit or having the trouble of drilling holes into containers. This works wonderful on tiny cherry tomatoes but will also work for larger tomatoes. The secret is that tomatoes naturally want to fall, that's why you have to stake them up if you plant regularly. You can't let them naturally fall because if you're planting in the ground it will cause your fruits to rot.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Hanging baskets
potting soil
tomato starters or seeds

Step1

Buy a couple of hanging baskets. Any type will work. You will want one per plant. Fill to the top with potting soil.

Step2

If using seeds plant about 1/2 an inch into the soil. Plant a couple and thin down to the best/strongest plant as they grow. If you are using starter plants dig a hole deep enough to plant up to the first leaves. With tomatoes they will sprout new roots along this part of the stalk so it's important to plant deep for healthy plants with a strong root base.

Step3

Pack the dirt gently around the plant and water to thoroughly saturate and settle the soil. Hang in a well lit place. If you have a covered porch it probably will not provide adequate light so you may want to hang in more direct sunlight.
As your plant grows you will want to encourage it to grow to the side by tying the plant to the side of one of the hanging chains (make sure if it's metal not to let the plant touch the metal because it will scorch the plant).
As your fruit starts to grow you want to watch to be sure that no fruit is on the soil, just gently redirect the plant to side. The most important thing is not not let your new vines grow too tall because they will fall when the tomato gets too heavy, so try to train them to the sides early.
Enjoy fresh tomatoes all season!