How to Grow Tomato Plants in Pots

Grow small tomato varieties in containers successfully.

There are plenty of reasons to grow tomato plants in pots. You may live in an apartment and have only a balcony for your garden or reside in a city with no open ground to grow vegetables. Perhaps the soil in your area is poor, and it is easier to enrich the soil in a container that in the entire yard. Whatever the reason, growing tomatoes is containers is something even beginning gardeners can accomplish.

Instructions

1. Choose the pots for your tomato plants -- the bigger the pot, the better. Since tomato roots spread outwards and down, you need a pot that is wide as well as deep. Choose five-gallon pots or buckets for your containers. Drill drainage holes in the bottom of the containers if they don't already have them.

2. Select small tomato varieties for the greatest success in container gardens. Many determinate tomatoes are varieties that grow to a small size of only two or three feet tall. Cherry and grape tomato plants also maintain a small size.

3. Fill the pots with rich, organic soil. Mix a couple of small handfuls of oyster shells into the pots in the center where you are about to plant the tomatoes. Oyster shells provide calcium for the plants. Also, add a scoop of organic fertilizer and mix it in to the center of the tomato containers.

4. Make a well in the center of each pot. Break up the roots of the tomato plants slightly and pull off the bottom leaves near the base of the plants. Position a single tomato plant in each of the pots up to where the base leaves were removed and fill in with soil. Lightly pack the soil around the base of the plant. Immediately water each tomato plant using about one gallon of warm water to avoid shock.

5. Position a tomato cage in the pot around the plant.

6. Keep the pots in full sun and water them regularly. Watering once every 2 or 3 days when it's hot out is usually sufficient. You don't want to overwater and waterlog the tomatoes.

References

• Fine Gardening: How to Grow Tomatoes in Containers
• Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet: Growing Cucumbers, Peppers, Squash and Tomatoes in Containers