Hi Leekle

A lot of us grow tomatoes in containers because we either have small gardens, nematodes problems or both.

I grow all sort of tomatoes in pots not only the small kind, last time I count I had almost 500 different varieties, a lot are good, some are okay and some are not good. You can only save seed from open pollinated not hybrids like it is usually the case with transplants.

If you are going to do seeds start them now and if you are going to get transplants wait till we get over the winter and the weather warms up.

Here is one tomato season and the containers that I use.

{{gwi:47932}}

Silvia

Well, I did some looking and, of the local stores, I don't think any of their transplants would work for me (I could be wrong, but I think beefsteaks would get too big for a 5-gal container) So instead I picked up seeds for Romas and Sweeties. I'm not sure about plant-wise, but fruit-wise they look like they might be small enough not to topple over as they grow. And Romas happen to be one of my personal favorites.

I also learned today that in my area, there are no good sources for things such as 'insert type' meal. About the only things I can get are Blood meal and Bone meal, any other type of supplement is not readily available to me. So either I will have to search outside my immediate area or order online for some of the other components that my research has suggested I might need (such as agricultural gypsum for calcium feeding). So it's a good thing I have a bit of time before I will need to transplant to pots.

But out of curiosity, what do ya'll use for your potted tomatoes? I've read anything from simply "Dump in a bag of Miracle-Gro" to "50% Peat Moss and 50% compost" to "1 part Kelp Meal, 1 part Cottonseed Meal, 1 Part Bone Meal, 1 Part Fish Meal". Actually, that last was a feed for the soil I think. But many sources suggest using some sort of calcium boost to prevent Blossom End Rot. I'm trying to go organic as much as possible to start giving my kids healthier foods that aren't so ladened down with chemicals.

This post was edited by Leekle2ManE on Mon, Dec 31, 12 at 15:06

Leekle2S, I think you can learn lots of great tips from our Super GW'er, Silvia. Here are a few things I have learned over the years of container gardening. Growing tomatoes in ground in Florida is tough, poor soil and nematodes. I personally have had good experience with self watering containers made from 2 5 gal pickle buckets (try Burger King or Panneta Bread for freebies). This year I reverted back to single 5 gal bucket and hand watering when I am at home or timed drip watering when I am away. This year I was low on homemade horse stable compost so substituted MG potting soil in the top half and 50% compost with the remainder homemade mixture. Have fed monthly with a handful of Perdue chicken compost and it has been one of my more successful crops. Grow many varieties, one of the most consistent producers for grape type has been Juliets. Also enjoy heirlooms such as Cherokee Purple. You will have to support with some sort of wire basket or ??. I simply make a hope the diameter of the bucket and drive a pipe into the ground beside it to keep it from toppling. Good luck, bernie

As I have stated in other posts, I am limited in that I can not plant veggies in-ground in my neighborhood. So instead I am going with container gardening. 5-gal container gardening with Self-Watering reservoirs attached to a rain barrel. I am doing my reading and trying to figure out the best way to go about this, so far it seems I am going to be limited to small variety tomatoes with this setup. While I do my research I thought I would ask my fellow Floridians for any experience any of you might have in this area.

Sorry I'm late to the party, I did see this post last week but was at work, and Big Brother blocks PB so I could not see Silvia's wonderful pictures ;-)

Personally, I'm not a big advocate of self-watering containers (buckets), tried them but too much anaerobic action in the water for me, probably my Zone 10 heat. Since this will be your first venture into this I have five suggestions to make:

1) Buy Husk Cherry Red mater plants from the Big Box. They are dwarf indeterminate plants that do well in containers, only grow to 4' so easy to stake in a container, are very hardy and wonderful producers.

2) Buy the $6 4 gallon terra cotta pots from Ikea, they would be double that price at the Big Box and will serve you well.

3) Buy MG potting mix, but not the moisture control mix

4) Get a 50lb bag of garden lime from the Big Box and supplement your potting mix with extra calcium.

5) Get a 2lb bottle of Dynamite control-release fertilizer from the Big Box and supplement your potting mix until you have a good feel for container veggie gardening...

DISCLAIMER!!! It would be a lot cheaper to buy your tomatoes from the store (but they won't taste as good ;-)

These suggestions will significantly improve you success at a first trial ;-)

These are not the best example of Husky Cherry Red plants, I had them left over from the fall, didn't pot them out of the 3oz cups until 60 days, then 30 days in the 16oz cups, so they were already 90 days old before they went into these Ikea pots...a testament to how hardy this cultivar is, they would normally have been three times this size and loaded with cherry tomatoes.

You can grow these too, short-day onions do well in containers as long as you don't let them dry out too much.

Broccoli does well in containers too, but you won't get production like you would in a garden...we don't eat these, I grow them strictly for the bees, each head will produce 200 flowers which really helps support them.

These are carrots, but I just pulled a row of icicle radishes, love to grow both in containers.

You can also grow cukes in pots, I have mine inside the pool cage since I can't beat pickelworm so close to the water. My favorite parthenocarpic cuke so far is Sweet Success, for it's production, taste and cost of seeds. These plants are four months old now and on their last legs, time to start some more for the fall.

I don't have much room and I'm surrounded by water in a very close proximity so I struggle to grow anything successfully. For this reason I focus mainly on tomatoes, everything else is a plus :-) :-(

Tom

For the indeterminate types: Is is possible, feasible, advisable to top off the growth and force these to bush out to keep fruit growth low and less top-heavy?

You can indeed top the indeterminates and some say it hastens the ripening of the fruit that has already formed. The trade off is you're sacrificing potential fruit.

Also, something else I've been meaning to find out:

Leaf-Legged Insects (a type of stinkbug) - When I first saw these on my tomato plants, I had misidentified them as the larvae assassin bugs. But their 'flocking' habit had me questioning that identification and as they grew older, I was able to find out what they really were. Now, according to IFAS all they really do is poke the green fruits which could lead to disfigured fruit and possibly open the door for 'secondary' pathogens. Since I'm not a farmer looking to sell my tomatoes, is there a reason I should be alarmed about having these on my plants? Should I leave them be or should I go out with a bucket of soapy water and a handkerchief over my nose (as I read they will emit a foul odor in the area if you mess with them) to pluck them off?

GET RID OF THEM! When they grow up, they can consume an entire tomato in a day. Usually though, they just take unsightly big bites out of all of your tomatoes. They're fast and tricky and hard to remove by hand. Sevin works.

This post was edited by TheTradition on Fri, May 31, 13 at 15:02

Leekle,
Not sure what your soil problem there is, but down here my soil is sandy/rocky. I'm strictly organic - no fertilizers or pesticides, just compost and soapy water, but I have been amending the bed for six years now, so it's better than it was. I don't use containers (because I'd never keep up with the watering to do it successfully.) For those reasons, I don't get very good yields, but it's just the two of us, so that's okay with me.
About calcium, I read somewhere (probably here) that spreading broken up egg shells around the young plants can prevent cutworms and later in the season help with blossom end rot. I finally did that this year as soon as I put the plants in the ground - two eggs per plant. I didn't have a problem with cutworms or blossom end rot this year. A few weeks after I did it, when the plants were larger, I sidedressed the plants with compost, covering up the egg shells, which probably helped them break down faster and leach their calcium into the soil. You could just as easily do that in containers. It might not provide enough calcium, but it won't hurt.
And if you like broccoli, I get fabulous yields from a little HD tray of nine broccoli plants. We end up freezing it and giving it away, we get so much all at once.