I found plastic mop buckets at the dollar store (Dollar Tree?). I plan to punch holes in the bottom of it and use it for tomatoes, peppers or eggplants. Walmart also has some reasonable prices containers. I think it was $2.99 for a ~5 gallon plastic pot.

Go to a wholesale food distributor. A distributor of pizza supplies would be the most likely place. Get some pepperoncini barrels ... the food grade, plastic drums that pepperoncinis are imported in from Greece. They are terra cotta colored (or sometimes blue) and about 35 - 40 gallon. Cut them in half midway. Viola ... two nice large tubs for one or two indeterminate vines. My distributor sells them for 5 bucks apiece. Since they have screw-off lids, they also make great storage containers ... so long as you like the smell of pickled peppers.

Go to a local nursery and ask for the plastic pots that small trees come in. When the nursery plants trees for customers, the pot is usually taken back and just piled up until discarded. I seem to get all I want for free... Paul

Old tires make good planters too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Tires @ BackWoods Home

The old tires are so aesthetically pleasing. I prefer BF Goodrich over the Firestone whitewalls any day.

I would build a homemade earthbox as I have never had any good growing conditions in a planter or bucket as tomatoes need root space, lots of water and lots of nutrients.
You can just use large size plastic discount store plastic square container which comes in colors from clear to lavender.

I grew some Principe Bourghese which were loaded, but the problem is they were wet and sour in the containers for fruit even if they looked pretty.

It is hard to equal God's ground in growing great tomatoes.

Thank you all for your many ideas. I'll pursue some of these leads this weekend.

I went to a local nursery and the owner sold me used 15 gal and 10 gal containers for $4 and $3.50 respectively. He also gave me a 5' bamboo stake for free. I'm sure a more savvy person would have got all these for free, but this nursery is struggling and may go out of business soon, so I'm absolutely glad I went there after visiting a more popular nursery nearby, where everything was over-priced.

Now I have to decide if I want to plant 2 determinate varieties in the 15 gal container or use it to grow a citrus tree.

Today at Lowe's I picked up four 18 gallon storage containers, $3.50 apiece. I should think these would be big enough to grow tomato plants in. I have quite a few to plant in the ground but thought I'd give these a try for container-grown tomatoes. Going to plant two cherries in one and then individual indeterminate plants in the other three. See how it goes. GaryStPaul

I agree with the Earth Box. I grew toms in simple and progressively larger containers for the past few years. I could never escape BER so this year I decided to build a homemade earth box.

I spent $9 on two 18 Gal rubbermaid totes, 5 on a length of copper tubing, $1.05 for a plastic basket (dollar store). Then I spent 30 mins putting the whole thing together.

It turn out not to much more expensive than large containers.

Although I now have plenty of raised beds for my tomato plants, I have grown them in containers in the past and always had good luck making use of whatever other people threw out. Many nursery planters were snagged off the curb, as well as whiskey barrel planters half-rotten with the bottoms knocked out, large plastic buckets, and all manner of castoff items. Just keep your eyes peeled.

I have heard that if you sprinkle baking soda around the bottom of the plant it will make for sweeter tomatoes. First time trying container gardening and I'm going to try this

Hi Patricia, you responded to a thread that was nearly 10 years old. If you do what you propose, you will stress the plant which I wouldn't do in a container. But there is some wisdom in what you heard if you want to go that route... a stressed plant can produce more intense flavor via higher solids, definitely sugars and probably acid taste too. As a first timer with a blank slate though, you could skip it this time to get your growing technique successful without doing things that build up salts unnecessarily and potentially detrimental stresses in the soil of the container - especially if you plan to use a soluble fertilizer like Miracle Gro which itself is composed of useful salts to the plant which also can build up.

Cheers

PC

Personally, instead of what's supposed to happen with things people say will do this or that, if I want a sweeter tomato, I would plant a sweeter variety.

I like the heirloom named Rose. It has a sweeter flavor than others of a similar type. It also happens to be a fairly heavy producer for an heirloom, and quite easy to grow. It does have the same lack of resistance to disease and fungi as many/most heirlooms, but it's extremely vigorous and will just outgrow all but the most serious of problems.