Bush types in minimum 5-gallon size. Indeterminate kinds in 10-gallon.

- add drain holes
- fill w/potting mix
- No rocks in the bottom
- make certain the potting mix doesn't dry out
- have fun
- enjoy the fruits of your labors!

Sure, lots of people do it including me. I highly suggest you check out the Containers forum, and this thread.
You can basically grow tomatoes in about any mix, but depending on how much you want to get into it here's an excellent thread with a good mix recipie known as the 5:1:1 mix. 5 gal buckets are the minimum size to use, and is generally better suited for smaller plants. 10 gal would be much better.

Here is a link that might be useful: container soils

Good info from both replies above. I assume you will be buying your transplants so it will all depend on what determinate/bush types you can find locally. Or, if you wanted to upgrade your containers to 10 gals. then you'll have many more varieties to choose from.

Dave

Ditto to what jean001a said. One variety you might want to try in a 5 gallon container is the Husky Red. That worked for me last season.

This post was edited by pretty.gurl on Fri, Apr 5, 13 at 8:45

I grew two Husky Cherry Reds last year in 4-gallon pots -- Bonnie seedlings from a big-box store, so I assume there'd be some near you.

They grew to only about 4' tall (12" wide), so you'd have to bend a bit to pick the early fruit, but it wouldn't grow over your head. (Mine were on the front porch, pretending to be matching potted evergreens, so I could access them from the front walk without bending quite as much.)

Though tree-types, they did need a bit of support; I started them with single stakes but apparently wasn't tying the stems to the stakes often enough: the top of one plant broke off in a minor storm, and the other plant's main stem fell over and didn't want to straighten, so I left it where it was. I added narrow ring cages, and they were enough to prevent other support issues for the rest of the season.

It was a Late Blight year, but I was able to cut off the bad bits and keep the plant going for a couple of months.

Above-average taste for a cherry.

Husky Cherry Red does great in the home depot buckers (most of my garden is in those).
I grew Better Bush in the buckets last year as well and they did okay.
Mr. Stripey did not.

Even smaller, Sweet N Neat produced bountiful, very sweet, large red cherry tomatoes in 2 gallon buckets.