O...I am learning fast about container tomatoes. I have seen people grow tomatoes fine in 5 gal buckets...but my gut says that is marginally small. The importance of soil (fast draining) and feeding seems to be paramount.

Yea, I'm thinking of going 10 gal next year.

The plants do have tons of flowers and fruits already on them. The tomatoes in grow bags seem like they need to be watered every day. I have tomatoes in 5 gal self watering containers also with smaller leaves near the top, but they always have access to water.

can we see a picture?

This is a picture of my raised bed tomato. The leaves on this stem are about 3-4" in length 2-3" in width.

Here is a pic of a tomato plant in a grow bag. The leaves on this stem are about 2" in length and 1" in width

The leaves on the plants in grow bags look thin and small, whereas the leaves all throughout the plants in raised beds look full and lush.

Are these the same variety of tomato plant? If not then there is no point in trying to compare them. Different varieties have different leaf sizes and growth patterns.

If they ARE the same variety then what you are seeing is most likely the many differences in growing conditions. Growing in any type of container will never be the same or give the same results as growing in ground. There are simply too many differences.

But the only way to determine which different growing condition is affecting them the most is to change the conditions one at a time and that isn't always practical.

A best guess would be that the nutrients in the grow bags have depleted unless you have been replacing them weekly since they will leach out of the buckets and grow bags much faster than out of the raised bed.

But it could also be the heat on the bags, the differences in the soils, the plants in the containers being rootbound, the heat/sun exposure, etc. etc.

Dave

I have 4 different tomato varieties. I have one of each growing in raised beds, self-watering containers, and grow bags. All varieties look very healthy in raised beds. However, the ones in grow bags and in self-watering containers (all are 5-gallon containers) have the top growth with smaller leaves.

The tomatoes in self-watering containers and grow bags have tons of tomatoes already on them. However, the plants in raised beds only have a few here and there. Could it be that with all those tomatoes on the plant it doesn't have enough energy to produce healthier leaves?

I do fertilize every other week. Also, the grow bags have a container underneath them to collect or soak up any water. Often I just water the container and it gets soaked up into the grow bag.

One thing is I do have 2 plants in grow bags that are under partial sun exposure and they have fairly normal looking leaves compared to the others.

My plan right now is to try giving a few plants partial shade and see if anything changes.