Whole pot

Back side of a leaf

The ugly tomato. The skin is rough.

Fertilizing with Miracle Grow once a month is not enough unless you applied slow release or some other fertilizer when you planted. Nutrients wash out of containers each time you water. Also those pots don't look big enough for indeterminate vine like Early Girl but since you are trimming back maybe OK. When tomatoes set fruit without ample nutrients available, the quality of the fruit can suffer.

Hi Suncitylinda-Thank you so much! I will up the fertilizing schedule. I didn't know there were the two kinds of tomato plants until a few weeks ago while doing some reading about tomato plants on this website. I used the same pots last year when I planted tomatoes but those poor plants were my first in pots and between my ignorance, the super hot weather we had and a hornworm infestation...they never had a chance to get very tall. :(

That pot looks tiny, and I think that's your biggest problem. The plant looks poorly overall and it just isn't going to thrive in a pot that small. Next time, try much bigger pots. 5 gallon absolute minimum, bigger is better. Also, just curious, why the cactus mix?

Hi Gin-Gin...I used part cactus mix to help assist with drainage. Last year I just used the potting mix and it didnt seem to drain as well. It got stinky at the bottom when we had a horrible heat wave.

I had just trimmed the plant so it looks more spindly than it would have had I left it alone.

gin-gin, you are right. I grow in containers and totally missed the small container. Good catch. Yep, 5 gal MINIMUM, and preferably 10.

I'm wondering why you trimmed the plant. The fruit of the plant gets fed by photosynthesis in the leaves. The more leaves you have, the more healthy fruit you get.

Just throwing this out there - I was specifically told not to use Miracle-Gro anything on tomatoes, since they're apparently very sensitive to the artificial chemicals.

Not sure who told you that. MG is fine for tomatoes.

The big "danger" I was warned about is MG sometimes making plants focus on foliage rather than fruit... which happened to me last year. I had two plants - both using MG Moisture Control soil - and between the two I only got one tomato the whole season, though they were both big and beautiful with tons of happy green leaves.

So here's the same plant 10 days later. Honestly, does it look that bad? I'm still getting an occasional funky spot on a leaf or two but the tomatoes are starting to ripen with smooth skins and they taste great.

I PROMISE promise, promise that next year I will use a bigger pot!!!

Hi Ohiofem- I've read many threads on the tomato forum about trimming leaves...so I trimmed the leaves. :) I'm still learning what does and doesn't work.

Hi Sylviagrace-I bought the Miracle grow because that's what the nursery had. I figured if it said it was specifically for tomatoes then it would be okay. I'm having lots of flowers and tomatoes. But I did buy a new tomato food yesterday.

Hi Edweather-Is your whole garden in containers?

So the tomato food I bought is from a company called Grow More. It's 18-18-21. Does this sound appropriate for a containerized tomato plant?

I'm just starting a worm farm. Until I get that going, I'm stuck with what the local nursery is selling.

thanks everyone. I appreciate your thoughts and input.

Sylvia, There are many different kinds of MG for many different purposes. MG is a balanced fertilizer and if used as per the instructions is a good fertilizer. I use MG all purpose liquid in the yellow bottle almost exclusively and have excellent results. Yes if you pile nitrogen onto any plant it will grow lots of green foliage.

HeyJude2012, yes 95%+ of my garden is containers. And btw, your plant looks better from a distance. You are getting a decent amount of tomatoes and that's what counts.