Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Has anyone ever tried to grow tomatoes in pots, such as "patio" tomato varieties? What varieties? I just bought a huge, patio tomato plant in a pot for 8.99, it's about 18" tall and 12+" wide. I repotted it into a huge pot, and put it on our deck. We are surrounded by mature trees/dense woods, and don't get much full sun. At most, we average about 5 hours a day around our deck, even less later in the summer when the angle of the sun changes and the trees block the sun. But actually on our deck we get about 6 hours of sun a day, so this year I decided to try a potted tomato plant. This "patio" plant is just a mid-sized tomato, not full-sized fruits. If this is successful, next year I'd like to try other potted tomato plants. Cherry tomatoes seem to thrive in the ground on 5 hours of sun a day, but I've not had much luck with other varieties, although this year I am also trying out Early Girl in my garden on the 5 hours of sun. I'm hoping I can grow big tomato varieties on our deck, such as Better Boy. Of course I realize that I will need to religiously water them each day, as they will dry out fast.
Has anyone ever tried to grow tomatoes in pots, such as "patio" tomato varieties? What varieties? I just bought a huge, patio tomato plant in a pot for 8.99, it's about 18" tall and 12+" wide. I repotted it into a huge pot, and put it on our deck. We are surrounded by mature trees/dense woods, and don't get much full sun. At most, we average about 5 hours a day around our deck, even less later in the summer when the angle of the sun changes and the trees block the sun. But actually on our deck we get about 6 hours of sun a day, so this year I decided to try a potted tomato plant. This "patio" plant is just a mid-sized tomato, not full-sized fruits. If this is successful, next year I'd like to try other potted tomato plants. Cherry tomatoes seem to thrive in the ground on 5 hours of sun a day, but I've not had much luck with other varieties, although this year I am also trying out Early Girl in my garden on the 5 hours of sun. I'm hoping I can grow big tomato varieties on our deck, such as Better Boy. Of course I realize that I will need to religiously water them each day, as they will dry out fast.
I planted Polish tomatoes last year, and inter-mingled them in my flower beds, which worked well. Then, I potted a dwarf Better Boy, and Cherry tomato plant for my patio. They both also did well. I ate those cherry tomatoes like candy, though, when I was sitting out on my patio catching some relaxation!
That's all I grow on my deck. I prefer the patio tomatos because they are so easy to grow and they aren't huge. They do very well in pots and I think they look great on the deck as plants. I am trying the cherry tomatos this year and they are already taller than my patio tomatos.
I have planted two cherry tomato is pots for the last 3 years and again this year and had great success..they get all the sun they want grow quite tall...Also trying a trailing or tumbling tomato in my window boxes on the deck rail, they are tiny but should be real good...
Good luck
With 5 hours or less of sunshine, you may be dissappointed. Tomatoes need 6+ hrs to prform properly. Less than that you'll get spindly growth and little or no yield.
Tomatoes can be grown in pots very easily. Recommended pot sizes are 18-24 inches wide and 18-20 inches deep. Any shrub type tomatoe (determinate) patio or whatever will grow quite well and produce a lot of tomatoes under proper growing conditions. Vine type (indeterminate) will grow well also but they need staking support as they grow out.
With 5 hours or less of sunshine, you may be dissappointed. Tomatoes need 6+ hrs to prform properly. Less than that you'll get spindly growth and little or no yield.
Thanks! The bigger tomato varieties do produce pretty well up until about August. Since our growing season is short here in the NE, that only gives me about a month of the large tomatoes, though. (Actually the cherry tomato plants keep on producing heavily through Sept.). But the bigger tomato varieties stop producing as much around August when we start getting only around 4 hours of sunlight. Of course, it also cools down in mid-August here, which could also be the problem. But I'm just looking to prolong the growing season, I'd like to get tomatoes into September. And naturally, with six hours of sun they will perform even better than with five, so our deck is a better option for the larger varieties. Since the cherry tomatoes already do so well in the ground, I was hoping the larger varieties such as Better Boy could be planted in pots on my deck.
I think the terms 'determinate' and 'indeterminate' have to do with one plant yielding its full crop at the same time and the other will keep producing until the weather changes.
I have been told to have at least 8 hours of sunlight for good tomatoes. I bought several sorts of grow lighting contraptions to try to give them a head start indoors, when they are smaller, to no avail. I think I would need one of those big floodlight things that people grow pot with indoors in order to get an early start. That's an awfully big expense, not to mention not having the room.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
