No matter how many tomatoes you plant, you always wish you could grow one or two more. The solution: raise a few in containers. Whether you like petite cherry tomatoes for fresh eating or meatier varieties for making sauce or salsa, you can grow them in a pot on a deck or alongside garden beds. Here are your keys to success.
The Right Container
Your pot should be at least 14 inches in diameter and 20 inches is even better. Large pots allow the plant to bulk up its root mass, making it sturdy and productive. The high volume of soil in the pot also holds more moisture, ensuring the plant has a steady supply of water. Whichever type of container you choose, be sure that it allows excess water to drain off. Tomatoes (and other garden plants) are likely to drown in a watertight pot.
The most common types of containers are made of either plastic or clay. Inexpensive, durable, and lightweight, plastic planters come in a wide range of styles. Plastic also holds moisture in the soil well. The Burpee Self-Watering Planter Trio is a plastic “trough” that holds three tomato plants and comes with a reservoir from which plants can draw water as needed.
If you prefer natural materials, clay or terra cotta pots have a classic look and are more eco-friendly. They also are porous, allowing air and moisture to pass in and out to the roots. Clay and terra cotta containers tend to cost more than plastic, they’re heavier to move, and more prone to breaking.
Burpee Root Pouches are fabric grow bags that can hold big tomato plants. They’re made from recycled plastic and fiber, and they are breathable, so they let air and moisture reach the roots. These bags can be reused for six seasons or more, and they are easy to stash away when the growing season ends.
Container-Ready Varieties
You can grow most tomato varieties in pots, but choosing those that have been bred for containers will make it easier for you to manage them. As you consider the options, take note of whether each variety is a determinate or indeterminate type. Determinate varieties reach a modest height and fruits ripen around the same time. That makes them the best choices if you want to make sauce or salsa, or you want to preserve your crop through canning or drying. Indeterminate plants tend to be larger and rangier than determinates because they keep growing throughout the season, producing a steady crop of fruit along the way. The largest beefsteak tomatoes and cherry tomatoes typically are indeterminates. You can grow both types in containers, but note that you will need big pots and sturdy cages for indeterminates.
Veranda fits well into a pot because the plant tops out at about 18 inches tall and pumps out clusters of sweet, grape-size fruit for weeks. Sweetheart of the Patio is another cherry-tomato type that stays compact while producing tons of supersweet little fruit. Bush Early Girl Hybrid reaches about 18 inches tall and its round, red fruit come in about 4 inches in diameter, perfect for slicing into salads. Fresh Salsa Hybrid bears meaty, 4- to 5-ounce tomatoes on plants that peak at less than 4 feet tall. They’re ideal for making tomato sauce, salsa, bruschetta, and sun-dried tomatoes.
Care and Maintenance
Support
Unless you’re growing a “bush” variety, upright support for your tomatoes in pots will help keep the vines from sprawling outside of the container. XL Series Pro Cages are sturdy and fit into large containers. And they fold flat at the end of the season, so you can store them easily.
Watering
Tomatoes are thirsty plants that grow vigorously before producing their juicy fruit. Check the containers daily, especially during hot, dry spells, by pushing your index finger into the soil up to the middle knuckle. If the soil feels dry all the way to your fingertip, add water until you see it run out of the bottom. Allow the soil to become dry before watering again. Overwatering or letting your plants sit in excess moisture deprives the roots of oxygen and causes them to rot.
Feeding
Plants in containers don’t have access to nutrients like they do in garden soil, so they need fertilizer to help them reach their full potential. Burpee Organic Tomato and Vegetable Water Soluble Plant Food gives them a strong dose of nitrogen, which promotes stem and leaf growth, as well as phosphorus and potassium, for root and fruit development. It’s easy to use because you just mix it with water and apply it when your plants are ready to be watered. But don’t fertilize your plants every time you water. Follow the package directions for frequency and dilution rate. Just like with people, overfeeding is unhealthy and can make plants susceptible to diseases.
Your plants get a productivity boost with Tomato and Vegetable Blossom Set Spray. It contains natural plant hormones and nutrients that bolster flowering, which leads to a bigger harvest for you.
Pruning
With careful trimming, you can keep your tomatoes in pots productive, healthy, and well-contained. When you move the plants out into the garden, snip off the lowest branches to allow air to flow around the base of the stem. Throughout the plants’ lives, pinch off suckers, the sprouts that form where the larger branches meet the stem. The suckers siphon away resources from more productive branches. If your plants get so tall they might overwhelm the pot, trim off the topmost branches.
Companion Planting for a Healthy Harvest
Your containers will look better and stay vibrant when you pair tomatoes with flowering plants that offer benefits to them. You can grow them in the same container, if there’s room, or plant them in separate pots and group the containers together. Consider these options.
- Basil: The fragrant herb not only blends well with the flavor of tomatoes, it deters thrips and hornworms, two insect pests that feed on and transmit diseases to your tomatoes. Trim and eat the basil leaves early and often, so the plant doesn’t shade out your tomato. Genovese is a bright, leafy green that has the ideal taste for caprese salad.
- Marigolds: Three valuable allies in controlling tomato pests—hover flies, lady bugs, and parasitic wasps—feed on the nectar of these red, orange, and yellow flowers. They also prey on aphids, hornworms, and other insects that damage tomatoes. Happy Days Mixed Colors marigolds are a smart choice for growing in containers with tomatoes. They bear a steady bloom of flowers all season and stay compact, reaching just 10 inches tall and 6 inches wide. French marigolds such as Strawberry Blond contain limonene, a fragrant oil that deters white flies.
- Sweet alyssum: The tiny, fragrant white flowers of this annual bring in droves of green lacewings, the most voracious eaters of aphids. Two other beneficial insects, syrphid flies and parasitic wasps, as well as various pollinators and butterflies also show up when you plant sweet alyssum. Use low-growing Carpet of Snow as a “skirt” at the base of your tomatoes and let it gradually spill over the edge of the container.
Ready to Grow
Raising tomatoes in containers lets you maximize the rewards of the growing season. You can pick vine-ripened fruit right outside your door and it allows you to increase your gardening space without any digging needed. The only challenge? Deciding which of the many types and varieties to plant. You can’t go wrong!