Pot grow tomatoes can be as good as those grown on the ground
I decided to have a go at growing tomatoes in pots this year and have been very pleased with them. I always grow tomatoes in my garden plot but added pots this year. Over thirty years I have succesfully grown tomatoes in my garden plot. But growing my tomatoes in containers is anew departure for me.
The comparison between the pot grown tomato and those in the ground.
I grew 2 varieties this year moneymaker and an Italian cherry tomato variety. I’m sure what variety they are – everything seems to grow easily enough to me. I germinated them indoors in march and grew them on under glass in the warm. I always have far to many plants and ended up giving most of them away to friends. They went into the garden after the frosts had finished and I was picking Tomatoes in July. As I speak in late august I still have many fruits to pick so it has been a good year. The plants grown in containers have had similar results but I have noticed 2 differences.
Firstly the moneymaker tomatoes were slightly smaller than the ones grown on my plot.
Secondly there were not quite as many cherry tomatoes in the containers.
Other than that the results were very similar. The taste of your own tomatoes is fantastic and you will never eat better. For the container grown tomatoes
I did treat them differently and with a bit more care.
Make sure you put tomato plants in a really big pot.
I like the root systems to have plenty of room and not become pot bound. Make sure you use a very large pot to allow full root growth. I use standard clay terracotta pots but any wide and deep container will work fine.
Water your tomatoes even if it rains.
We have had a dreadful summer in the UK this year and it has rained constantly. I had to check the pot grown plants more regularly as they did appear to be wilting on some days. This is not needed for tomato plants grown on the ground. The pot is protected by the leaves of the tomato plant and the water cannot get through to it. Not much of the water can get to the roots directly. This is why I check them daily.
Be ruthless with pinching out side shoots on the tomato plants.
I only pinch out once or twice a season when growing tomatoes in the ground because they seem to do fine. I have done quite a bit of trial and error over the years. The standard moneymaker tomatoes that were grown on containers needed weekly pinching out to make sure the fruit was good and big. You do not need to pinch out cherry tomatoes because they do not suffer from being left to run. You can leave them alone safe in the knowledge that with regular watering they will give a good harvest.
Remove excess foliage once you have the tomato fruits.
I have always done this to tomatoes and do not know where I picked this tip up. Once you have all the tomatoes set on the plant remove any leaves that are hiding the fruit from the sun. You can ripen your tomatoes indoors but I like to leave them on the plant as long as possible to get ripe. Removing the leaves also gives you slightly bigger tomatoes.
Growing tomatoes in containers
If you have missed this tomato season then I encourage you to plan ahead for your tomato growing in 2009. Pots and containers are excellent for growing tomatoes so give it a try. They are a lot of fun and be grown on any sunny spot you have.
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