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 also have my beloved plot with tomatoes growing in the ground. 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. These seeds came with a vegetable magazine. I germinated them indoors in march and grew them on under glass in the warm. As Always I grew too many tomato plants and gave 20 away. I planted them out as 2 – 3 foot high plants in early June and a month later picked the first tomatoes. My tomato plant still have plenty of tomatoes on them, it has been a good year. I did notice 2 slight differences between the containers grown tomatoes and those in the ground.
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. You may not know that the taste of home grown tomatoes is far superior to shop ones. 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. Your tomatoes need a big pot of at least 10 inches in diameter to have enough room for the roots. 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 reason for this is that the leaves of the tomato plants deflect much of the water away from the pot. Not all the water gets through to the plant roots. So I made sure to check them often.
- 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 moneymaker plants in pots were pinched out once a week to ensure that the fruits I did get were big enough and juicy enough. You do not need to pinch out cherry tomatoes because they do not suffer from being left to run. They take care of themselves and always give plenty of 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. Taking the leaves away will let the tomatoes grow a bit larger.
If you have missed this tomato season then I encourage you to plan ahead for your tomato growing in 2009. Grow some in pots and containers as well as in the ground. They are a lot of fun and be grown on any sunny spot you have.
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