fs
I only grow tomatos in pots and I can say with confidence that 14" pots are insufficient for Brandywine. I'm growing the Brandywine for the first time this year and am using a 30 gallon pot. I expect,even with this size pot, that my production will be less than an average Brandywine which I understand is not a big producer anyway.

I grow tomatoes in containers. You can read about and see them here : http://theurbantomato.blogspot.com/

fs654,

If it's a standard nursery pot, that 14" container holds about 7 gallons of potting mix. That is adequate, but, IMHO, really pushing it. The plants will do okay, but you're going to have to be really diligent about watering and feeding. Use a lot of mulch so the potting mix isn't constantly drying out and stressing the plant. I'd recommend you mix in a slow-release fertilizer (like Osmocote), plus feed regularly (after the plants start growing) with either Espoma Tomato-Tone or Miracle-Gro for tomatoes.

You may also have a major problem with support. As the plants get big, your containers will probably want to tip over. So you probably want to find some way to anchor them, and to support your plants. PVC cages are great.

So...you can certainly get by with what you have. However, as far as containers for tomatoes go, bigger is better. Except for the dwarfs, I always use a 14+ gallon container.

Best of luck!

Paula

I am growing Juliet, Better Boy and Roma in 20 gallon pots and they are doing great. They all have tomatos and Juliet even has one ready to pick after 45 days! I use good garden soil, osmocote and leaves on top for mulch to keep the soil from getting packed down but I still have to scratch the top gently to prevent that. THey all three look very healthy. We have had a good bit of rain the first 3 weeks they were planted and I was afraid I might not have enough drainage hole in the containers (my husband built boxes to fit around them so they would look nicer and so I couldn't go back and drill more, but the constant rain has stopped and I am having to water them every 3 or 4 days. Good luck with your container 'maters!

Nanahanna

14 inch is way too small for the Brandywine...I used 18 gallon rubbermaids (holes drilled in the bottom) and even thats pushing it. Fill them with a good soiless potting mix, bout 2 cups of dolomite, and some osmocote. Mulch the heck out them and water on a regular basis. This year,however, I'm using the same rubbermaid 18 gal type containers, but in an Earthbox (tm) type design....so far so good.
Happy gardening.

Hiya, since I'm relegated to container gardening at least this season again I'm using the Earth Box brand of containers this year. I tried the black plastic bags mentioned here at the forums but I didn't experience the same success and high regards for such a system.

What has drawn me to the Earth Boxes are the built in watering and fertilizer that this system allows with the covering for the soil, which I hope holds down disease.

If you are so inclined there are designs online (google "Earth Box") for homemade Earth Boxes.

Good luck and here's to a successful tomato gardening year. :)

the problem with growing tomatoes in smaller containers is the watering....you almost have to water them twice a day!

this can be remedied by using self watering containers. these are available form Gardners Supply and other sources, and of course the Earthbox is a SWC. You can also make them yourself...try a search on this site.

I figure for the plant to thrive you need a SWC that holds 7-8 gallons per plant, minimum....and these will never have the production of a tomato plant grown in rich soil. However, since I cannot grow tomatoes in my soil, I must use containters. I have cut way back this year and only have 26 plants set out.

I recommend Sweet Baby Girl for container production of Cherries, and some of the Dwarfs for bigger tomatos, such as New Big Dwarf etc. I also have had good production from Red Brandywine, Arkansas Traveler, Big Beef and especially Whopper.

You must use some type of Potting Mix....I have successfully used Miracle Grow Moisture Control type potting mixes for two years now, which also helps with the watering problem.

Good luck!

Michael

People that say your space is too small just have alot of room to spare. Last year I grew my heirlooms in 6-gallon paint buckets I bought at Home Depot. I even went so far as to plant three plants per bucket. The most I ever had to water the plants was once a day, and that wasn't until the roots filled the pots (1 1/2 months or so). If you love your plants, you'll do what you have to for them. Fertilizer once a week... Tying up the plants to stakes... etc, etc. I had more tomatoes than I could give away. This year, I'm only planting one plant per bucket, but thats just for manageability. I had a jungle last year. A yummy jungle. I had 7 and 8 footers. Don't be afraid. Just keep the plants healthy. They will give you what you want from 14" pots. I saw something last night on TV about Sean Connery... When he was an infant/toddler, his parents were a poor working class family. He slept in the bottom drawer of their dresser. Look at him now. Love your Tom's and they will love you. (Sean Connery's first name is Tom, by the way)

After reading this thread and to satisfy my curiosity I'm going to try a Sunsugar in a 14" pot that I have on hand. Will try my best to care for it but actually don't care if it's productive. My wife doesn't care for Tomato's except for Sungold and I've already have it growing in a 17 gallon Pot. The reason I selected Sunsugar was it's the only Cherry I could find quickly.

I'm putting mine in 12" self watering. These will be awful expensive tomatoes if I have to buy new pots @ $20. each plus tomato cages. I'm going with what I have on hand and that's 12" pots and bamboo stakes.

I have grown tomatoes for years with success in 5 gallon buckets. I use the buckets my laundry soap comes in. One plant per bucket. I drill holes in the bottom. I line the bottom with cardboard egg flats, and put a stake in the middle. I only water once a day, and my plants are fine, good production. This year I am growing Mr. Stripey, Cherokee Purple, Cherry tomatoes, and Burpee slicing toms. Good luck!

Oh my goodness! Last year, I planted one (1) Sweet 100 tomato in the half of a 30 gallon plastic barrel. I put a tall tomato cage around it, then cable-tied 4 (6 ft) wooden stakes to the cage. The tomato plant reached a height of over 8 ft. tall and eventually just sprawled out over the stakes and cage every which way it could. It produced abundant perfect sized little tomatoes that were packed with flavor. Anyway, my point is this; better re-think the size of the container for that plant if you want it to do anything. The tomatoes may be little but the plant that bears them is something else!

My mother grows all her tomatoes, whether they are beefsteak types like Brandywine (I gave her Brandywine Sudduth plants a couple years ago to try for 2 years in a row - she later considered the resulting tomatoes to be too big...lol) or slicers (which she prefers) and they did just fine in her 14" pots. You just have to make sure you give them enough of a support system for the sprawling vines. And they didn't mind sprawling all over each other and the production was just fine:

{{gwi:32425}}

Last year I grew 5 tomato plants in soil and 5 in home-made earthboxes and wanted to see if one method was better than the other. I had three pairs (one in soil and one in container): Brandy Boy, Odoriko, and Striped Roman; Opalka and German Gold in containers only; and Sun Gold (two in soil). The containers were made from 16 gallon totes, and I'd estimate they held a bit less than 12 gallons of soil. I recorded plant height (for the first 8 weeks or so), when the first blooms appeared, when fruit set (until there were too many to count), and number and weight of tomatoes harvested. Results:

1. The container plants grew slightly faster, produced blooms and set fruit 5-7 days earlier than those in soil. I attribute this to 3-5 degree warmer soil temperatures (yes, measured that, too).

2. There was no clear winner in terms of total harvest. Most plants that didn't have major disease problems produced >15 pounds of tomatoes, not counting green ones picked at the very end.

3. The containers were plenty big enough. When I examined the roots at the end of the season, they were not pot bound at all. The plants probably would have done just as well in a slighly smaller container as long as it had roughly the same height.

4. The container tomatoes tasted just as good.

That's my 2 cents.

This is my first Summer growing tomato plants in containers. I have Beefsteak and Roma. Both are growing at a very fast pace, but look very different. The Beefsteak plants are getting taller and taller and filling out nicely. The Roma's are not very tall but very dense and more bush-looking. I am trying to learn if this is common for the Roma's or if mine are unusual. Both types look extremely healthy and gets lots of sun and water. I am trying peppers, too, but someone told me they are very slow to produce. Anyway, lots of fun watching the changes! Our Michigan Summer weather is all over the place...today is June 25th and it's 60-degrees, dark and rainy. But we have already had 90-degree days as well, so who knows?