I have been using peat/perlite to add. I am currently thinking of adding bark to my soil mix for a filler. But with your access to compost just add 20% perlite/50%peat moss/30% compost. You could always top dress with compost so make a nice drainage mix. I have been growing cherry tomatoes in containers for years. Using those 5 gal. buckets you will need to keep feeding them. Also Use tomato cage or trellis. I have found that using even 50% perlite or more can grow plants faster but require more food and watering and if you add too much perlite ph ballance will need attention so stay with peat/perlite mix to add.

You're definitely having to water too frequently. From what you're saying you have to move them to some shade or you'll end up with a lot of blossom end rot (BER)...every time they wilt you decrease their ability to absorb calcium appropriately and the result of too much or too little calcium absorption is BER. Good drainage is important for gas exchange at the root zone, the down side is that in a container with a small volume of soil mix and good drainage you will have to provide more water but you sure don't have to be watering as frequently as you are...that means the sun is on your containers too much and is heating up the soil. You have to keep the soil cool and well drained in order to have a healthy root zone and thus healthy plants. Just to make sure you're clear on soil dynamics more holes at the bottom does not equate to better drainage, it will only allow more air to the root zone if you're perched water table isn't above the extra holes you've drilled. Find a way to support the plants and move them.... Tom

Will they survive if I transplant into individual larger containers? If they're currently in individual containers, it depends on how unwieldy they are and how much the support system you're using has meshed with them or made it difficult to move them cleanly. Tomato plants are relatively fragile... but they're also resilient and come back quickly from physical damage. In a good year, you could get warm temps in LI well into October, so if your plants are in an area that will get good sun into late summer and early fall, it might be worth the risk. Remember that a large beefsteak sized tomato needs about a month and a half to two months to go from flower to ripe fruit. Smaller tomatoes take less time. And any tomato that reaches the "mature green" stage can be picked and will still ripen indoors off the vine. Although the taste won't be as good as one left on the vine until it starts to color up. it'll still be better than supermarket tomatoes. Immature green tomatoes make good fried tomatoes, relish, and pickles. If we're talking multiple plants in single containers... that depends on how fond you are of them. If they're just extra plants that are doing very poorly right now, and the cost of containers and potting mix isn't a bother, you might as well try it and see what happens with the knowledge that you might not get much fruit, if you get any. But if you have multiple indeterminates in 5 gallon buckets, you're probably not going to get much fruit off of them anyway. And the bottle with holes idea sounds great- do you mean a plastic bottle, like a soda bottle? Yes, soda bottles, milk jugs, etc. work fine. Be conservative with the number of holes at first, since you can always add more, and use something fine like a needle or tack, not something like a drill. You might want to drop some gravel or something in them to keep them from blowing off the container when they are empty. Lots of info on the net about this.

"My question is, why are the leaves darker green in the bucket and lighter green in the VegTrug? I fertilize the plants with epsom salt in water (not every day) and also threw in broken up egg shells." The difference in the green color is due to the different levels of nitrogen in the soils. Neither epsom salts nor egg shells are fertilizers. Epsom salts supplies only a small amount of magnesium. Plants only need a very small amount anyway and it is normally available from the soil. In containers it is easy to create magnesium-toxic soil when it is used too much. Egg shells take 10-18 months to dissolve and even when they do they supply a very small amount of calcium only and in a form that plants can't use. Plants need actual fertilizer (either organic or synthetic)- nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, and several micro-nutrients to thrive and plants growing in containers need all those things on a regular basis. Strongly suggest you do some research into fertilizers and plant nutrient needs. Dave