I would suggest buying seeds for "compact" or "dwarf" tomatoes, as they do really well in 5 gallon containers. Don't forget to only use Potting Mix (not soil) in the pots aeration and good drainage.

For tomato plants that want to grow 7' tall it can be done, but the fruit yield will be less and it will be a struggle to keep them alive, often necessitating watering twice a day.

Linda

I have done it. But I prefer to put smaller plants in small containers. Bigger the plant , bigger the root mass. So what happens when there isn't enough room for the roots to expand ? They hit the dead end and stop getting bigger. This creates a "Bonsai" effect ( a tree in a dish ?). In Bonsai art they also prune the roots.Limiting root growth in a way is pruning it.

But it can be done with proper care. You have to keep providing nutrient in a continuous manner but at much diluted strength ( 1/4 to 1/2). and also keep the soil moist.

Sey

I've done it. Smaller tomatoes like cherry or grape work better than larger like slicer or beefsteak. I was able to harvest tomatoes a lot sooner than my in ground plants, because I could plant the pots way earlier than my LFD and simply move them into the garage at night until it was warm enough to leave them out. But it got to be a lot of work as the summer wore on and it got hot, and the plants got larger. Had to be pretty vigilant about fertilizing on a schedule, and by August I was watering them morning and evening. So depending on your climate, that might be a significant factor. It helps to keep direct sun off the container itself. Also make sure to figure out now how you are planning on supporting the plants, because trying to jerry-rig a trellis when the plants have just outgrown their cages was less than ideal.

Never tried dwarf plants, but I did notice that the container plants weren't as big as the in-ground ones of the same vareity.

People keep equating cherry tomato plants to "small plants". Many of the cherry tomato varieties are some of the biggest tomato plants there is. The variety name is what is important when talking about small containers like this, not the size of the fruit.

So called "compact" and the "dwarf" varieties can work fine in a 5 gallon bucket if necessary. They will do better in a bigger container and require less work. But just because a plant makes cherry tomatoes that doesn't mean it will work in 5 gallons as many of them - Sun Gold comes to mind - need 20 gallons simply because it is a huge plant.

Dave

Dave wrote: "People keep equating cherry tomato plants to "small plants". Many of the cherry tomato varieties are some of the biggest tomato plants there is."

^This.

The cherry tomatoes I've grown were unhappy and stingy in containers but got over 8 feet long and were super vigorous and productive in the ground. I wish people giving out garden advice on the radio, gardening websites, etc. would stop telling people that cherry tomatoes can be grown in containers. I keep hearing these so-called experts parroting the conventional wisdom that cherry tomatoes are practically weeds, which I guess makes people think they're puny. Most of the cherry tomatoes I'd want to grow are huge, rambling, unwieldy cordon (floppy vines that are hard to manage without a large cage or trellis) plants. If there's anything weedlike about them, it's in their tendency to want to take over. Even if you could put in the work to obsessively feed and water them enough that they'd be happy, they'd then be physically hard to manage because of the size/range they would then want to grow to be. A bush/tree-form plant, like many of the dwarf varieties or some of the smaller determinates, would do much better in containers, regardless of the fact that their fruit tends to be much larger than cherries.

Victory Seeds has a good selection of dwarf tomato varieties. I'm trying a few this year in containers. Maybe some of those would be good container tomatoes for you, TomatoZesty?

What I said was smaller tomatoes, i.e. cherry or grape, worked better than larger i.e. beefsteak. And that was my comparison: fruit size. I deliberately did not say anything about plant size or varieties, other than mentioning having a support system in place early on, which to me indicates that the plants could get significantly large. The OP only mentioned they were considering cherry types, so my response was tailored to that generalization and I listed a few observations I had gathered from my experience, which again was what the OP was asking for. Of course some varieties will work better than others, but again I was limiting my response to the very general question and the limits of my experiences.

If you want to go into more detail regarding growth potential of specific varieties, please do. That would be more helpful than getting passive-agressive in response to something I didn't even say in the first place.

My comment was not directed at just you. It is a commonly posted statement and very mis-leading. So there is nothing passive about my response. :)

The truth is that statements such as " Smaller tomatoes like cherry or grape work better than larger like slicer or beefsteak." simply isn't true. There are any number of slicer and even a few beefsteak dwarf/determinate varieties that would work in a 5 gallon bucket far better than most any cherry or grape plant will. So when you say it can be done it is important to indicate which variety you are talking about rather than just using terms like cherry.

Sure Tumbling Tom or Cherry Cascade or Patio or a few others could work in a 5 gallon bucket. But there are easily over 500+ "cherry" tomato varieties that that are normally 8+ feet tall and 5 feet wide and are not going to grow in a 5 gallon bucket.

You can grow a Giant Redwood in a 5 gallon bucket but only until it gets about a foot tall.

Dave

Dave wrote: "My comment was not directed at just you. It is a commonly posted statement and very mis-leading. So there is nothing passive about my response. :)"

As for me, I wasn't talking about anyone on a forum. I was talking about people you see/hear on TV or radio gardening shows and on websites that give out gardening advice from experts. I notice that such outlets, which pose as sources of authoritative information, constantly give out this wrong advice about cherries being good container plants because of smaller fruit size. Which I quickly found out is totally wrong. It's about plant size, not fruit size. Maybe a compact plant with larger fruit may require more water and feeding than an equally sized plant with smaller fruit (probably it depends more on total fruit mass, i.e. # of fruits x the size of the fruits), but both will be happier in a container than most of the cherry tomatoes, which tend to be huge, rambling plants and probably end up having pretty high fruit mass anyway because of the sheer numbers of fruits.

Edited to add: Maybe this misconception comes from the fact that an unhappy cherry plant will still produce some fruit, and because of the numbers, it looks like it's less unhappy than a plant that bears larger fruit? A larger-fruited large plant may just produce a handful of fruits if stuck in a too-small container, but a cherry tomato that is a large plant may produce a few dozen. Both, however, would be producing WAAAY below what they are supposed to produce.

I regularly container grow a few kinds of tomatoes every year. Usually something for the porch for snacking tomatoes, and a couple to a few 5 gallon container kinds just for general growing out and testing- I know a lot of people that want smaller sized tomato plants, I always throw some of this into my growing plans. Sometimes I grow inappropriate tomatoes in pots to stress test or overwinter tomatoes. So in my experience, yes, tomatoes can be grown in five gallon pots successfully. You must pay attention to what kind of tomato plant it is though. And treat that plant differently than you would an in ground or even a bigger potted tomato.

Indeterminates are pretty much right out. Even the smaller of them are still a bit overwhelming for that size pot. An exemption to this is if you WANT to bonsai a tomato. People want to do this sometimes for various reasons with a large plant instead of a small one. But that's probably a whole different thing than what the OP is looking for.

Don't think all determinate are OK - a lot of them get really rather large, from 4-6 feet- that's getting to be too big for a 5 gallon too. You want stuff that stays under 4 feet tall for better results out of a 5 gallon pot. A general "rule of thumb" for me is a gallon per foot- a 5 gallon pot should top out max at 5 feet, and this should include the pot.

Fruit sizes on plants- like Dave said, a lot of cherries are monsters. While a lot of the more common of the container suitable varieties grow around cherry-ish sized fruit, don't let that fool you into thinking anything that's a cherry stays small as a plant. Container suitable plants can also grow all the other sizes and shapes of tomato fruits- except huge beefsteaks. Small beefsteaks yes, but I've yet to see a good successful grow of large beefsteaks.

Now, what you are really looking for are some key terms- and these pertain to growth habit. Dwarf, stocky, miniature, container, patio, and tumbling or cascading are all good terms. Phrases like "compact growth habit" and "urban grower" are also good to look for. Urban grower is showing up more in cities and greenhouses are smart enough to carry more patio/balcony sized veggie plants than they used to. Short season tomatoes are often a wee bit on the smaller side for growth habit. So look for terms like Siberian, ice

A few favorite varieties around here.. Dwarf Wild Fred- this is an outstanding black plum, it's part of a whole line of Dwarf Project plants. Tasty, grows well, takes well to caging or staking.

Jaune Flamme- a nice three foot tall plant that produces loads of orange saladette to plum sized fruits that start early and chug right on through the growing season. It can be a bit sprawly, so caging is better than staking with this one IMO.

Totem is a classic red. Compact, responds well to caging or staking, it does not require much because it's a pretty stocky plant. Grows large cherry to salad sized fruit that is basic, balanced, and tasty. I have successfully grown this in a 1 gallon hanging pot, but it wasn't as good as a 5 gallon pot.

Tumbling Tom yellow and red are nice little hanging plant. Flavor is pretty good. Needs a lot of watering though. You really need at least a three gallon hanging pot, and better a 5 gallon to plant in with multiple plants like cascading hangers usually are.

How you grow your 5 gallon tomato is just as important as picking the right kind too. I actually use kitty litter buckets, because we have a lot of cats and those buckets and jugs are damn handy for all sorts of gardening chores. But the point is, you want a sturdy container and you will have to put drainage holes in the things. And you only want to grow tomatoes about 2/3 taller than the pot. So if your pot is 12" tall, you don't want to go much over a 2 foot tall plant, making for a 3 foot total. An 18" deep pot can help you bump up to a three foot tall plant. If you over-reach your tomato pot depth:plant height ratio, you might have make considerations for top-heaviness.
This is part of that gallon per foot thing I already mentioned. A 5 gallon pot that is ideally 18" deep with a 3-4' tall plant is in that 5 foot tall range of plant, including pot.

They still need support, and those crap-o-la tomato cages that are normally pointless in the garden are actually perfect for this. They set nicely into that size container. Otherwise I would suggest sinking one or two 2x2 poles into your bucket for if you want to stake your tomato instead of cage it.

As companion plants if you choose to have any in your 5 gallon pot... I would recommend cut and come again lettuce or spinach as a mulch plant. Basil or parsley as more ariel and insect byplay plants. Basil is a bit nicer because it can also be a trap plant for aphids and is easier to pull out and replant entirely if needed. If you like peppery greens, nasturtiums are tasty, all edible, look absolutely lovely trailing out of 5 gallon containers, and are aphid traps too. I don't really recommend any companion planting in a 5 gallon pot because you want the best of everything to go to your tomato. But I understand that often one likes or needs to share space in a garden. I often plant in the patio pots with companions, but usually flat mulch all other 5 gallon pots.
If you don't companion plant, I strongly suggest using a mulch, 1-2" deep- and this filling in the bottom of the top rim of the pot. Leave yourself generous watering space too. I generally use scrap straw in the spring, and grass clippings through the summer with dressings of coffee grounds to add a smidge of brown matter to the grass clippings.

Thanks guys.

I will be growing mostly Sun Gold cherries. My plan is to use the largest containers possible for them and I'll also put a couple in 5 gallon containers.

Even if I get half the tomatoes from the 5 gallon plants it's better than nothing! I'm not expecting much though.

Another problem other than small container size for plants like Sun Gold is the challenge to support it, such that it is wind proof and won't tip over. That is why I do compact determinate in container with low center of gravity. Better yet, get some dwarfs. I will be growing 3 of them in pots this year.

Sey

What, precisely, do you mean by '5gal bucket'? I have noticed considerable confusion over on the rose forum for example, when 5litre pots are referred to as 5 gallon. My understanding of a 5gallon pot would hold more like 15 litres and measure at least 12inches (apols for slipping between metris and imperial) diameter and 15inches deep - certainly not the size of those rose pots sold by Austin, Kordes and the like. Not siggesting any such confusion reigns over here - just, as I am used to using metric myself, looking for clarification.

I hate all the confusion too. Presumably, those buckets that you can buy at the big Hardware stores (emblazoned with their name) are 5 gallon as these are the ones that the "Dwarf Project" people use. I try to find the biggest black nursery pot that I can, and they seem to work for me (as long as the plant is a "dwarf").

Oh sorry. Now I see that you are in the UK. The US gallon is smaller than the old imperial one - just to confuse everyone {LOL}. I still haven't learned to think in metric....

Linda

Five Gallon bucket or pail is just that . It has standard 5 gallon liquid volume. Convert it to liters it would be about 19 liters.

Ah OK - I was also confused about US gallons vs Imperial gallons. In the UK, 5 gallons would actually convert to about 22 litres...or 1 litre = 1.75 pints. Cheers, Sey.

I would certainly be OK growing a tomato in a 5gallon pot - I only grow 2 or 3 in pots (rest are outside in the ground) but have used even smaller pots and got through a summer (with daily watering).

It's further confused by the difference between liquid US gallons and dry US gallons. A 5 gallon liquid container only holds 4.3 gallons of dry mix when filled.

Dave

I am also using re-usable shopping bags, with about 7 gallon capacity for dwarfs.

The store are selling them cheap so they can save on using disposable grocery bags that otherwise they have to use, at no charge.

Sey

I've grown Supersweet 100 cherries in a 6-quart black #600 container without problems but I use drip fertigation.

I grow almost all my paste types and most of my oxhearts in 4 and 5 gallon containers on a blacktop driveway with drip.