I don't know about those specific tomatoes, but I did grow an excellent variety of cherry tomatoes (non-determinate so quite large plant) in a five-gallon container some years ago and the crop was prolific. Variety was "Matt's Wild Cherry", fruit is smaller than other cherry types, but soooo tasty! I have difficulty finding this variety, sadly, so am not able to enjoy them this year. (full disclosure here -- I really, really hate other cherry tomatoes, no matter what they are)

I used to grow sweet-100s. A prolific and enormous plant. If you were to attempt growing it (1 plant) in a 5 gal you would need some exterior framework as support as I do not believe an ordinary tomato cage would do. I just did a search for Matt's, the seed appears to be available on Amazon, and also an Etsy seller.

Hopefully Kevin will post if he is currently growing tomatoes, sadly it has been years since I had a house and garden.

I have grown the sweet 100s in a 5 gallon bucket. It did need extra support as it got huge and of course, it needed to be watered A LOT in the dead of summer. Sometimes twice a day. But it did well and I got lots of yummy tomatoes. I have raised garden beds now. But i still grow cucumbers in a 5 gallon bucket.

Thanks. I seemed to have bought all indeterminate tomato plants this year so will have to divise some support structures. As it is my garden areas get less than full sun.

I will look for your recommendation, Matt’s Wild Cherry,” Roxanna. The name looks familiar, so I may want to retrace my plant shopping steps.

PS Johnnie’s in Maine sell the seed. https://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetables/tomatoes/heirloom-tomatoes/matts-wild-cherry-tomato-seed-732.html

aHa! Am*zon has a few sellers that offer the Matt's Wild Cherry seeds, altho more seeds that I would need. I am considering buying some anyway... Petalique, if you would want some of them, and let me know how to mail them to you, I'd be more than happy to send some. =)

I just ordered the Matts off Amazon. However, I googled them and a whole lot of companies came up. I did recognize most of them as good companies.

Thanks, roxanna. That is so generous of you. I have to limit my gardening because of chronic pain — I usually bite off more than I can chew ;)

Let me think about it, but, meanwhile, good news: this vender sell smaller amounts of seed. People speak highly of this site.

🍅 https://www.superseeds.com/products/matts-wild-cherry-tomato-55-days

Note that there are comments!

🍅 PS Okay! I want to try some. If you’d like, I can order now from Pinetree, them I will send you seeds IF I can do so legally — which I cannot do if you’re in one of those big agricultural states like California.

I can't find a picture of it growing but I've grown sweet 100s in the planter with the trellis. I had to add the trellis. They plant didn't over whelm me with it's produce but there's a large oak tree just to the left that I blame more than the size of the container.

You can grow sweet 100 in a 5 gallon. However, it will be topheavy because it's a big plant. You will need to give it serious support. And probably want to keep up with the grooming.

There's a Texas gardener here that does a lot of different tomatoes in pots every year. They have probably done sweet 100 a time or few. I do a container tomato every year on the corner of the kitchen porch for snacking on- I tend to use a 18-20 gallon and the porch post to lash the cage to. This year is a trio of Spoon :)

Thanks for the additional info Arcy, beesneeds and Sherry.

Arcy, what a nice patio and I am crazy about opossums!

I think I should try to grown those tomatoes in the ground w some solid support. I bought either a 4 pack or a six pack. Pehaps I can give some away.

I also bought about four (4) rather large Supersonic tomatoes that the grocery store was selling in quart pots for about $2.50 each. Good price. Unfortunately, it’s another indeterminate. Then I bought a Sun Gold (another tall one). What was I thinking??

I am going to need to buy a farm with sun, or at least a back hoe and construction company.

I think I need a brain scan because I ordered some of those Matt’s Wild Cherry tomato seeds (the literature said something like ”only 55 days” to maturity. Can that be true?

And it’s another tall indeterminate tomato that in my garden will be luck to get 6 hours of sun :( We are in a largely wooded area with ponds and streams and on a bit of a northern slope with tall red maples to the south — shading or dappling the sunlight for the first half of the day. Guess I am a dope-optimist haha.

I could try to put them in the front yard. I should re-home many of them.

Thanks for the offer Sherry. But now that I have 25 MWC tom seeds on the way, I also can offer seeds. Roxanna, see what you started! I love tomatoes and at the farm stands, a ripe tomato fetches about $1 apiece.

The best year was when I had more sunlight and more garden space and less aches. I had many delicious heirloom tomatoes. I just found a seed pack of Black Krim but it is from 2012! I wonder if any would germinate. Unlikely, right?

Days to maturity is how many days the transplant takes to mature to flowering and fruiting stage. There is still the 6-8 weeks prior to that for the germination and growing big enough to be transplanted out. If you started the seed now, you are looking at 3-4 months to harvesting tomatoes.

Anyone that wants some is welcome!

An fyi. If you are already on TKT you don't need a password to access other forums, such as Tomatoes. Go to the top of this page. Click on The Kitchen Table and then click on Topics. All the other forums are listed there. To avoid having to do this again click 'follow: got forums you're interested in. When you log on your favourites will be listed.

Petalique, perhaps you could go to a hardware store and order a horse panel to be delivered, installed with a tall enough rebar on each side to go down 2 or 3 feet and 6 feet tall above ground, and plant every 4 feet or so on both sides. Tractor Supply has a 5x16 foot for $109. Don't settle for a cheapie.

^^^Thanks, floraluk-2 and lucillle and beesneeds.

I’ll try to remember to do that.

Lucillle, I didn’t get that memo. I don’t know what a horse panel is (yet) so I will look that up. I love working with body and brains, but I am in a lot of back pain every day and it not only hurts, it makes me ”stupid” because it is so distracting. A lot of what used to be working brain capacity has to work full time to cope w pain.

I’ve also forgotten everything I used to know about tomatoes and dirt and gardening. Very rainy soggy spring this year. Raining again after three days of nice weather.

And, beesneeds, I appreciate your setting me straight on the sowing to maturity time.

Thanks for your help, everyone.

PS Can any of you recommend a good determinate tomato I might look for at nursery that still has plants for sale?

Petalique I am so sorry you have to deal with so much pain. I hope in the future you find relief.

A horse panel is a portable length of fence, usually metal, sold in panels. It is stronger than ordinary wire fencing. But it could also be used to support tomatoes, the varieties you chose will laugh at your ordinary tomato cages. And a single panel can be removed from the supports after the tomato season is over and put out of the way. BTW, I have recently renewed my interest in canning stuff. You might look into it since you might get a lot more tomatoes than you think.

I just learned about Super Sweet 100s this year. Plan to grow them in my garden next year. My tomato harvest is nearly peaking now.

https://tomatogrowers.com/products/super-sweet-100-vf-hybrid?_pos=1&_sid=fc80fe1e1&_ss=r

FWIW, I've never had good results with tomatoes in 5 gal. buckets, nor in an Earthbox. They got rootbound and stunted, but to be fair, I'm in FL where it gets super hot, humid and containers dry out super fast, and I grow indeterminates, not varieties bred for container growing.

I've grown Matt's and they were very tiny - maybe 1/2 inch, with lots of seeds. Good strong tomato flavor for sure, and the only thing that would grow long after all the others pooped out.

Pinetree is a longtime fave seed company. They specialize in small amounts for home gardeners, and smaller varieties suitable for smaller gardens and containers. They're in Maine. I trust them. Can't say the same for Amazon sellers - I got conned on some tomato seeds that were not what they were supposed to be. They did refund my money - it was only a few bucks - but it was only after I had grown out the seeds, and by then it was too late to start any more..

I personally never grew tomatoes in a pot, but assist my uncle every year with one plant in a 5 gallon pot with an average degree of success. The problem is getting enough of the 13 nutrients in the pot all season to be successful and not just Nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash. Missing just one is enough will ruin a plant.

Some here use a special blend of medium for containers, but my uncle and I just use Miracle gro potting soil, add the plant, fertilize and water. I'd advise getting an irrigation dipper setup to avoid watering issues and a common failure people encounter, and Carol you will benefit from the irrigation setup too.

I use Miracle gro water soluble all purpose plant food for my uncles tomato plant and some of my bigger seedlings, but it's missing Calcium, Magnesium and sulfur so I need to add them using gypsum and Epsom salt. If you really want to mix fertilizers the amount is a flat 1/2 tsp of each gypsum and Epsom salt with each application of the miracle gro. Without these missing nutrients a plant would be a nice dark green with a few deformed tomatoes before it died. I also need to add an extra 1/2 gram of potassium because there isn't enough in the miracle grow for tomatos. I haven't found a good "all in one" chemical fertilizer with all the nutrients I'd use on my tomatoes in the ground or pot and trust me if I did I'd buy it, so I mix my own. What and how much to use is a common discussion in tomato forums with 100's of recipes and a 1000 opinions to each.

Going organic in a pot is something I've never tried either, or did any research on so I know little about the organic fertilizers available with all 13 nutrients in them. I don't know how to get microorganisms into the pot to mineralize organic fertilizers and maybe someone else may know. I do use Jobe's organic tomato fertilizer with a biozome formula that breaks down the organic material to release the nutrients. An analysis of the feather meal, bone meal and poultry manure in Jobe's indicated it does have all the 13 nutrients for plants but I don't know the amounts. I also use it on my seedlings and does an excellent job but have nothing to compare it with. Using Jobe's outdoors would cost me $50-$60+ to do just my 36 tomato plants and 25 pepper plants, so I use chemicals.

To sum it up, pot, a potting soil, water, and find a fertilizer with all 13 nutrients in it will get you a thousand tomatoes. Just ask someone who actually gets good tomatoes from a pot and ask them what they use, but don't ask Carol.

Just a little comparison between ground planting and planting in pots vs chemical and organic jobe's. my brother, uncle and myself all grow the same tomato variety that produces golf ball size tomatoes we all love. I mix my own fertilizers from chemicals and grow in the ground with full sun, my uncle uses the miracle grow plus amendments growing in a pot with half day sun from the east, and my brother uses Jobe's growing in the ground with half day sun from the east. We try to count the tomatoes we pick. I get around 600 per plant, my uncle gets 300 - 400 (he loses count and nearly blind) but my brother gets nearly 1000 with jobe's. Last year 998 and he logs each picking on his Phone to get an accurate count. One thing I've concluded is ground growing with an organic fertilizer seems to be the best combination.

That's ^what I do, and prefer growing my tomatoes in the ground, since they're indeterminates and get pretty big. I mulch thickly with hay as well.

I'd think a variety bred for containers might be one way to go - Pinetree has some of those too.

P.S. Tomato Growers Supply Co. is a trusted source as well: tomatogrowers.com

Kevin I am trying to grow pickling cucumbers on my tiny apartment patio, in containers. Will the combination of Miracle Gro, epsom salts and gypsum do for them also?

PS Can any of you recommend a good determinate tomato I might look for at nursery that still has plants for sale?

Depends on what your local nursery carries. Patio is a fairly common one, Bonnie plants has it and some other companies do too, including Chef Jeff. Chef Jeff also carries Health Kick, Tidy Treats, and Carnival- all good, as well as a couple other dets I haven't tried. Some places carry the micro toms and occasionally cascading ones in hanging pots. Look on the tags for the indet/det ID, and the terms container or patio are usually good.

If you want to read up on some good dirt, and beyond the growing tomatoes forum. Check out the container growing and the soil/compost areas.

Lucllle, The miracle gro I mentioned isn't the best fertilizer for cucumbers, or even tomatoes, There simply isn't enough potassium in relationship to the nitrogen content to grow the best vegetables. I forgot to mention this in my last post that I also add extra potassium with the Miracle gro for tomatoes and edited it.

The miracle gro has 24% Nitrogen, 8% Phosphorous and 16% Potassium. This gives a ratio of 3 : 1 : 2 and a better ratio for cucumbers and tomatoes is between 2 : 1 : 3 and 2 : 1 ; 4. The Miracle gro is good for leafy vegetables and plants that flower producing only seed, but other vegetables and fruit with seeds embedded in a fleshy receptacle require equal parts of the two, or even more potassium than nitrogen. The Cucumber is one that requires more potassium.

Miracle gro will grow cucumbers OK, and you will get fruit, but the quality will be substandard, and after the first few cucumbers start bulking up green leaves will start to die around the edges. The plant is taking potassium out of the leaves to produce the fruit.

It's hard as hell to find a chemical fertilizer with all 13 nutrients targeted for vegetable growers with the ratios needed. I believe your better option would be using Jobe's organic or another similar product for quality fruit.

If you want to move on with the miracle gro the 1/2 teaspoon of Epsom and Gypsum applied every two weeks was weighed out for a 5 gallon pot. If you're using smaller pots between 2 and 3 gallons 1/4 tsp once a week should be applied. I know it's the same thing but the plant will need the same amount either way, it's just the concentration of 1/2 tsp in a small pot all at once could cause an antagonistic interaction of another nutrient with issues. If you have some potassium supplements laying around 1/2 of a 500 milligram tablet every two weeks will increase potassium levels without adding more nitrogen and damaging to the plant. Good luck.

You could try HyR BRIX. It is smelly, but has the micros in it. There is a tomato specific one, but the veggie one works well too. Might be a little harder to find than usual, the company got hit with a tornado in March and is rebuilding with hopes of resuming production in the fall.

I use mainly this - mixed into the soil @ the bottom of the planting hole when setting out, and as a side dressing later on.:

And this - rabbit feed - mainly alfalfa meal that breaks down quickly and enriches the soil. I use it in containers too.

I think I need a brain scan because I ordered some of those Matt’s Wild Cherry tomato seeds (the literature said something like ”only 55 days” to maturity. Can that be true?

And it’s another tall indeterminate tomato that in my garden will be luck to get 6 hours of sun

All cherry tomatoes ripen faster than the larger tomatoes. Another good thing, they'll still produce with less sun. Half of my garden is now shaded too much to grow any tomatoes except cherries. I had to move my beefsteaks to the opposite side.

Thanks so much, Kevin and others.

I will NOT attempt to grow rhese in pots. We will put them on the ”garden.”

We have several 8” green metal fence “posts” set into the soil, with about 4.5 to 5 ft above ground. I will plant them -deep- ( about 10 inches lower than the existing soil line and We will add ”compost” from our compost pile, maybe some composted manure as well.

We have some Epsoma Tomato Tone. unfortunately, they will get less sunlight than optimal.

We also have Epsoma Garden Tone and Plant Tone.

I will not get optimal results, but I am under a lot of handicaps. I’ll do my best. It is hot a d we have muggy summers here, and between that and my physical limitations, I will do my best.

Kevin, I am blown away and in awe of your gardening stamina and results.