How To Grow Tomatoes


How To Grow Tomatoes In Pots

If you love fresh grown tomatoes, but just don't have the space for a tomato garden you can grow tomatoes in pots out on your patio or balcony. You can even grow tomatoes indoors if you desire.

Choosing a variety of tomato to grow in pots

Unless you have a lot of room it is usually best to select on of the smaller varieties of tomato like the Patio Tomato which is especially designed for this purpose.

Some of your other choices for your container tomato garden are Roma, Tiny Tim, Cherry Tomatoes or any other variety that doesn't take too much room.

You can grow the larger indeterminate types like the popular Beefsteak, but they will require more room, and bigger pots.

Selecting the right pot to grow your tomatoes in

You can use anything from a wooden whiskey barrel that's been cut in half that's been cut in half to a store bought planter for your tomato pot as long as it's big enough to give your plants room to grow and has drainage holes in the bottom.

You can even use an old 5 gallon pail, but whatever you decide on try to make sure it's at least 12 inches across and 12 or more inches deep

Where to get the tomatoes for your container tomato garden

Once you made a decision on the type of tomato to grow it's time to decide rather to grow them from seed, or to buy seedlings from a local supplier.

Growing toamtoes from seed is less expensive and gives you the added satisfaction of doing it all yourself from seed to harvest, but does require more work.

If you decide to buy seedlings it is usually best to get them locally in order to ensure they are suited to your climate, unless of course you plan on growing tomatoes indoors.

Your tomatoes need soil, sunlight, water and nutrients

Growing tomatoes in pots has one real advantage over growing them in a garden which is being able to use the soil of your choice that you know has no soil born diseases.

Any potting soil mix you can buy will be just fine for tomatoes and in a lot of cases far better than what is in the average garden.

If you can't find a single spot to locate your tomatoes that gives them enough sunlight throughout the day, you can move them from place to place during the day to get them back under the light. Try that with a traditional garden.

If you can water from the bottom you can avoid overwatering. In any case allow your soil to become almost dry before watering again.

Most potting soil has some fertilizer in it, but after a few weeks you may need to add some. Remember over fertilizing can be more damaging than not giving them any at all.

Since you have better control over a number of factors such as the soil quality, sunlight, amount of water and nutrients, growing tomatoes in pots can actually be easier than growing them in a garden.

Learn all about growing tomatoes in pots



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