How to Grow TOMATOES in a CONTAINER or Pot

in this video I'm going to show you how to grow any type of tomato in a container successfully [Music] hey I'm Brian with Next Level gardening if you're looking to join an online Garden community that offers tips tricks and support you're in the right place get started now by clicking subscribe and hit the Bell so you never miss anything now let's Get Growing whether you have a patio a balcony maybe even an in-ground Garden raised bed gardens or an acre you still might want some more room don't we all want more room and it's easy to tuck containers here and there but if you've ever tried growing tomatoes in containers you might have had some problems now I did a video a couple of days ago on growing vegetables and containers growing any vegetable in a container if you didn't see that I'll link it down below but there are a few things that keep tomatoes in kind of a separate League of Their Own there's a few things we need to know to grow tomatoes in containers successfully in the first segment here it's going to apply to all types of tomatoes indeterminate determinate and cherry tomatoes in the second segment I'm going to show you how to support each of those types in a container it's not quite as easy as in the ground so following all these things you're going to be able to harvest some really sweet juicy Tomatoes homegrown of course because are there really any other kind comment down below if you don't think store-bought Tomatoes should even be able to carry the name tomato for the most part tomatoes in containers need the same thing that tomatoes in the ground need right except they can't just put their Roots out a little further to find what they're looking for they are in a container they are confined and you have to supply all of that so they need the same amount of water the same amount of nutrients but in a container they dry out quicker than in the ground the the fertilizer leeches out the bottom a lot faster than it leeches out of your soil in a raised bed or in-ground garden now in the video I did a couple days ago we talked about the optimum container size for a lot of different vegetables and for tomatoes I said five gallons minimum I stand by that it's only two days later but that is minimum and that is for a determinate tomato a small type of tomato that isn't going to go crazy because really the size of the container um is all about the size of the plant because the size of the plant if it's a large Plant it's going to have a large root system and you need to accommodate that with a larger container so I am going to be using a 20 gallon fabric pot from Grassroots who I recently yes two days ago partnered with and I kind of let you know how that went how that came to be I've been using their fabric pots for two a little over two years now and when I use fabric pots in the past more than two and a half years ago I almost swore them off because I live in a dry climate and if you live in a dry climate and have tried fabric pots they leave a lot to be desired because they dry out very quickly the sides are open to the air on all sides and so the sun just natural evaporation you have I was in the summer I was watering them two to three times a day and they were still getting dry Pockets a lot of the fabric pots out there are black which draws in heat don't know why they make them black but anyway Grassroots has come up with a great solution to that problem and I like I said I've been trying them now for two and a half years they have a waterproof first of all they're not black they're this really beautiful beigey tan color that weathers very well if you can see these back here I've got two dahlias in them and these pots are two and a half years old these were some of the first ones that I had and I think they look great but they're really easy to wash you can actually put them in your washing machine if you want to this is a waterproof liner now that keeps the water from evaporating and from draining out all sides of the pot now if you know anything about fabric pots one of the main reasons to grow in them is because they air prune when the roots hit the side of the fabric pot they detect air on the outside and so they immediately stop growth of that root at that end and put the hormone back into the root where it sends out side Roots now that is going to keep the plant from becoming pot bound if you pull out a plant out of its pot you see the roots wrapping around and around mostly near the bottom that is what's called being pot bound or root bound and that is bad for the plant that actually strangles the plant they use up all the soil down there it's just all Roots so they dry out very quickly being against the edge of the pot which is where those roots mainly congregate the sun is hitting that pot heating up the roots it's not a good situation so we've got the waterproof liner however there is a three inch ring at the bottom where usually the roots coil that is left strictly fabric so the pots do everything they need to do they don't drain or evaporate too quickly but they still air prune where it's needed so if you live in a dry climate they have this type if you live in a wet climate humid hot summers with maybe some rain they have the same beautiful and well made bags I got to tell you every seam is like triple Stitch it is so strong these are going to last for years so if you live in a wet climate they also have the traditional type of fabric pots that doesn't have that liner so this is going to be great for tomatoes because when you grow a tomato in a container you don't want it to dry out especially wet dry wet dry that causes a few problems number one it causes your tomatoes to crack if you've ever had tomatoes or seen tomatoes that have this cracking on them that is from inconsistent watering when a tomato dries out the Tomato kind of shrinks up a little bit not like a sun-dried tomato but it shrinks and then when you water it it sucks up all the water it can and just like a human who grows too fast and gets stretch marks Tomatoes get cracked crack cracks the skin can't hold all of that water and that expansion and they crack you can still eat the tomato just cut those cracks away because mold and dirt and stuff gets in there now inadequate watering or uneven watering can also cause things like Blossom and rot Blossom and rot is so frustrating if you've grown tomatoes and you're excited to see them start ripening and all of a sudden at the bottom they get this brownish black mushy spot that is blossom end rot and that is caused by not enough calcium getting into the Tomato into the plant now a lot of people think okay we got to add calcium to the soil in the ground that's not necessarily the case there's usually plenty of calcium in the soil it's just not getting up to your plant because it's not being watered properly and the plant needs water to pull those nutrients into itself so I'm going to show you what we do to keep all those things from happening in a pot now I'm going to be using a 20 gallon fabric pot that's plenty big and I'm going to be filling it with half potting soil organic potting soil and half mushroom compost you can use all potting soil you can use mushroom compost you can use homemade compost for sure if you're using Straight compost you want to mix perlite or something into it to give it better drainage what you don't want to use is garden soil garden soil is too heavy it will compact The Roots it's going to starve the roots of oxygen you don't want to use that in a pot but we're not going to fill this pot up all the way we're going to fill it up a third of the way with whatever Medium you're going to be using if you've seen my tomato seed starting videos you know I do it the same way in a Red Solo Cup I fill it a third of the way and put the seed in and then I let the plant start to grow as the plant grows I fill more soil into the cup because the great thing about tomatoes is they're one of the only plants that do this at least crop type plants they grow roots all along their stem wherever their stem touches the soil they put down Roots so as it grows up through this pot and you're putting more soil in it's now adding more Roots so this entire cup is filled with roots let's take a look at it got a great root system all the way through so once we have the soil in here a third of the way then we're going to put in some nutrients just as an insurance policy the first thing we're going to put in is a source of calcium now I use gypsum it's actually very uh inexpensive to use and it gives the soil the calcium that it needs now in the ground I don't do this because I know in the ground there's plenty of calcium unless you have a very rare type of soil but that's unlikely but in a pot I just like to put that in there just for some insurance Tomatoes also require magnesium for good fruiting now in the soil most likely you've got plenty of magnesium in your garden soil but in a pot we don't know so just as an insurance policy we're going to add some Epsom salts this is the only time that you will see me using Epsom salts in the garden I know that Epsom salts are the be-all miracle cure for just about everything if you look on Pinterest and some other websites but I'm telling you Epsom salts can cause more harm than good I will put I did a whole video on this I'll put a link down below so I'm going to put in both of these gypsum and the Epsom salts about a half of a cup to a huge pot like this if it's a smaller pot just a handful of each now I also want to get the tomatoes started off with some NPK some nitrogen some phosphorus and potassium and so I use of course you can use any organic fertilizer I use Neptune's Harvest crab and lobster and kelp meal now I've mixed it all in one here it comes in two different things I mix it in one just so I don't have to Lug buckets everywhere but I'm going to put two handfuls in of this so one handful of crab and lobster one handful of kelp meal the crab and lobster is great because it's literally ground up crab shells um and so it's they're in different sizes there's tiny little particles and then there's actually chunks that you can you know see a piece of shell and that makes it all break down at different at different speeds so this is a immediate release and a slow release and now it's time to plant Our tomato and we're going to plant it uh dig a hole in the third uh full potting soil and we're going to put it in here just about to the level that it was growing at and we're going to just let it sit for a week or so even a few days is fine just to kind of start to get established in here and then in a week or so I'm going to start filling in more compost more potting soil around this tomato and and keep filling it in as it grows now you can pull off the leaves that will be under the soil but you don't have to do that always leave always leave about oh that many let me pull this off always leave about that many leaves above the soil you you still need it to photosynthesize even as it's building its root system so you can keep filling that up over the coming weeks as it grows until it's about two inches below the top of the pot and then you can stop that leaves room for water and fertilizer and things like that keep it well watered like we said tomatoes need consistent water the soil really does need to stay consistently moist not super wet and don't over water it use your finger put your finger in the soil every few days about two inches deep if you feel moisture don't water it if you don't water it looks can be deceiving just because the top of the soil looks dry usually that's not the case underneath make sure your container is in full sun that means it receives at least six hours of direct sunlight every single day in the summer if you have a really hot hot summer Tomatoes once the temperatures get into the upper 80s and and above um they start to drop their blossoms which means no fruit for however long it takes that heat to be done with so you can help with that by throwing over some 35 shade cloth just throw it over your plants in the middle of the day just to protect them from some of that heat now in terms of fertilizing throughout the season you can use an organic liquid fertilizer I use Neptune's Harvest tomato and veg formula and you can use it full strength as the bottle says every other week or you can use it half strength every week the reason I do it half strength every week is just in case the watering between the two leeches it out of the soil I replenish it all right I'm going to walk you through as if this were three different types of tomatoes because each type of tomato indeterminate determinant and Cherry are all going to be supported differently so let's start with a determinant plan that's a plant that grows about four feet tall like Aroma produces all of its fruit and it's done for that you can use a tomato cage from the garden center make sure you get a strong one though because a lot of them fall apart before you even get them home so what we're going to do is we're just we're going to put it upside down though we're not going to stick the points into the pot we're going to put the circle in the pot and then kind of twist it Nestle it down in there a little bit then I'm going to take a zip tie and lash the tops together pull it really tight that is going to be enough support for your determinate tomato plant you can then tie it to the different rings on here just to support it further or just let the to train the branches to kind of grow out the sides that's all it needs now if this is a cherry tomato we're going to start the same way and we're going to put this right over this one the four ends go down through that ring and then we're going to use zip ties to lash this together about three all the way around [Applause] all right now you've got a strong support if you get a lot of wind typically as the plant grows it's going to hang on to it but you might put a stake down the middle and just kind of hook this to that if you get a lot of wind otherwise it's going to be pretty good now what if it is an indeterminate indeterminates grow and grow and grow until the cold weather comes to kill them so depending on your weather you could get a really long season now as you know if you've seen any of my tomato videos I single stem my indeterminate tomatoes I grow them up a string that just means that we take out all of the side branches so when the stem is growing up you'll have a leaf coming out this way and then there'll be a little growth right there in that little armpit or that bend I take out all of those all the way up the stem all season long because those take a lot of the plant's energy and don't produce very many if any tomatoes so here's the way to do that you're gonna get four Stakes now these can be tree branches these are eucalyptus I used to use bamboo steaks or you can use uh any kind of wood from the hardware store some Thin furring strips and we're going to use four now this is easier to do when the pot is completely full of soil as you know right now it's only a third full so you can wait until it's full but right now just for show we're going to put these four in [Applause] so for this zip ties don't work they don't hold it steady they allow it to move around a lot so I'm going to be using some wire I don't know what gauge this is what is it this is 16 gauge wire I'm just going to cut off a little bit all right up near the top of the shortest one tie it together twist it tight and then we're going to run this in and out of some of the branches just to make it even stronger just kind of sewing it together now if you live in um a climate where you can grow tomatoes all the way into let's say September that means you have a long tomato season and so you can use one of these hooks the hook method these are available on my website next levelgardening.tv and this allows you to lower the Tomato as it grows because as you know an indeterminate will grow and grow and grow you could get 16 to 20 foot long Vines but if you had a 16 to 20 foot high trellis you're not gonna be able to reach the top so what we're going to do is we're going to take some string from this hook and we're going to tie it to a landscape staple or a piece of wire just folded in half and we are going to stick it in the soil right around the tomato Loop it around a couple of times and then we're going to take this right up to that wire and hang it on now as the Tomato grows you're going to wrap the Tomato Vine around this string that's going to be its support once the Tomato Vine reaches the top you take the hook off you unwind it one time and you hang it back up that will lower the Tomato Vine down so the vine is getting longer but it's not getting taller at the bottom you can wind it around itself just like a hose when you wind a hose up on the ground same thing all season long when it hits the top unwind the string one time hang it back up when it hits the top unwind the string one time hang it back up now indeterminants are the only ones you prune we do not prune cherry tomatoes and we do not prune determinate Tomatoes unless it's just for shape if they're getting a little bit outside of where they need to be you can prune them for shape now I mentioned earlier that there is a giveaway going on right now it started two days ago on the other video that I did Grassroots is providing us with several different fabric containers to give away there's three ways to win and you have until May 7th to enter number one be subscribe to this Channel Next Level gardening comment on this video down below comment what you'll use these pots for these these fabric pots the second way to win is to go back to the video from two days ago I linked it down below watch it if you haven't and comment on that video same thing the third way to win is over on Instagram Next Level gardening on Instagram uh two days ago I put a post that's the thumbnail for the video for two days ago if you comment on that video and follow me on Instagram that's the third way to win so I'll be choosing a winner after the seventh and on the 8th or the 9th I will do another video announcing the winners of the the giveaway now I will not contact the winner in the comments I will not do that I will announce it on the video if you get a comment saying you won that's a scam especially if it's a WhatsApp number even if it has my logo that's a scam all right good luck to everyone both in the giveaway and in your tomato season if you're growing in containers if you learn something give the video a thumbs up please consider subscribing if you haven't um and then pass it along to a friend share this video with a friend on social media I'd appreciate it hopefully the friend will as well I'll see you guys next time

Channel: Next Level Gardening

Views: 366,738

Keywords: how to grow tomatoes, tomato growing tips, grow tomatoes not foliage, grow tomatoes not leaves, growing tomatoes, organic, fertilizer for tomatoes, tomato plant growing, gardening, how to grow tomato plants, how to prune tomatoes, tomato growing secrets, growing tomatoes in containers, planting tomatoes, tomato tips, grow tomatoes in buckets, organic gardening, how to grow tomatoes at home, container gardening, vegetable gardening, migardener, organic food, james prigioni

Id: GOiF5JI-enA

Length: 21min 49sec (1309 seconds)

Published: Sun May 01 2022