Growing Tomatoes in Containers
Nothing beats the taste of a juicy, ripe tomato pulled right from your own garden.. A little bit of salt and a big bite…Yum! Who cares if the juice runs down your chin! I’ll bet you’re thinking about planting garden tomatoes now! But what does a gardener do if he has less than perfect soil? Should he give up on the wonderful tomato, which the Aztecs called “fruit of the gods?” Not by a long shot. Tomatoes can be grown in containers, and they will do just fine with just a small amount of loving care.
Some tomato varieties have been developed specially to grow in containers. If you like cherry tomatoes, why not try Gurney’s “Baby Girls,” which ripen in large trusses of bite sized real tomato flavor. Or maybe Thompson and Morgan’s “Tomato Gartenperle,” which cascade from hanging baskets in a bountiful crop of delicious rosy, cherry sized fruits. These yummie types will flourish in 8 inch pots on a sunny patio.
Don’t stop with cherry tomatoes. If you have more room or a large sunny deck, larger pots from 1 gallon to 3 gallons will grow incredible beefsteak sized fruit, such as Gurney’s “Big Beef,” with true old time flavor, and “Burgermaster,” a flavorful 9oz. beauty that will have you yearning for more. Both are high in yield, size, and flavor, plus they have disease resistance, a blessing in the disease prone south of zone 7 through 10.
