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,â€? 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.