I would love to know if you are successful at growing tomatoes in containers as I am doing the same thing. I did use Fish Emulsion as a fertilizer but they still have not put out much in the way of blooms. I know that others have great success growing them in containers and I would love to know their secret. 2008-07-16T20:31:02-05:00 false 4035 1168 2008-07-16T20:31:02-05:00 3233 I don't know if my advice is worth anything, since when I had a container garden i always lost my tomatoes to worms. For what it's worth, tomatoes are a resource-intensive crop. You can't plant them in pots and treat them like they're in the ground. You'll need to fertilize them along the way, rather than expect them to get all their nutrients from the soil in the pot. Tomatoes also need different nutrients than other plants; that's why there's a different box if you look at the chemical fertilizers. I found that with my soil and water, they always needed more acid than most of my other plants; I had to supplement worm castings with coffee grounds. Would it be too much effort to do a soil test and find out if there's something you should be supplementing your compost mulch with? Remember, they'd have _way_ more space to stretch their roots out if they were in the ground. If you're going to go with pots and don't trust yourself to remember to fertilize, you might just need to grow more small plants instead of fewer large plants. I read somewhere that you could root tomato cuttings pretty easily; you might just trim your plants back to encourage them to direct their energy towards fruit, then root the cuttings and start another round of plants to make up for the smaller of yield. 2008-07-16T20:45:44-05:00 false 4037 1168 2008-07-16T20:45:44-05:00 1237 I'll definitely try the coffee grounds thing (coffee grounds make up a high percentage of my compost anyway), and I think I'm going to go ahead and just do a late summer attempt at beans actually in the tomato pots. Can't hurt at this point. Because I've been laid up with a broken ankle all summer pruning the little buggers has been impossible; I usually keep the blossoms down to six sets and pinch back any leaves that are shading fruit. Haven't been able to do that this year (just can't reach in there since I can't balance on both feet). Will report back and let you know how it goes! 2008-07-18T08:42:01-05:00 false 4068 1168 2008-07-18T08:42:01-05:00 3568 Does anyone have a suggestion on organic fertilizer for my tomato plants in containers.....I'm trying to stay organic. I've been lucky so far just with potting soil and water as I'm getting my first tomatoes getting ready to turn ripe. I think I'll need to fertilize however to keep the yield going. I appreciate any advice! 2008-07-26T14:37:11-05:00 false 4252 1168 2008-07-26T14:37:11-05:00 3827 Yep! Fish Emulsion. It works great for me. I put 2 different tomato plants in containers on July 10th (I wasn't at all sure that container growing these was going to work) and 16 days later the growth is awesome! I have to believe it was because of the Fish Emulsion. I did end up using Miracle Grow for the "in ground" tomatoes, but only because they were in such bad shape that desperate measures were needed. 2008-07-26T23:14:57-05:00 false 4257 1168 2008-07-26T23:17:13-05:00 3233 I have tomatoes in containers. It's my first year with this experiment. I put 1/2 compost in the bottom and 1/2 topsoil in the top. I use Fish Emulsion for fertilizer. We've had an unusually cool/wet spring/summer here in Zone 5. My plants are finally showing flower sets. Oooo and 3 tiny pear shaped yellow toms. They do seem to be doing okay. I prune out the suckers and take off the bottom leaves if they turn yellow. Because they're containers I move them around to where the sun shines best. Remember, we've had more cloud than sun! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have tomatoes for all my effort. *I was wondering ... can I use water from my fish tank? 2009-07-06T16:53:14-05:00 false 11634 1168 2009-07-07T05:36:35-05:00 8054 Fish tank water probably has marine salts in it. Seems irresistible though doesn't it? We used our pond water last year before it occurred to me that it had the salts in it. Plants were okay, but I wouldn't recommend it without considerable diluting. Maybe try it on a houseplant you're not too attached to? 2009-07-07T06:33:56-05:00 false 11646 1168 2009-07-07T06:33:56-05:00 3568 I have fresh water fish (no marine salts), so I'm going to give it a try on my flower pots just in case :: wink :: 2009-07-24T05:43:09-05:00 false 12009 1168 2009-07-24T05:43:09-05:00 8054 I have five containers with tomato plants that I winter sowed. The WS plants were all heirloom varieties that I swapped seeds for and not anything I was relying on for sustenance. Those plants are in the ground. Growth has been a bit slow, but with so much rain it's the same for everything. But I do have buds and flowers on 4 of the 5, and one has several green fruits on it. I just added compost to the potting mix, but like nax, my compost has a lot of coffee grounds in it, so that may help. I've never grown tomatoes in containers before, but I don't think these are doing too badly. It may be time for another dressing of compost though and maybe I'll get some fish emulsion. Can't hurt! 2009-07-24T05:58:07-05:00 false 12011 1168 2009-07-24T05:59:01-05:00 4903 My biggest plant and so far best producer this year, based on the number of flowers and pups, is the brandywine in the container. 2009-07-24T07:34:20-05:00 false 12017 1168 2009-07-24T07:34:20-05:00 3568