2018 ‘garden’

[ChickenMomma91]

The holidays are over and they started with a bang for us at Owl Nest Farm. Thanksgiving weekend we discovered that we’re expecting an owlet in midsummer.

This means major construction to our two bedroom house and no big garden this summer. One I won’t have the energy and two it’s right in the path the truck will take to deliver supplies and such. So I’m going to do a few things in containers and keep up the beds that I’ve overwintered (berry patches and the flowers). So who has suggestions for tomatoes that do well in containers? I know my peppers will do fine but tomatoes always seem to give me fits.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Congratulations. Great news.

I don't do container tomatoes so I can't help you with that, but what kind of tomatoes are you after?

 

[flowerbug]

i first read that literally... but figured it out eventually. congrats!

 

[thistlebloom]

Congratulations on your new little somebody! That's exciting, and as good a reason as any to scale back the garden for a bit.

It's been a few years since I have grown tomatoes in containers (20-ish gallon tree pots) but I did it many seasons and found that whatever I selected grew well. In other words, I didn't worry about whether they were specifically intended to be container tomatoes.

The past couple of years I've grown tomatoes in ornamental containers for a client, on their deck. Those are probably 15 gallon size containers, and what I found , was that about midsummer I need to add 3 or 4 inches of soil to the pots, and they need daily watering when it's hot, and no less than every other day on a "regular" summer day. Last summer I grew Cherokee Purple, and Sungold. Both did really well.

In fact, I was considering growing my own in containers this year again, since we have such a slow start to summer. The soil in the pots heats up faster than the ground and the tomatoes seem to produce better for me.

I do think the larger the container the better, so they have a lot of root room.

 

[Beekissed]

Congrats on the new baby!!! What a blessing in the house!

Thistle, I wonder if you topped off the containers with a mulch layer if they would still need watering quite so much? Or do you already do that? I was watching vids on BTE method in container planting and folks were saying they had to water way less with the chip layer in the pots.

 

[baymule]

Congrats on the baby! What wonderful news! We will be waiting on boy/girl and name.

For the tomatoes, a Patio tomato would be good, the vines stay short and don't try to take over the world. Or a good cherry tomato, Sweet 100 or Tommy Toe.

 

[Smart Red]

That's exciting news for you, but may I be the first to wish my utmost contratulations the new grandparents to be. Nothing like being a grandparent and getting a little one to spoil and send home to mom and dad.

Oh well, it's all perspective, I guess.

 

[dickiebird]

As already stated Cherokee Purple, Sweet 100 and Tommy Toe are all good choices.
I do 5 gal, buckets in my greenhouse and deck with those 3 doing great. I also do some Beefsteak varieties, with great success.

THANX RICH

 

[ChickenMomma91]

That's exciting news for you, but may I be the first to wish my utmost contratulations the new grandparents to be. Nothing like being a grandparent and getting a little one to spoil and send home to mom and dad.

Oh well, it's all perspective, I guess.

I told my mother shortly after finding out but due to previous complications none of us got excited til we had the sonogram. I surprised my mother with one that the technician made for her saying ‘hi grandma!’ Made me love the tech for that. My husband cried when we saw tiny little feet kicking around.

 

[ChickenMomma91]

My 14-yr old loves cherry tomatoes so I’ve been contemplating having him pick out a variety to grow and I love big slicers for sandwiches. I’ve grown something similar to the Cherokee purple that hotpepperqueen sent me years ago but I sadly ran out of the seed and haven’t had any success saving my own as of yet. It was called black seaman (DH giggles at that one every time) that and rutger seem to have been my favorites as far as planting in the ground.