If you have enough space, you can easily have a big garden to grow your tomatoes in.
However, not all of us are that fortunate with space, but would still love to eat fresh and home grown tomatoes.
Well, there is a good option for such people: containers.
Pots or containers give you the wonderful option to plant your tomato seedlings and place them in a corner of your house where they can receive enough sunlight.
However, choosing the right container type is one thing that should be carefully done if you want to get a good harvest.
Here are some tips and ideas that you can use to pick the right container type and successfully grow tomatoes in containers.
The size is probably the first thing you will need to consider before picking your container.
Tomatoes need adequate space so their root system can grow easily.
So, a small and shallow container will not work for this plant.
What you need is a five gallon pot that can provide enough space for the roots to grow.
So, now you know the ideal size for the containers and it is not necessary to stick to just traditional pots and containers that you would use for growing flowers and vegetables.
There are a variety of buckets, pails, and window boxes that you can choose from.
Plastic and fiberglass are considered to be the best for growing tomatoes.
This is because they do not dry out quickly and we all know that a dry soil is not good for healthy growth of the plant and for ripening of the fruits.
Also, since you need big size containers to grow your plants, they can prove to be quite inexpensive.
Plastic containers also do not crack easily and this is why a five gallon bucket could be a great option for growing tomatoes.
You can also look around the house and find something that can be successfully used to grow tomato plants.
These could include half wine barrels or wooden packing cases that you do not need any more.
What you should keep in mind while recycling old things lying around the house is they should be made of a non-toxic substance and they should provide adequate drainage at the bottom.
Mostly these recycled products will not have a drainage hole at the bottom and in such cases you will need to drill one at the bottom.
The hole should be big enough to drain out excess water, but it should not be so big that the soil keeps falling from container through the hole.
If you have pots and containers lying around the house that are not being used anymore and can be used for planting your tomato seedlings, you should scrub and clean them thoroughly.
This will ensure that no soil-borne diseases or pests are present in these pots.
You will then need to add fresh potting soil to the container for tomatoes.
When planting tomato plant in a container, you should put some soil at the bottom and then set tomato plant in, so the roots and the stem are buried.
You can then just fill in the potting soil around it till about one inch below the rim of the pot.
Water it thoroughly and set it in a location where it can receive some good natural light.
So, now that your tomato plant has been planted in a container, its time to enjoy the fruits of your labor!