Help on growing tomatoes in a container.

[tydyed]

I guess I will try tomatoes one more time. You would think anyone could grow them, but I get few flowers and no tomatoes. I basically grow a bush. I grow them in a container.

 

[Chuck]

I guess I will try tomatoes one more time. You would think anyone could grow them, but I get few flowers and no tomatoes. I basically grow a bush. I grow them in a container.

Nighttime LOW temperatures are the key. They will only set fruit between 63+/-F and 75+/-F and only then if the flowers are in the fruit setting stage. Cherry tomatoes are different and will set fruit at higher temps. Fruit set at 63F and 75F is possible but not probable. The best temps are about 69F. This is true whether in containers or not. A 5 gallon container is the absolute minimum. I believe pre-fertilization is also very important. Once a tomato plant starts growing you do not want anything to slow the growth rate and pre-fertilization will give the soil microbes time to multiply and make nutrients available for uptake. Besides pre-fertilization I also fertilize at planting, again when about all of the fruit that can set has set and again at the white stage of the fruit. Some folks also fertilize at the ripening stage but I have not found that to be effective. Soil moisture must be maintained throughout the season. If it gets too dry and you water enough to get the entire container of soil moist you will probably cause the fruit to crack and if a big rain comes it is about guaranteed to crack.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I basically grow a bush. I grow them in a container.

I grow them in containers, buckets. I give them a 4ft cane and take off all the side shoots that grow in the leaf nodes, tying the plant to the cane for support. When flowers appear I start feeding. When there are three or four lots of flowers I pinch the tip out to make them concentrate on fruit production.
The climate in the UK is not great for tomatoes, and I grow more in the greenhouse than outside, but both work.
Hope there is something there that helps.

 

[tydyed]

Nighttime LOW temperatures are the key. They will only set fruit between 63+/-F and 75+/-F and only then if the flowers are in the fruit setting stage. Cherry tomatoes are different and will set fruit at higher temps. Fruit set at 63F and 75F is possible but not probable. The best temps are about 69F. This is true whether in containers or not. A 5 gallon container is the absolute minimum. I believe pre-fertilization is also very important. Once a tomato plant starts growing you do not want anything to slow the growth rate and pre-fertilization will give the soil microbes time to multiply and make nutrients available for uptake. Besides pre-fertilization I also fertilize at planting, again when about all of the fruit that can set has set and again at the white stage of the fruit. Some folks also fertilize at the ripening stage but I have not found that to be effective. Soil moisture must be maintained throughout the season. If it gets too dry and you water enough to get the entire container of soil moist you will probably cause the fruit to crack and if a big rain comes it is about guaranteed to crack.

Thank you for your advice.

 

[tydyed]

I grow them in containers, buckets. I give them a 4ft cane and take off all the side shoots that grow in the leaf nodes, tying the plant to the cane for support. When flowers appear I start feeding. When there are three or four lots of flowers I pinch the tip out to make them concentrate on fruit production.
The climate in the UK is not great for tomatoes, and I grow more in the greenhouse than outside, but both work.
Hope there is something there that helps.

Thank you. I don't seem to have many bees and that could be the problem. This time I'm going to fertilize more.