HOW TO GROW TOMATOES IN POTS

Last year I was lucky to have three healthy tomato bushes that gave us abundant fruits all summer and lasted until early fall. We had so much tomatoes that we needed to give some away to our neighbors and friends. And those were planted in my container garden made of wooden pallet. This year I decided to grow tomatoes in pots and as I write these post they are all healthy and starting to have lots of blossoms. Here is a helpful tip on how to grow tomatoes in pots or even directly in your garden to have sturdy tomato plants.

I started growing tomatoes from seeds indoors in early April because it was still too cold outside. After about 4-5 weeks or when they had some true leaves, it was time to transplant them into separate pots. First thing to do is prepare the pots you will use, I am using 2 clay pots and 1 plastic pot. Since I am planting the same variety of tomatoes as last year, I know that that they will not grow tall but more sideways, so I do not need a really big pot. With the clay pots, I lined the insides with a bubble wrap to keep the moisture in the soil longer and prevent them from drying out.   

First, I filled about a quarter of each pots with soil and transferred the tomato seedlings into them then added some more soil until the first leaves are almost covered. You can see that the seedling is mostly inside and the top just barely reaching the rim of the pot. I kept them indoors until it was warm enough to bring them out.

After 2 weeks the tomatoes has grown a lot and at this point I added some more soil to the pots until it reached the first true leaves. I have taken them outside the week earlier and they seem to enjoy the sun. I needed to bring them in from time to time because of sudden frost. I went on adding soil to the pots at intervals as the tomatoes grew until I reach the top of the pot. 

This photo below was taken last weekend and as you can see there are lots of blossoms now and if you look at the trunk you can see that it grew strong and sturdy. The part of the stem that was covered with soil will grow roots giving the tomato plant a strong root system. 

 I will be updating this post with the progress of my tomatoes in pots...