Topping a Tomato Plant — What is It?

Quite literally it’s taking off the growing point…which usually happens to be at the top of the plant.  Depending on how you prune it (or not), your tomato plant can have more than one growing point.   If you have pruned your plant to just one stem, you only have to take off one growing point.

However, if your tomato plant has more than one stem, you will have more than one growth point.  You can choose to top just the tallest, top them all, or anything in between.

Important:  You only want to top an indeterminate tomato plant; do not top a determinate — you will sacrifice a lot of your tomatoes if you do it.

Check this post where I talk about the difference between indeterminate and determinate tomatoes.

Why Top a Tomato Plant?

OK, so why would you want to top your plant?  There are a few reasons to do it.

Stop the upward growth.  Sometimes you have a plant that just keep growing taller and taller, to the point of being unmanageable.  If you top the plant, it won’t grow any taller (although it might grow wider).

Ripen existing tomatoes faster.  If  the tomato isn’t focusing on growing taller, it can direct that energy towards ripening existing fruit.  This can be especially useful towards the end of the growing season, when the threat of frost is getting near and your fruit isn’t close enough to ripe yet.

Rejuvenate a stressed tomato plant.  I discovered that topping a tomato plant can help to rejuvenate a plant that got too stressed and looks sad.  Now I’m not talking about a diseased plant, but one that has been environmentally stressed (too much or too little sun/water/fertilizer/heat).  The tomato plant won’t grow upwards from where you topped it, but it can develop suckers lower down that are healthier.  That is, assuming you’ve addressed what was stressing your plant.

Encourage larger tomatoes.  This one is kind of controversial; some people say it doesn’t help but others swear by it.  The idea behind it is if you top the plant, it’s going to direct its energy towards the fruit.  If it’s around the middle of your season, the existing tomatoes (and any that are still forming from flowers) have the chance to grow larger than they normally would grow.

A Topping Surprise

I also had something interesting happen to a stressed plant.  It had a truss with two tomatoes and what looked like some aborted flowers.  The plant was looking so scrawny that I wanted to give it a chance to ripen the two tomatoes it had.  Now mind you, the two fruits it had on the truss had been growing (slowly) for a couple of weeks, and it was just the two ‘maters.  It was still pretty early in the season so I figured I had nothing to lose.

I topped the plant and waited to see what would happen.  I also took off most of the stressed branches except for two or three (for future comparison).

Within a few days, there were new suckers forming lower down on the plant which looked healthier.  The following week brought me a huge surprise.

The truss with just the two tomatoes (and what looked like aborted blossoms) had new tomatoes forming!  Where once there were two, there were now five!  I totally had not expected that to happen.

How to Top a Tomato Plant – Video

In this video I’ll show you how to top your tomato plant.  I’ll also show you a “before” and “after” of my topped tomato plant which gave me some surprise tomatoes.  I hope you enjoy it!  You can also check out my YouTube channel for more garden videos.

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Growing Tomatoes in Containers

Growing tomatoes in containers is what I have to do in my garden.  I explain why in my first tomato garden tour done at the end of May.  I find that it’s working pretty well for me.  The shade is my biggest enemy when it comes to my gardening.  That’s why I have three gardening spots in my yard — no one place is big enough.

Growing Tomatoes in Tennessee

I have to say, it’s much different from S Florida.  Instead of two short seasons, I have one long season (mid/late April to mid/late October).

Here in Tennessee it’s frost which defines my seasons; in S Florida, it was the heat and humidity (not to mention hurricanes).  It’s my first summer garden here in East Tennessee, and I keep getting told that it does get really hot and humid.  However, late last August when we moved here, we had record heat and humidity.

What they call heat and humidity here was nothing more than late Spring weather in S Florida.

Growing tomatoes (peppers and other assorted veggies) is different here.  You’ll see from the difference between my first tomato tour and this one, how much it’s grown.  In just two weeks!

The biggest problem I have here is the shade in my yard.  The trees I so loved in the fall are the bane of my gardening existence now.  Which is kind of ironic since in S Florida I had to use a shade cloth.

Tomato Garden Tour Video

I made this tomato garden tour video on June 14th, 2020.  The previous tour was on May 30th.  I can’t wait to film my next one, somewhere around the end of June — I’m sure I’ll have many more tomatoes to show you.

Just wait until you see Vorlon — that plant is outgrowing stake after stake.  I’m beginning to wonder what else I can do for this plant.  And it’s growing in a…7 gallon container I think — or maybe 10 gallon.  Either way, I never thought it would get this big in a not-so-big container.

All this being said, here’s my tomato tour video for June 2020.  Hope you enjoy it, and keep a lookout for my next tour!  (And if you want to see more garden tours in general, check out my YouTube channel.)

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A few things, though.  I started all my tomato plants from seed, and I grow all of them in containers of various sizes — all the way from 1 gallon to 10 gallons.  I almost broke down and bought a SunGold tomato start from Home Depot, but didn’t since I already had a few too many seedlings at home, waiting for a container. 

Growing Tomatoes in Containers

There are two main reasons I have for growing tomatoes in containers.  First, the soil in my yard is rocky and hard clay, and I literally have to use a pick axe to dig a hole.  (I have planted a few things in the ground, but they have all been flowers or herbs, and a good portion of them perennials.)

My second reason for growing tomatoes in containers is that I have a shade problem.  There isn’t any spot in my yard that gets 6 hours of direct sun a day, except for maybe a small slice in the front.  Six hours of direct sun is the minimum needed for fruit-bearing veggies, but growing tomatoes in containers allows me to move plants around to maximize the sun I do get.

(I’ll do a video and post on semi-shade gardening in the future and will link to that when I have it up.)

In any case, I have three different garden areas in my yard — front, side and back — to let me grow as many tomato plants as I can, based on the amount of sun I get in the spaces.

Tomato Garden Tour Video

As I mentioned before, this tomato garden tour video is the first of my tomato-growing season in Tennessee zone 7A.  This is my first year for growing tomatoes in Tennessee as opposed to Florida it’s waaaaay different!  It’s not only the soil (sandy in Florida), but the heat and humidity (less of both).  Plus, since I had to start my garden in February in S. Florida I was pretty much finished by June.  Here in Tennessee…June is just barely the start of the growing season!

I filmed the tomato garden tour on May 30th, 2020.  Here’s the video, and I hope you like it!  I’ll likely have even more tomatoes in the next tour, as I still have seedlings that need to be planted out — so stay tuned!

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Tomato Varieties in the Garden

I’ve started tomato seeds from a lot of different varieties, but not all have sprouted and thrived.  Some were definitely due to user error (mine), some seemed to be issues with the seeds themselves.  For example, I planted six seeds of Red Robin, but only 1 sprouted — go figure.  But, here’ a list of what I have in the garden, or are within a couple of weeks from going into their final place in the garden.

• Vorlon (which I have nicknamed “Kosh”)
• Blue Beauty
• Girl Girl’s Weird Thing
• Alice’s Dream
• Jochalos
• Red Robin
• Earl’s Faux
• Stormin’ Norman
• Tennessee Yellow Cherry
• Dwarf Arctic Rose
• Dwarf Wild Fred
• Sleeping Lady
• Red Brandywine, Potato Leaf
• Aussie
• Unlabeled dwarf (might be BrandyFred, but not sure yet)
• Cherry Princess Sweet Surprise

Left to Right – Blue Beauty, Girl Girl’s Weird Thing and Vorlon

Who’s Doing What?

The first four to go outside were Red Robin (miniature early determinate), Vorlon, Blue Beauty and Girl Girl’s Weird Thing (all mid-season indeterminates).  They went outside far too early, but in the case of Vorlon, Blue Beauty and Girl Girl’s Weird Thing (which I will abbreviate GGWT), I had to rescue them from a failed hydroponics experiment.  And also, I am still trying to find my way growing in Tennessee versus Florida — in late February, my Florida tomato garden was fully planted.  So, I jumped the gun — my bad.

Before I tell you how they are all performing, I will say this — next year, I won’t be starting my seeds in late January, because they are ready to go outside by mid-March, and it’s just too chilly for them to thrive.  The seeds I planted in March have done the best overall, since we didn’t get really stable weather until late April.  (Even then, we got s surprise late freeze in early May, three weeks after our last average frost date.)

Vorlon is the tallest by a fair amount, but GGWT wins the prize for overall size — it’s grown up and out.  Blue Beauty is wimpy as a plant, but it’s got more open blossoms than the other two combined.  However, for all three of these plants — they started setting out blossoms before the May freeze, and all the blossoms aborted.  The second set for each all failed.  They are now all in flower and crossing fingers, they will set some tomatoes this time.  I guess that is what happens when you try to plant out too soon!

Red Robin won the prize for the first plant to set tomatoes.  They are teeny-tiny, but so cute!  Not to mention that it has a ton of blossoms, and didn’t react as badly to the late cold weather.

Alice’s Dream and Stormin’ Norman are in the process of creating a large number of blossoms — and they were some of the early March seed starts.  Tennessee Yellow Cherry also has a good number of flower buds forming.

Earl’s Faux is a little slow when it comes to flowering, although it’s starting to form buds.  It was a mid-February seed start, so it had more cold weather to contend with.  I have to admit though — it’s a beautiful plant!

Jochalos is starting to blossom, as is Dwarf Arctic Rose.  My unlabeled dwarf tomato is also starting to form buds.

The rest (Dwarf Wild Fred, Sleeping Lady, Aussie, Red Brandywine Potato Leaf and Cherry Princess Sweet Surprise) are a couple more weeks from being ready to be set out into their final garden spots — they were the last sets of seeds I started.  I’ve potted them up at least once (twice in the case of Dwarf Wild Fred), but they are in the holding spot — dappled sunlight for a few hours then full sun for another two or three hours.

Some varieties I only have one plant, but some I have multiples.  I ended up with three Earl’s Faux, two Alice’s Dream, two Stormin’ Norman.  I also have two Aussie (although one might not make it) and a second Tennessee Yellow Cherry.  I thought I was losing the older Tennessee Yellow Cherry to the cold, so I started a new seed.  Surprise — the original one made it through the rough weather.  Hmm, I think I may have two Red Brandywine Potato Leaf plants as well.

I did not grow Pink Brandywine this year.  It’s a luscious tomato, but it never produced really well for me when I was in Florida.  However, I decided to give Red Brandywine Potato Leaf a try, and see what happens.

So What About the Trees?

This is another thing I’ve had to learn the hard way.  In South Florida, our trees never dropped leaves, and also I knew about how many hours of sun the various parts of our yard got, even allowing for changes in the sun’s angle during the year.

Here in East Tennessee, I discovered that my main garden area was getting shaded out when the trees started leafing out.  What started out as six hours of full sun dwindled to maybe three hours at one point, with some dappled shade for perhaps another hour.  Thankfully, the sun’s angle has changed enough so that the area gets a couple of hours of dappled shade and a little over four hours of direct sun.  Not as much as I really want, but our yard is so full of trees I am having to make do.

I did find two other spots that receive about six hours of full sun through the course of the day, so I have more tomatoes there.  Plus some peppers, beans, cucumbers, squash and assorted other herbs and flowers.

I also discovered that there is a family of rabbits somewhere nearby, as well as some dastardly squirrels and a chipmunk.  Since all my plants are in containers, the bunnies haven’t been a problem yet.  Not sure what’s going to happen when the cukes start to trail over the sides.

Definitely not sure what the squirrels and chipmunk will do, when faced with the temptation of garden fruit.  Good or bad, I also have some hot peppers which are planted amongst the various tomatoes and other plants.  I also discovered that squirrels do not like the smell of peppermint (story for another time), so I have several types of mints and fragrant herbs scattered around as well.

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No lugging home bags and bags of potting mix, compost, perlite, etc. and getting dirty in the process.  (I had calculated I would need something like 10 bags (40 lbs each) of potting mix, another 10 to 15 of compost, plus the perlite, vermiculite and such to start from scratch up here.)

Hydroponic Ebooks and Their Effect

So, I read the ebooks, and it didn’t seem to be very feasible for me.  All those pumps and airlines, flowing water, misters and so on.  The garden area I have picked out has 1) no water and 2) no electricity.  The nearest hose bib is about 50 or so feet away, and there are zero electrical outlets.

Just for fun, I went onto Amazon and looked up some hydroponic systems, and I wasn’t overly fond of some of the full-blown systems.  They were actually less expensive than I thought they would be, but they seemed to be more for leafy veggies and herbs than tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc.

Then I came across something very, very intriguing.

Enter the Kratky Method of Hydroponics

Hmmm, here was something interesting!  Dr. B.A. Kratky of the University of Hawaii came up with a hydroponics system that required no pumps, no circulating water, no mister, no electricity.  The setup described seemed perfect for growing just about anything…like tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers.  Lettuce, herbs, flowers, squash — a multitude of plants.

Wow — no electrical outlets needed, no misters, no hoses!  It’s a “set it and forget it” system.

I’ll write up a whole post about the Kratky Method (as it is now known) and how it works, but it seems to be very easy to set up.  Pick a good sized container, cut some holes in the lid, grab some net pots and fertilizer, add water and you’re good to go.  (Yes, there is a little more to it than that, but it’s a broad outline)

Growing Tomatoes in a DIY Hydroponic Setup

It’s still Winter, and here in Eastern Tennessee it’s still pretty chilly at night — in the 30s, and the days are in the upper 40s.  But it’s not too soon to start seeds!  And I have decided to run a test for growing some micro-dwarf tomatoes indoors using a very, very DIY (and very inexpensive) setup.  Like a gallon water jug, some fertilizer, a net pot and good lighting.  Oh, and tomato seedlings!

Growing Indoors – and a Test!

The test will also be comparing growing the tomatoes in a hydroponic setup versus a grow bag.  I’ve picked the tomato variety Red Robin since it’s a micro-dwarf (only getting 8 or so inches tall).

I’ll have the hydroponic tomato plant in a 1-gallon water jug, and the other plant in a 1-gallon grow bag with a potting mix.  They will be growing side-by-side in a south-facing window, and I will also have some supplemental lighting.

Container Gardening Too

Not to fear, I will still be doing some regular container gardening with my grow bags.  I’ve had plenty of experience with grow bags, and none with hydroponics.  I want to make sure that if I do something wrong with the hydro, I’ll still have some plants growing the usual methods!  (Gotta have some homegrown tomatoes, in any way I can get them.)

So look for more posts on the Kratky hydroponics setup, how the plants are growing, and tomatoes in general.  It should be a very interesting gardening year!

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Tomatoes for Growing Indoors

I won’t be able to grow a full-sized tomato plant indoors, but I should be able to grow a mini tomato plant; something that is no more than about 12 inches tall.  There are some where it’s claimed they can grow in a 4 inch container — but I want more tomatoes than something that small could give me.  Some good tomato varieties that are in the 10 to 12 inch size range are Red Robin and Tiny Tim.  Since I already have seeds for Red Robin, I think that’s what I’ll plant.

What’s Needed for Growing Tomatoes Indoors

Tomatoes need a place to live (a pot), light, water, soil and food (fertilizer).

• Light:  Obviously, good light is necessary.  While I do have a south-facing window, I don’t think it will be enough to support a good harvest.  I’ll invest in some grow lights to supplement the light I do get.
• Pot/Container:  My tomato plant needs a place to live, but I don’t have a ton of space.  I’m going to go with a 1-gallon self-watering container (8 inch diameter).
• Water:  Easy enough, especially with a self-watering container.
• Soil:  I’ll need something that drains well, but also helps to hold moisture.  In other words, I don’t want the water to just go through the pot before the roots can get the moisture — nor do I want the plants to have so much moisture that they have wet feet!  A mix of potting soil, perlite and some sphagnum moss should give me what I need.
• Fertilizer:  I think I can use the same fertilizer I use on my african violet and streptocarpus plants, which is a mixture of Miracle Gro for Orchids and Miracle Gro for Roses.  I may be able to add some Sea Magic fertilizer, but because the plant will be indoors in closed room, fish emulsion is not an option.    The fertilizer will be 1/2 strength, every other time I water.

What’s Missing?

Well, the tomato seedlings are missing!  I’ve been itching to plant some tomato seeds, so this will be my chance to try out my new seed starting trays and heated seed germination mat.

Just for fun, I think I will also try to grow a Red Robin plant outside as well, and see what the difference is.  Well, I’m sure it will grow better since it will be in a 3-gallon container, but the question is how much better?

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Annual Versus Perennial

First, let’s quickly review what perennial means, as well as what annual means, when it comes to plants.

• Annuals are those plants which live for a season.  A season can be a couple of months, or perhaps up to 8 or so months.  It refers to how long your growing season is, and what kind of weather your plants prefer.
• Perennials are plants which live for more than one season.  If they appear to die due to (for example) frost or excessive heat, they will come back on their own once their preferred weather returns.

That’s a high-level difference between annual and perennial plants.  Now let’s talk tomatoes.

Are Tomatoes Perennial?

Sadly, tomato plants are annuals.  Now, that isn’t to say they can’t have a really long growing season, if they have the right environment.  And if grown in a perfect environment (like a special greenhouse), it’s possible that some indeterminate tomatoes can last a year or more.

This applies more to cherry tomatoes, though, than tomatoes with larger fruits.  Cherry tomato varieties are especially known for being vigorous growers and producing lots of fruits over a longer season.

Growing Indeterminate Tomato Plants as a Perennial

OK, so let’s say you have a pretty perfect environment.  Not too hot, not too cold, humidity just right, plenty of sun.  Plus, not exposed to tomato plant diseases and with few or no insects that love to munch on tomato plants.  Oh, and plenty of room, because indeterminate tomato plants can get mighty big.

(Now you see the dilemma.)

It seems like the best environment would be a greenhouse or in an enclosed sunroom.  Tomatoes like their warmth, but they don’t like high temperatures.  And they don’t care for cool weather, at least not during the day.  They do like moderate humidity, and good air circulation.  Plus — 6 to 8 hours of direct sunshine per day, or the equivalent in bright grow lights.

If you can also control exposure to tomato diseases (many of which have to do with soil and wind-borne contaminants), and regularly patrol for tomato-loving insects, you’ve gone a long way to giving your tomato plant a longer life.

Now, let’s talk about the tomatoes themselves — because why grow the plants if you don’t plan to eat the tomatoes!

How Tomatoes Fruit on the Plant

Tomatoes set fruit starting with lower branches, and proceed upwards on the plant.  Once a branch has set fruit, it’s not going to flower again once the fruit has been picked.  And this means that your plant needs to grow taller in order to continue setting fruit.  Alternately, it will need to bush out to continue fruiting.

If you plan to grow your tomato plants indoors under grow lights, they will need to have good light all over the plants as it grows taller and/or wider.  This may mean multiple grow lights.

Growing Tomato Plants

By now you can tell that the answer to the question of “are tomatoes perennial” is that they are best grown as the annual that they are.  If you plan to try to grow a tomato plant as a perennial, though, your best bet is with an indeterminate cherry tomato plant variety.

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Looking forward to my first baby tomato!

Instead of two short growing seasons, I have one longer one.  If I am lucky, I’ll be able to do a little succession planting.  The humidity up here isn’t nearly as bad as S Florida, even though I still will get days in the 90s come August.  My season starts in early April, so I’m lining up all my supplies now.

All that being said, what tomato varieties do I have planned for the 2020 gardening season?  Here’s what I want to grow.

Tomato Varieties Planned for 2020

I’m going with all new (to me) varieties, with one exception.  All are either heirloom or open-pollinated, so I can save seeds if I like.  And for a change, I am planting some dwarf tomatoes!  Here is the lineup:

• Dwarf Arctic Rose:  Determinate, pink, early-season.  Regular rugose leaves.  Fruits average 2 to 5 ounces.
• BrandyFred:   Indeterminate (dwarf), purple, mid-season.  Potato rugose leaves.  Fruits average around 10 ounces.
• Dwarf Pink Passion:  Indeterminate, pink, mid-season.  Regular rugose leaves.  Fruits average 8 ounces.
• Dwarf Bendigo Blush:  Indeterminate, pink, mid-season.  Potato rugose leaves.  Fruits average 1 to 2 ounces.
• Red Robin:  Determinate, red, early-season.  Regular rugose leaves.  Fruits average 1 ounce.  Not a dwarf so much as a tiny micro-determinate — tiny as in maybe 10 inches tall.  This is the one variety I have grown in the past, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it grows up here.
• Tennessee Yellow Cherry:  Indeterminate, yellow, early-season.  Regular leaves.  Fruits average 1 ounce per tomato – supposed to be very prolific.  And since I now live in Tennessee, it seemed appropriate. 
• Vorlon:  Indeterminate, purple, mid-season.  Potato leaves.  Fruits average 6 to 8 ounces.  I get a kick out of the show “Babylon 5”, and this was supposedly named after a character on the show.  I just couldn’t resist, and purple tomatoes are generally pretty flavorful.

Three unusual varieties I’ll be growing are:

• Blue Beauty:  Indeterminate, blue, early- to mid-season.  Regular leaves.  Unknown average size.  I’ve not grown a blue tomato as yet, so this will be my first.  The “blue” is due to anthocyanin, which is more of an indigo-purple color.
• Alice’s Dream:  Indeterminate, blue/striped, mid-season.  Regular leaves.  Unknown average size.  I have to admit, this one intrigues me.  More anthocyanin, so it’s a “blue” tomato, but ripens to what looks like a striped tomato.  It’s supposed to be beautiful and tasty!
• Girl Girl’s Weird Thing:  Indeterminate, striped red/green, mid- to late-season.  Regular leaves.  Unknown average size, but appear to be medium.  The name drew me in, and the striped red and green was fascinating.  Supposed to be very tasty.

Although Blue Beauty, Alice’s Dream and Girl Girl’s Weird Thing have unknown average sizes, from the photos I’ve seen I guess that between 6 and 10 ounces seems reasonable.  I know that “tasty” can vary from person to person, so when I eventually review these varieties, I’ll have to compare them against some well-known varieties for comparison.

I’m really excited to be growing in this new location, and with these new-to-me tomato seeds.  I look forward to sharing my progress and photos of the garden and tomatoes.

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I’ve gone from 10a for a plant hardiness zone to 7a.  Which basically means a chilly winter with plenty of freezes, and a last expected frost date in mid-April.  But interestingly so far, with all the frosts we’ve had so far this Fall and Winter, our yard doesn’t seem to collect frost; across the street does, though.  Talk about being in a micro-climate!

Primary Grow Space

Different State, Different Soil for the Tomatoes

I’m used to sandy soil, which is fairly easy to dig up.  I had a lovely spot planned for the garden for my homegrown tomatoes; I was going to rototill it, put down plenty of compost.  First, I decided to plant a few daffodil bulbs nearby.  Imagine my surprise when instead of an easy to dig soil, I found compacted clay and rocky soil.  Argh!  (I barely got 10 bulbs planted before I gave up.)

There goes my plans for rototilling the garden.  I’d have to put down so much compost and perlite that I’d be rototilling for weeks, and spend many hundreds of dollars.  With those plans out the window, I’m turning to container gardening.

Container Tomato Garden For 2020

Secondary Grow Space

Fortunately, I’ve had a lot of experience with container gardening my tomatoes.  The approximately 12 x 7 foot garden plot will be festooned with 3-gallon, 5-gallon, 7-gallon and 10-gallon grow bag containers.  I have some room to expand a little to the northeast of that plot, maybe a little more across the walkway.

Right now it doesn’t look like much; well, it is the tag end of December.  I still have to pull up one bush that is in my way, but I think it’s small enough to not give me too much trouble.  But, it faces southeast and is protected by the house on 3 sides, giving it another micro-climate; I may be able to put out at least some of my plants a week or so before the last expected frost date.

Well, this should be interesting, to say the least!  My growing situation is much different from where I gardened for some 20 years.  I am very much looking forward to see what kind of homegrown tomatoes I can successfully garden here, and share the results with you. 

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Ready Made or Mix Your Own?

To be honest, I would rather go with pre-bagged, if I could find exactly what I wanted, in the amounts I needed, at a good price.  Given that I am still trying to fill something along the lines of 15 containers from 5 to 25 gallons each, that doesn’t quite work out — for me or the plants.  For that kind of quantity, quality bagged potting soil can be expensive.  However, if you are just filling a couple of 5 gallon containers, bagged potting soil might be just right for you.

The most important thing for container plants is that the roots have enough water and air.  In order for water and air to penetrate the soil, it needs little spaces to slip into.

As a somewhat exaggerated example, it’s almost impossible for air and water to penetrate much into concrete.  However, water and air pass easily through gravel.  (Although I don’t recommend trying to grow in either, LOL.) 

So what you are looking for is soil that has enough space for air and water, but not so much that water pours right though it.  Just keep thinking about Goldilocks and getting the mixture “just right”. 

Potting Mix, Garden Soil – What’s the Difference?

A potting mix is made especially for growing plants in containers.  A bag of garden soil, though, is made to be mixed in with your current soil — not just placed in your containers without any intervention.

A good potting mix is fluffy, with plenty of perlite or vermiculite and sphagnum peat moss or coconut coir (in addition to compost, of course).  Garden soil tends to be heavy, with little or no perlite, vermiculite or moss/coir.  Putting the bagged garden soil into your containers without lightening it up some will doom your plants to a slow death.  Or at the very least, a much smaller harvest, because the plant roots have a hard time breathing.

What About “Mel’s Mix”?

Mel Bartholomew, of Square Food Gardening (SFG) fame, recommends the following mix.  Although I don’t use the SFG method with the grid, etc., I do like the basics of his soil mix.  It is:

• 1/3 Compost
• 1/3 Vermiculite
• 1/3 Peat Moss or Coconut Coir

The catch is that the compost needs to be from several sources.  In other words, look at the ingredients that go into  the compost you plan to use.  If you’re not making the compost yourself (and maybe even if you are), you don’t want everything to be from one source.

For example, instead of buying 3 bags of compost that are all based on cow manure, you would want a bag of the cow manure-based compost, one of humus-based and another of poultry litter-based.

That being said, if you can’t find compost made from varying ingredients, try to at least get some from different manufacturers.

BTW, I do recommend reading Mel’s book, the All New Square Foot Gardening, Third Edition.

Other Ingredients?

Well, there are other “goodies” you can use to feed your soil, but that is a whole separate post.  I’ll come back and put a link to that post when I have it completed.  I am doing some experimenting, and so far the results have been quite interesting.

Mixing it Up

I typically mix my contain gardening soil up in a wheelbarrow — those 20 gallon pots really take a lot to fill them up!  But sometimes, I only need to make up enough for a small planter.

For a small batch, I get one of those 5-gallon buckets (like you can get at Home Depot or Lowes) and scoop in a few trowels worth of compost.  Next I’ll put in a trowel of vermiculite, another of perlite and then a scoop or two of coconut coir.  I’ll mix that around with my trowel until it’s nice and blended, then pour it into its pot.

If the pot doesn’t end up being quite full enough, I’ll just throw in a handful or two of each of the above, then mix it all up by hand.

Compost is Your Plant’s Friend

I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk a little more about compost.  If you have your own pile, you have ready access to it, and it’s probably full of all sorts of goodies for your tomato plants.  If you don’t have a compost pile, you’ll need to go with a bagged compost.

When you walk down the aisles of your garden center, you’re likely to find several different brands of bagged compost.  Take a look at the bags and read the ingredients.  In Florida where I live, it’s heavy on the composted cow manure — believe it or not, we’re one of the top states for producing cattle (and you just thought we were beaches).  What’s harder to find are composts from forest humus or mushroom compost.  Read the labels, and if you can, get at least two different kinds.  Each type is a little different with the (good) soil bacteria and/or (good) fungi, and so provides a more balanced set of nutrients.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that all you need in your container is compost, though — it’s a bit too heavy (been there, done that).  You will need to mix it with one or more of the perlite, vermiculite, etc. before planting your tomatoes in it.

For the few times I’ve planted in straight compost, the plants didn’t do so great.  Yes, they grew and produced tomatoes but they seemed didn’t grow or produce as well as the containers where I had a mix.

Whew — that was a long post.  Hopefully this has been helpful for you!

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