So its tomato growing time of the year And in today's video we will see how to grow
great tomatoes in containers
So if you've been growing tomatoes in containers,
you know there can be a lot of issues to deal with
In today's video we will see how to deal with some of these issues
And we will see two varieties of tomatoes today
The first one is the Heinz Super Roma Tomato
And the other variety we will be seeing is
The Ace 55 Hybrid Tomato
A nice determinate variety of tomato
And that brings us to our first tip
Grow determinate varieties in containers
When growing in containers you're restricted with size
So make sure you choose determinate
varieties which don't grow like crazy And still produce a lot of tomatoes
And do well with minimal staking
When choosing the soil to use for your tomato plants
Use a Potting Mix and not Potting Soil
Potting Mixes are usually more expensive but they are well worth the money
Because they contain good ingredients that your tomato plants will love
So do not use potting soil, using potting mixes
Even determinate plants need staking
So make sure you stake your tomato plants very well
You can use tomato cages, re-bars, garden
stakes, twines Just make sure they are staked
One of the most common complaints of growing tomatoes in containers
Is that they get Blossom End Rot or BER
And I'm going to tell you how to fix this very easily
The reason why tomatoes get BER is because
of lack of Calcium and irregular watering
So make sure you enrich the soil with Gypsum
which is Garden Lime
And add a little bit of peat moss to neutralize the Lime
Gypsum or Garden Lime contains Calcium
And also make sure you keep your tomato plant well watered using a drip irrigation system
When using fertilizers remember that when your plants are young
You need more leaves and foliage
So make sure you use a high Nitrogen or a
balanced fertilizer so that you get good growth and a good start for your tomato plants
As the plant grows and starts producing flowers
You need to stop giving high Nitrogen fertilizers to your tomato plants
And start using a low Nitrogen, High phosphorus, potassium fertilizer
And also make sure you keep adding Calcium using Garden Lime or Tomato fertilizers that contain Calcium
You do not want to use a high Nitrogen fertilizer
when the plant is flowering This is a common mistake
To make sure you get the maximum yield from your tomato plants, you need to make sure
that each and every flower gets converted into tomato
Well if not all at least most of them And as you can see we have a lot of tomatoes
on this plant in this container And that's because we have hand-pollinated
these tomato plants I have explained how to hand pollinate tomato
plants in another video So be sure to check out the link that you
see on your screen And that goes over the process in detail
One of the reasons you need to hand pollinate tomatoes is because the bee population is
constantly decreasing And even if you have a lot of bees in your
area, hand pollinating assures many more tomatoes!
While your tomato plant is growing well, make
sure you add some Epsom salt in water and bathe your tomato plants
You can also add some Aspirin in water and water your tomato plants
Aspirin is known to control a lot of diseases - usually fungal diseases that a tomato plant
could have. So it does do a good job The Epsom salt is going to add Magnesium and
Sulfate And that's great food for your tomato plants
You do not need to use any insecticide on your tomato plants till you see any problems
But when you do see insects we come to our next Tip
Make sure you use either Neem Oil or Spinosad, which are organic insecticides to control
insects on your tomato plants
When you see pests on your tomato plants you
need to spray them at least every 3 weeks if not, about a month
Or you can do it whenever you see insects on your tomato plants
And as you can see by following some simple tips
You can grow a lot of tomatoes in small spaces and containers
So let's go ahead and harvest some tomatoes from this container
Now from this 5 or 6 gallon container that
the tomato plant is growing in, you can expect to get a lot of tomatoes
And if you're not getting enough tomatoes, make sure you follow all tips in this video
properly and then give it a shot!
When harvesting tomatoes, its best to let
them ripen on the vine
They just taste a lot better that way
If the tomato is partially ripe it will still ripen at room temperatures
This one is the Heinz tomato
And let's harvest another one - this is the
Ace 55 tomato
So that's how your tomatoes should look like
- clear skin, nice tomatoes, no Blossom End Rot
And if you follow the tips in this video correctly,I am sure you'll be on your way to growing great
tomatoes in your containers
So I wanted to show you how one of these tomatoes
looks like This is the Heinz tomato - yes the same company
that makes the ketchup Not sure why its called Heinz, probably a
good tomato for making paste and ketchup And let's cut it open
So that tomato looks pretty good And you can use it for almost anything you
can think of - sandwiches, paste, ketchup, almost anything
So I'll see you soon again in another episode of California Gardening
Until then...Happy Gardening!