A well grown tomato I have seen fill a half barrel with roots. For small soil amounts you will have to be selective in what you decide to grow. How about lettuce or radish. Al

Can you grow one plant in 12 deep clay pot?
Say--one tomato?

Yes, you can. A 5 gallon bucket is what I consider the practical minimum size for a large tomato plant, but you can go a little smaller and still get decent results as long as you keep up with the watering and fertilizing demands. If you can water 2x/day this shouldn't be a problem.

Keep in mind a large tomato on a hot, windy day will consume ~2 gallons of water. Also consider adding lime to the mix as tomatos are prone to blossom end rot and the lime adds calcium to help prevent it. More important though is to maintain as close as you can to even moisture for the tomato, don't let it dry out.

This is why the larger containers are nicer, they don't have such rapid water/nutrient swings. Tomatos do not like the swings and once fruit develops it can get blossom end rot in a hurry if you don't maintain reasonable consistency in moisture.

Sure you can!
I've grown tomatoes in 12" pots.
I've since graduated to 16" & 20" pots - but it can be done with 12".

thanks to all who answered my questions. I know bigger would be better, but I will do what I can. I guess my goal is not really to have tremendous volume of roots -I just want some tomatos in a yard that is not conducive to large buckets. There are no boundaries between myself and the neighbors and I know they would not want me to have a bucket farm. Also, I don't like radishes, I like tomatos. So I don't need radishes.
I have one early tomato I'm nursing along, and quite a few seedlings. They're all waiting for warmer weather and bigger pots. Right now my big one is drinking 2 quarts e/o day. But, he's on the front porch and its not a big deal. I have to water the flowers out there anyhow.
I've actually seen webpage where a guy has been growing his entire veggie garden in plastic t-shirt style grocery bags--and he got tomatoes too. So I think it must be possible. I'm not looking to win any awards with my tomatos, just want some to eat and some to save & eat later.
thanks again all, Mary

I grew a bunch of tomatoes in standard sized galvanlzed buckets last summer and they did great - the buckets were maybe 1 to 1.5 gallons...

I looked up the container garden with grocery bags. Not sure if this is the same one you saw, but WOW! How cool is that?

Some people are so original!

Amy

Here is a link that might be useful: Grocery bag container garden

You can take a regular sized bag of potting soil, punch a couple drain holes in the bottom and make two X shaped cuts in the top. Plant your tomatoes or other veggies (or impatiens or petunias) right into the bag. If you don't like the way the bag looks cover it up with mulch. Quick, easy, and the plants love it. The plastic retains moisture - very important in hot climates especially.

When the season is over, just dump the remains of the bag into the garden. No pots to store or clean, either.

Amy-- Yes that is the site I saw--kinda neat isn't it?

Solstice 98-- You know what? I've been thinking of that too. I bought more bales of pinestraw than I will need I guess--I ordered 4 bales, turned out I will have at least one extra after I mulch up my beds--maybe 2. So I was thinking I could put some viney veggies on the little slope at the end of my yard in bags and then mulch so it looks ok. We live in NC where summer will be very hot--so everything will get mulched anyhow. I will be going around watering every morning with a water wand--I like it cuz I timed it and know how long it takes to get a quart of water out--and I can reach everything well with it. I use a watering can on my porch plants. But --I will also use the water can about 1x a week with a weak solution of fertilizer in it I think.
That's my strategy.

A few bags of compost or soil mix with plants in them would fit right into my routine. :)

I like watering by hand cuz it makes certain that I am in the garden every morning checking on every plant. I can catch problems quick that way--and its relaxing and I do it early early before all the neighbors are out and about.

Just me and the birds and my plants.

I think I'll try that. It would work well, the vines could sprawl down the slope and make the back of the yard look more finished. I have woods behind the yard going down a steep hill behind us. So things like squash and melons and gourds would be good there. It gets full sun, but is in front of a backdrop of trees. mary

Maryt,
Not sure how artistic or creative you are, but if you're worrying about neighbor's reaction to ugly (but cheap!!!) 5-gallon buckets, ever consider painting them with some kind of cute, gardening theme? Three catches, of course, it has to be pretty or cute (or just say children drew it for you), it has to be done in water and sun resistant mediums (Sharpies or Magic Markers fade), and it is time consuming.

On the other hand, if you can find some already decorated water/sun resistant paper (I'm thinking of contact paper for kitchen shelves or wallpaper) it's quicker.

But, easier still, neighbors stop caring about how ugly your containers are, if they get some produce from your garden!

I figure everyone else was answering your original question, so I'd give you a few alternatives. Personally, I keep wondering why they don't make containers big enough and yet still CHEAP. LOL

Hello. I just wanted to pop in with a suggestion on hiding the buckets. Make them tube-tops! If you can sew, or even if you can't - it's not hard, take a length of fabric of your choice - burlap works very well, sew up into a tube and slip it over the bucket - if you make it too long you can bunch it up. Looks really neat. You can also add a casing and a drawstring or elastic (but elastic will rot eventually and snap) and neaten it up by gathering it top and bottom.

Hmm... I am pretty artsy. But I wonder how well that would work--seems like a good idea. but I kind of think it would look like painted buckets.

But then again I suppose when the green starts spilling over the edges it might not look too bad. Mary

Wondering myself about the wallpaper idea. I bought some today from a thrift store to wrap around kitty litter pails. The instructions I have say to use rubber cement to adhere it and clear varnish 2-3 coats, letting each coat dry inbetween. Anyone else try this? I think I might just to see how one pail works out- see if it molds.

maryt

I used 5-gallon double buckets (self-watering earthbuckets) to grow all my Brandy Boy tomatoes in last year. At the end of the summer, it seemed as if the soil had been replaced by tomato roots. A spongey mass of roots completely filled the bucket! Though the plants produced wonderfully, I decided to plant only determinates in the buckets this year. I'm guessing their root system isn't as extensive because they don't grow all season.

I did find another kind of container that you might want to take a look at. They don't look bad at all and aren't expensive, less than $1.00 per bag. See the link below. It's for 7-gallon grow-bags, but if you click on the "Soil Containers" link at the top, you'll see various sizes available. There are other plastic grow bags, but these are probably the best because they're white on the outside. The soil and plant in a plain black grow bag get really hot in the sun when the temperatures go up.

Anyway, see what you think.

Here is a link that might be useful: Black and White Poly Grow Bags