Your soil has what it needs nutrient-wise to grow tomatoes--but the mix you bought lacks some mineral ingredients that will keep it from compacting in your containers. In other words the soil needs "pore space" for air. Keep in mind that plant roots require air for growth and respiration. A heavy garden soil has little pore space--that is space between soil particles; this can be amplified in a container. A container mix needs small and large pores so that it will both hold water and drain water and allow air to the roots. You can add vermiculite and perlite--mined minerals--to balance the mix you purchased. Bags of these will be at the sotre where you got your soil mix. A cubic yard of store bought container mix will contain about 9 cubic feet vermiculite and an equal amount of perlite. I am confident Al and others will follow with further advise!

Here is a link that might be useful: HarvestToTable.com

stephen thank u for the answer u obviuosly know wht u r talking about bc i called scott and they said the same thing, the soil is too compact. they said to add peat, so im thinking of adding both. i hope this works. what about super reds or earth worms, wouldnt they aerate as well?

Funghi2,

Adding peat won't do much to improve the soil for container use. The problem is that the small particle size doesn't allow for adequate air spaces/drainage. Assuming the peat is of a larger particle size what will happen is the smaller soil particles will fill in around the larger particles, still squeezing out the air.

Think of a glass of marbles (the peat for this analogy) and some coffee grounds (the soil for this analogy). Would adding marbles to a bowl of coffee grounds 'open up' the overall structure of the soil? Nope, the coffee grounds would just fill in around the larger marbles.

If it were me what i would do is take my receipt back to the store, go to customer service and ask to see the manager. Inform the manager you spent a significant amount of money because of an employee's advice and the company supplying the product told you the product is unsuitable for the purpose the employee recommended it. Ask for a full refund even though it isn't realistic for you to return it.

May not work out, but it is darn sure worth a try.

If you try this and get nowhere, let me know (email me through GW to be sure i see it) and I will give you a trick or two to make this soil in a container more likely to work out OK. It's just a crutch though and a potting mix over a potting soil is a much better choice.

last year I made an oops and filled a large pot with MG garden soil. I then read the label, and added about a gallon or so of aged pine bark fines to the soil. Soil conditioner (aged pine bark fines) is an excellent aerator, and I prefer them to perlite or vermiculite.

The zucchini I planted in that pot did very well, with just that addition.