Are the fruits getting any larger? Are they firm to the touch? Is the plant itself growing?

Patience.
Jim

Last year I thought our tomatoes were NEVER going to get ripe. But they did, it seems like all at once! It's so hard to wait for that first bite of the first ripe tomato, though, isn't it?

the biggest tomato has stopped getting bigger, but is firm to the touch. The plant doesn't seem to be growing anymore. It is in a 12" pot and supposedly only required 7 to 9" pot. The plant has had some aphids on it, but I thought I was taking pretty good care of those, but I'm wondering with the weird weather conditions if it isn't affecting the plant because each day the plant looks like it is dying a little bit. The leaves are yellowing and then turning brown. I have been removing any leaves that looked that way, but now the whole plant pretty much looks that way. The leaves are droopy and I thought it was getting plenty of water with all of the rain, but the days that it wasn't raining I would give it a drink.

All of my other tomato plants seem to have similar problems except my Vitador tomatoes which seem to be doing really well. Nice green color, and look very strong. They also have tomatoes on them but are very small still. I'm guessing the weather hasn't been warm enough consistently for them to grow very well. I don't know if it makes that much of a difference or not. This is only my second year of gardening.

In the meantime, I guess I will try to continue to be patient and wait for red tomatoes. Thanks everyone.

Just to mention that over-watering can be as bad as underwatering. Go by the wetness of the soil. If you stick a finger an inch into the soil and it feels at all damp, don't water.

Container-grown plants can be tricky. I only have a few and they are for flowers. I think there is a forum for container-graown plants,here and I suspect they know a lot more than I do about it.

But one thing I've learned with smallish containers is to put them inside a larger one. That reduces the heating and water evaporation in the inside container.

Be careful about over-watering, though, with any container.

" But one thing I've learned with smallish containers is to put them inside a larger one. That reduces the heating and water evaporation in the inside container. "

Very interesting concept but if you have a larger pot, why not just use that for the plant? lol only need soil. :)

"I planted the tom variety of tomatoes this year hoping for an early crop...It is in a 12" pot and supposedly only required 7 to 9" pot...."
Are you talking about the Micro-Tom tomato? If so that has a really long DTM.

BTW, wet dirt weighs more than dry dirt. If you can't tell if you need to water pick up the container. If it is heavy it probrably doesn't need watering. If it is light then it probably does.

Good luck.

Randy

Melanie,

It needs nutrients. Feed it. If it is in a pot, and it has been getting a lot of water via rain, etc. there are probably no nutrients in that soil right now. Give it some low nitrogen fertilizer ( like 10-24-24 or similar).

A word of advice - a 12" pot is Waaay to small for any tomato. You should be providing at least 5-8 gallons of soil - the deeper the better. These are not flowers.

And stop watering it. Let the soil dry out for several days - then check it for moisture an inch or two below the surface. Don't water it until it feels dry at that depth.

Good luck.

Matt

Bigger is better when it comes to container growing of tomatoes. They hold the water much better. I use half of a 55 gallon plastic barrel for mine and only need to water every 3 or 4 day at the most. Half a 55 gallon barrel takes 3 cubic feet of soil to fill properly with half a bag of composted cow poo. That makes for a heavy barrel!!!

Melanie-germany, where are you located in germany.

naturalstuff - "Very interesting concept but if you have a larger pot, why not just use that for the plant? lol only need soil."

A 2 pot system provides much better water evaporation protection than a single pot does.