Some of the best containers to come along in my experience are the "self-watering" pots which contain a bottom reservoir so the plants don't wilt. I grow regular indeterminate toms in these as well as other large vegies which really like a lot of water. One type is Misco which is available at Big Lots and Walmart. They come in several sizes - get the really large. I currently have Celebrity, Arkansas Traveler, Burbank and Sweet 100, all thriving and producing. You can use just about any support system with these pots. Happy growing!

I'll have to check out the Misco for my daughter, she works full-time and has a 22-month-old, which really limits her gardening time. I started herbs for a planting box cause she enjoys cooking with them, and i know potted tomatoes on the patio would fare better than an in-ground planting...especially the self-watering kind.

Absolutely the best container tomato would be the Pale Perfect Purple and for a Cherry type it's Galinas,no contest.

Almost any cherry will do good. Almost any plum, roma shaped will do bad. Box car willie is a good one, momotaro is terrible, Brandywine Sudduth is difficult.

Last year I did Principe Borghesi and a grape tomato called "Cabernet." I also grew two Kotla toms in a large trash can size container. All three varieties did very well.

Ask me again late this summer or early fall. I have not grown many in containers but did have a couple of the small ones in a half barrel last year. One was Tammi-G which was a beautiful little tomato, but the taste was just fair, the other was a Black Cherry which was very bad about splitting and I did not care for the taste much at all. However, I think that the little ones are easy to grow, probably most do well in containers if taken reasonably good care of.

Other than that, I had a couple of Cherokee Purple in 5 gallon containers, they grew some tomatoes which were quite a bit smaller than those in the ground in the garden and also prone to cracking. It is just harder to keep the moisture constant, perhaps those self watering containers would be the answer to that particular problem.

The reason I said ask me later is because I have stuck some extra plants in these (and three more half barrels) {{gwi:289327}}.

They are really growing rapidly, the picture above is only a few days old, but they have grown a lot. I will try to get a pictures in the morning.

My thoughts are that the bigger the container the better, and consistent water and probably nutrients are a must in order to grow decent tomatoes in a container.
Bill P.

Actually, Lynn, you may have to start over again--I haven't grown LaRoma or that last one, but Heidi, Opalka, and Striped Roman/Speckled Roman are all Indeterminates (not Determinates.)

Also, paste types are more difficult to grow in containers unless you follow a strict watering regimen without any misses or variances, otherwise BER is common.

If you are talking varieties for people you're not sure how much growing experience they have, consider some of the smaller height varieties like New Big Dwarf (10-16oz pink fruits on a 2-3ft plant), Sophie's Choice (6-10oz reds on an 18-24" plant), Mountain Princess (bushy determinate, 5-8oz reds, about 60 days--an heirloom from the Monongahela Forest area, NOT part of the "Mountain" series hybrids), and Green Zebra (about 4ft) or Earl of Edgecombe (8-10oz orange fruits, 4-5ft tall compact indeterminate.)

I'd have to look at what I've grown to come up with many others but these are off the top of my head. I grow maybe half of my plants in 4 gallon buckets with drip irrigation and many/most do well, even large Indeterminates. Some even approach the 2lb mark if well fed.

Mark

I'm not growing any in containers myself, I have plenty of room in the ground...but i always get this question, so I'm asking the experts!

La Rossa is defiinitely det, and striped Roman was listed as det, but didn't grow that way for me! This is my first time with Opalka and Heidi, I thought i read here that they were det, my bad!

I do have extra Green Zebra...but it's another new one for me, I wouldn't have any advice to go with it. Thanks for the other suggestions, Mark, I'll look some up for next year.

John, i almost grew Principe Borghesi, I hadit in the past and liked it...but all the big heirlooms turned my head.

JWR, I never heard of Pale perfect purple...or Galinas either, but no big surprise there. How big do they get?

Galina's is a yellow cherry from Siberia. In a 4 gallon bucket with drip, it gets 6ft+.

O.K.

and are pictures that I said that I would get this morning of the rapidly growing tomato plants in my containers. They are Big Zac, Porterhouse, Cherokee Purple and Aunt Gerties Gold. Maybe one or two others, don't remember. They are all indiscrim- er-indeterminates ":^), so if the present rate of growth continues, they will probably all be huge.
Bill P.

Instar
I grow all my tomato's in 20 large pots ranging from 17 gallon to 30 gallon each

Galinas is as described above and very tasty. It bears fruit early and continuous until the freeze gets it. The Pale Perfect Purple aka Perfect Purple has been the best overall,taste/productivity, Tomato that I have ever grown here in the PNW.

This year I am trying "Gartenperle" for the first time. It is a cherry tomato and grows in a hanging basket (it is supposed to have a trailing habit). Also, Tumbling Tom (I believe) is another cherry tomato which will grow in a hanging basket and hang/tumble over the sides. Nice to have by a doorway!

I grow all of my tomato's in containers because I don't have the room to plan in the ground. I have had great success with the San Marzano's. They are roma shaped and very tasty. They are indeterminate and grow quite large so plan for it. However they have been extremely successful for me

I don't have a vast amount of container growing experiance but have grown some tomatoes in them. Below are two photos. One of Better Boy and the other is Bush Goliath. I can't say that the Better Boy plant grew as big as the ones that were grown in the garden but the Better Boy in the container produced just as many tomatoes as the one in the garden did. Keeping the plants watered is a major ordeal though. At least in this area where it gets so hot.

Better Boy
{{gwi:1338368}}

Bush Goliath
{{gwi:1338369}}

Jay

Some people consider it a "spitter" but we enjoy Silvery Fir Tree and have foud it to grow just fine in a 3-5 gallon pot. Another good one for us was "Golden Dwarf Champion" and I considered this one a spitter ~ lol ~
But was really great on the patio (picture below)

~ Tom

Here is a link that might be useful:

I grew San Marzano last summer. The tomatoes tend to grow in clumps and can get really large and heavy. They knocked my stakes over, the same stakes that other tomatoes grew really well on. If you plant them in a container (or even in the ground), make sure you have adequate support for them to grow on!

i really liked Pineapple, Mortgage Lifter, Purple Russian, and costoluto genovese that grew in 11-15gal sized containers.

The Pineapple and Mortgage Lifter were not detered by the container and grew HUGE fruit most a lb or more.

For the first year I am trying homemade self-watering eboxes, with about a half-dozen different varieties. All are doing well, starting to pick some fruit already. I am really impressed with this method of growing tomatoes. See the container gardening forum for instructions on how to build.

I have tried quite a few different varieties in 15 gal pots with varying success. Even supply of water has been my biggest problem and the eboxes solve this problem completely.

Of all the varieties I have tried in pots, Crimson Fancy has been the most reliable. Large fruited types have been the worst, but that may be attributed to my cool weather.

Gary

sweet millions, sungolds, better boy, big girl, sweet tangerine have all done well. I've had iffy experience with green zebras-- sometimes really great and sometimes the overwatering did them in. I've had a couple of great tomatoes on purple cherokees and a couple of others but for the most part too few tomatoes to make the effort worthwhile.