That's a lot of plant for a small pot.

Be ever ready with water at hand. possibly 2 or more times a day.

Yeah that's what I thought. I'm not sure if I should put it in a larger pot? I'll make sure to give it plenty of water for now.

I have a digital moisture meter that shows the moisture from 0 to 9.9. Should I keep it at some level without letting it dry out?

thanks

I agree that it looks like a lot of plant for a small pot. What kind of tomato is it? If it's a mini/patio tomato, it might be ok in it's pot if that's the full size of the plant. You will need to keep up on the watering for sure.

But sometimes retailers sell tomatoes at more of a premium because they are bigger in bigger pots- and the tomatoes aren't actually suitable to be in a small pot. Like I've seen big indent beefsteak and cherry tomato plants potted up in 2 gallon pots like they were ok to grow in a pot that small.

I've often wondered how you take what appears to be an immature tomato plant, and manage to get good sized fruit on it. In that sense, this probably has to be a patio tomato. Those are mature when they're 2 feet tall.

thank you for all the responses. see the label in the attached images.

Bella Rosa is not a patio tomato, so it would ordinarily want to get big. But it's a determinant, and this one has fruit. So you're not going to get many more fruit out of this one, and it's not going to want to get any bigger. It may be that being pot-bound was the stressor that encouraged it to fruit.

The instructions do say "good for large containers", without really making it clear what exactly is "large".

You may want to give those blossoms a little shake to help them self-pollinate, especially since it is a determinate.

Ok, well... at least it isn't a completely inappropriate tomato for a container. And I have to say, that is a seriously nice pot with cage it was planted in- You can reuse it for a small (under 18 inches) pepper, or perhaps a stand of parsley, cilantro, or dill. Those herbs can sometimes use some caging if they grow tall and sometimes want to flop over a bit.

However, Bella Rosa can max out at 4 feet tall if it's happy. Yours is likely to be a bit shorter since it's already started setting fruit and is probably stressed from the small pot. It can be grown in a large container, most dwarfs can, but it is definitely not a mini or standard patio sized tomato.

Something to note here- since the tag said it comes from Home Depot. A helpful cue is to ask an employee where the "patio pots" are. A lot of garden workers might not be able to tell you what is good for your tomato- but they all know where the patio sized pots are in the outdoor area. They will likely take you to where the big pots are, the ones that are 5+ gallon size.

That looks like it might be a 1 gallon pot or so? You will definitely need to repot it, I would say a 5 gallon at least, though 10 gallon would be even better. Something big enough that it will need to sit on the floor or sturdy riser rather than on a table. You will need to stabilize that root mass in a large enough amount of soil to let the roots grow, help keep the overall moisture of the pot more consistent.. and also work as a weighty base to help support all that top plant action.

If you don't care what your pot looks like- skip the expensive ones in the garden area and go get a 5 gallon bucket, or a tote bin, or even a garbage can that's cheap enough to cut the top off of to make a big planter tub. Make sure you drill holes in the bottom for drainage before filling it with soil.

You will need a cage- The largest and most heavy duty of the "standard 3 ring" tomato cages can work here since your plant is kind of likely to top out low. Your pot should be big and deep enough to sink the cage a good way in.

Soil.. I will preface with you should check out the container gardening, soil and compost, balcony gardening, and square foot gardening sections here for a TON of info. If you want to get into more than just potting up a random tomato... That said- if this is more of a random one off kind of thing, just get a bag or two of a good container mix that is meant for containers. Skip the bags of compost, dirt, garden soil, seed soil/mix.. look for bags that specifically say for containers. It should have a mix of stuff in it, not just straight any one thing. There's stuff that has fertilizer or water retention stuff in it- if you want that or not, it's up to you.

Let's be clear. Your tomato isn't going to get any bigger, even if you transplant it into a larger pot. Once a determinate tomato starts setting fruit, it is done growing.

But do get a bigger pot and try it with another plant! Ideally one that isn't a determinant that is fruiting when you buy it.

It might fill out more..a bigger but not huge pot will help reduce watering. Its just my 2c that tomatoes like kind of squat pots..not deep. I think they like the air exchange of squat pots. Something in the form of a half barrel's dimensions.

Fair point. A bigger pot will probably make it healthier. As I said, it probably fruited because it's stressed, and being root-bound good way to stress it.

After all the comments and some consideration I decided to just let it be.

The tomatoes are starting to rippen so I'm happy with the results so far.

After all the comments and some consideration I decided to just let it be.

The tomatoes are starting to rippen so I'm happy with the results so far.

I also had 3 small plants that I got from a local person. they were barely 2in tall early May when I got them. They are over 4 feet now and seem to be doing good.

I transplanted them into a larger 7quart container today. I'm trying these felt containers with handles that supposedly help with good drainage and aeration. lots of positive reviews so we'll see.

Any advice on general care for them from now on would be appreciated.

thanks

I meant 7 gallons not quarts.

yum!

Thank you for the note. Unfortunately it is the best spot on my small patio. Unfortunately we have not had a great sunny weather so far but it's picking up.

Third round of ripe tomatoes. these taste a lot better than the first ones I got a few weeks ago!

There' ya go!..great on hot dogs and bologna sandwiches. Or chilled and salt sprinkled on them. Try that with store bought and its terrible.

As it was commented in an earlier post, my new plants are quite leggy and tall. see the photos.

Would it make sense to cut the top off, maybe1 foot, to force more leaves down?

I can also place the cut part into a new pot for rooting?

thanks!

If you are planting these tomatoes in larger pots, then bury the bottoms by several inches, picking off any leaves that would be buried. Tomatoes will root all along their buried stems. That's the usual practice for leggy tomatoes

You can root pieces of tomato, if you want. They root easily in water or soil.

I usually just prune off the suckers that grow between the lower leaves and the main stem. The question of pruning tomatoes is highly controversial, but the truth is that they're such aggressive growers that it's hard to mess up.

I'm not planning on replanting them as I just did that a couple of weeks ago.

Could you explain what you mean when you say you remove the suckers? I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean.

Thanks!

The "suckers" are the shoots that sprout from the point where the leaves meet the main stem. Many people choose to remove some or all of them to keep the plants from turning into unmanageable monsters.

Two of the new plants are starting to get dropping leaves. They feel pretty mushy.

Any idea where that would come from and what I can do to help it?

it looks like all three plants are doing that. could it be too much water?

(I planted them in this canvas planter which seems to retain water a lot)

I feel it's getting worse. any idea?

Perig, if you water it well and come back in 20 minutes have the leaves perked up a bit? -- I don't know what this means but my wife describes it and asks me to explain and I have no idea.

I thought it might have been a soil too wet so I did not water recently but I just did give them a good amount of water to test. let's see.

thanks for the help!

So I've been watering them a bit more often and the leaves have not been as droopy but they still don't look too great overall.

They're now very tall at just around 6 feet. I just got a few flowers on two of them.

Anything I should do? should I trim them down by a foot maybe to give it more strength towards the bottom?

Any advice?

Thanks!