This year I had toooo many tomatoes that I started indoors and couldn’t not part with any of them. I gave one away and planted the other 11……..6 of those went inside their own pots.

1. LIGHT COLORED POTS. Or paint them white to start then COVER the outside with fabric or something to block the heat and keep the roots protected. The plants started curling. Found out I was cooking the roots in the bottom of the black planters. 

2. Set them and leave them. I kept moving them to give the ground a break and to be a lazy waterer. I recommend not putting them on the ground(grass) but rather put them on something hard. 


3.Water FREQUENTLY. Too much inconsistent watering led to stunted growth and poor production. I tried to get lazy and efficient with my watering this year by getting a sprinkler and a timer. (Should have just put in an irrigation system. Or a soaker hose….lazy) the inconsistent watering aided in the burning up and then stunted/slowed down growth. They spent half the summer trying to not burn up. 
Water twice a day 

4. Fertilizer like normal and Mulch EARLY to protect the top of the soil.

5. Cage not a stake/skinny stick. I would have used the cages instead but felt they were better where they were. Kept falling over.

6. Deeper containers? These seemed they weren’t deep enough I had pretty deep containers… I would go to the next step up.

All in all I would do it again with the advice I learned this year. 


Year 1 of growing Tomatoes in pots. Lessons Learned