What Heritage Tomato can be grown in a Container?

dogstarheaven

am thinking about what to sow at this time of year and have been thinking i'd like to try the old varieties of tomatoes. last yr, i'd grown Tumbling Tom Thumb in containers, but whilst they were on the whole successful, i'd say about a fifth were 'split' on the skins. sometimes, the ones that were too small and hidden didn't ripen at all due to their deeply tangled growing bush habit (altho' they were meant to be the tumbling kind, none did tho').
anyone with some advice?
thanks:j

foreign_correspondent

any will grow in a container, providing the container is big enough, and there is the right balance of water and nutrition!

.. is it a specific container you want to use, eg a hanging basket, or a planter?

dogstarheaven

thanks for your quick reply foreigncorrespondent.

the containers i have aren't that big - 9" ones that are the florist's buckets that i bought cheaply for the job. unfortunately, i'd rather grow my shrubs and perennials in the bigger pots i have as they're permanent fixtures unlike the tomatoes which altho' would need more attention (nutrition-wise), i can't bring myself to spending extra money on my veggies than my flowers.. just to let you know, i don't have a big garden, hence my use of pots for my gardening.

to reply to your comment on using any variety, well, i'm sure there are ones specific to container growing. as i would be expending a lot of time growing these, i would like some help in choosing the varieties. i would particularly like one for cooking with and one for salads. i'm not sure about the normal sized tomatoes as i'd imagine them would need staking and/or in bigger pots...

what do you think?:beer:

foreign_correspondent

well, re: varieties - you are not really too limited by container growing for tomatoes - commercial growers do not generally plant into the soil, and grow three tomatoes to a grow bag (about three foot long, by a foot wide, and only a few inches deep) I grow all varieties of heritage tomatoes this way too, however, you also need to think about height - are you looking for something short, or doesnt it matter?

Do you want to avoid staking for some reason? I would stake all, (or string them up) even bush varieties, as I dont like them drooping all over the floor!

Are you growing outdoors or in a glass house?

The splitting last year may have been down to variety, or over-watering late on, or picking them too ripe! I love gardeners delight, but always end up with some splitting!

jsh99

Have you looked at the Real Seed web site? They sell heirloom non hybrid seeds and have sections for each type of tomatoes. They also encourage saving your own seeds, rather than buying from them year after year - as they are non hybrid you can.

foreign_correspondent

Personally, I would go for Gardeners Delight for the salad tomato (it's a cherry tomato) and probably a plum tomato for cooking - however, if you are growing outdoors most of the plum tomatoes do prefer to be under glass, as they like the mediterannean heat and sunshine! I think Roma may be ok outside...

However, both of these will grown quite tall - I would just pop a stake in to support and nip the top of the plant out though.

There are a lot of modern dwarf varieties (Tom Thumb, Patio etc) but they are not heritage varieties..

dogstarheaven

hi again

my toms are to be grown outdoors, tho' initially they'll be grown in the plastic greenhouse until they're planted in their final pots which will be after the frosts have passed. i've not said that staking will be a problem but i'd rather have them as a bush then a cordon variety. i've always grown gardener's delight and moneymaker in the past but i'd like to try out something new. altho' the aforementioned are mostly acclaimed for best all-rounders...

the splitting i think was probably down to the incessant rainfall last summer and the under-ripeness was probably due to the overcrowding of the sprawling stems. due to these reasons, i shan't be going back to Tom Thumb as i a lot of my toms got wasted...

Primrose

This year I grew Tumbling Red in the ground, as well as the tall varieties, and Turmbling Yellow in a big wide container about 18 inches deep so that the roots had room to spread. I was overwhelmed with tomatoes from them and they didn't split, like the Gardeners Delight did. I think the secret of growing these tumbling varieties is to give them enough soil depth, and space to spread out. Many hanging baskets and shallow containers are probably inadequate for them.

enrich100

I use morrisons flower buckets for all my toms with no problems, I might probably get a bigger crop from bigger containers but still get enough to feed my family

Lotus-eater

How about Garden Pearl? (Gartenpearl)
Low growing bush habit and small sized fruit. Not the best taste, but certainly up there with tom thumb.

Your toms split, not because of rainfall, that should just drain out of the bottom of the pot. But because of uneven watering, ie you forgot to water them one day.

Big thumbs up for Gardeners Delight from me for salad tomatoes, unfortunately, they taste so good, they always seem to get eaten in the greenhouse!

Primrose

Last year I mixed a generous amount of water retention crystals in the compost in my containers for my tumbling tomatoes. along with generous amounts of bagged composted manure. This really seemed to help the water retention problem and possibly helped avoiding them splitting because of uneven watering.