I have grown container tomatoes a couple of times with varying amounts of success. The best crop I ever had was when I bought those seeds at Walmart that come in the egg shaped containers. They are supposedly for containers specifically. I got a great crop and the tomatoes were small, but good tasting.

P.S. I'm also in coastal southern California - San Diego County, about 3 miles from the beach.

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Oh boy njoynit....definitely NO expert, lol. Julianna has far more experience than I.

Herbyann, 5 gallon containers will most likely limit you to determinates or dwarfs. Although I have read of people growing indeterminates in that size container with limited success. There are many commercially available varieties I would look into if I were you. The container varieties I am growing this year are Kimberly, Taxi, New Big Dwarf, Citron Compact, Silvery Fir Tree, Lime Green Salad, Lucky Leprechaun and Victorian Dwarf. Others that work well in containers are Golden Dwarf Champion, Sophie's Choice(I'm trying to obtain this one), Marglobe. All of these are open pollinated varieties which you could save true seed from if you so choose and most are available from places like Victory, TGS, Sandhill, Marianne's, etc.

As far as the "new" grape, I'm wondering if you mean the type they're selling at the supermarkets. In reality who know's with the industrial breeding these days what those varieties are and if they're available. There are a few varieties of "grape" type tomatoes sold, but in general they are lumped in to the cherry type category. If you want really sweet, I am trying Sungold(F1) this year as I've heard it is one of the best cherries available. Not exactly a container type plant though. In general cherry types aren't though.

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John - Zone 6

Dave, I would do it and see what you come up with. Its just not ideal. Thats all.

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John - Zone 6

I grew some for my mom in 5 gallon buckets,
hey I didn't get 6ft tall plants, but she got enough for herself to eat..
She likes to go out her back door and pick a tomato, and not all the way back to my garden,
so I just did up a couple of pots....
One was a cherry variety and did a couple of the
Rutger kind..
Hey, she thought that was great, and better than a store bought kind...

They do need to have good drainage, but because they are in a small dirt area, they did need to be watered alot more than the one's in my regular garden, two or three times sometimes during those lonnnnnnng Hottttttttttttt days here, **plus the buckets were on top of a cement patio which produced alot of heat on it's own.....

I think if I do it again, and get new 5 gallon buckets, I might change the placement of my drainage holes..
I had mine directly at the bottom of the bucket...
I may, put them about 2" up from the bottom on the sides of the bucket, to give it a small water reservoir at the bottom instead of draining out sooooo fast.... worth experimenting on...

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Weezie

Don't forget to be kind to strangers. For some who have
done this have entertained angels without realizing it.
- Bible - Hebrews 13:2





http://photobucket.com/albums/y250/weezie13/

Check out this spiffy lookin' tomato container..
rolling 3 compartment tomato container.....

I am hopin' my hubby will make one *or two* for my
mom's patio!!!!

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Weezie

Don't forget to be kind to strangers. For some who have
done this have entertained angels without realizing it.
- Bible - Hebrews 13:2





http://photobucket.com/albums/y250/weezie13/

you could always paint it to make it look better.

I have 2 in containers(well got a hanging tomato planter too so is actually 3)

I'm likely going to sink my container.I've only got them in a container cause my garden bed not ready& I'm actually eye-balling my compost pile& thinking of moveing it and then tilling where it moved from

I would think determinate types would be better in containers.I'm not getting a good picture of my early girl in a container...she topped out at 10 ft plus last yr& my 6 ft stakes we're actually TOO SHORT we're talkin TX-sized-plants.

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I will age ungracefully until I become an old woman in a small garden..doing whatever the Hell I want!

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