I use potting soil and the bought garden soil mixed with compost when I have it avaiable. I find this mix works well. One thing to keep in mind is you need at least a 5 gallon comtainer to put the tomato plant in and even then it will take almost daily watering to produce a good amount of tomatos. This year we are tring larger pots to see if it will ease the watering a bit. Still have a few in 5 gallons though.

Thanks Frisha. I can probably use some of our pile of horse crap and mix it with potting soil. Is there a type of tomato that works best in containers, that I will be able to find at lowe's or wally world?

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If you can find it the patio types are smallest and need the least staking, alot of the others need to be staked as they get pretty big. Don't get me wrong I've done the betterboys in 5 gallons and don't have a single patio type this year either, But just went and got soem more poles to stake them with too 8 foot poles. So you might wan tto keep this in mind that the determinet breeds generaly are smaller then the indertiminte is my understanding.

Havn't tried the bottle trick as generally the pot ends up pretty full of roots but will have too keep it in mind. I know we ended up with a solid mass of roots in the 5gall last year so will see how the bigger pots work this year and may do the bottles next year Already have most all in pots in don't want to mess with the roots much more as they are growing well. Also attempting to use saucers this year, speaking of which I went and forgot to pick up the misquetio stuff earlier.

'I grow tomatoes every year in 24 inch plastic pots'
What are the 24inch pots used? I saw a pic of someone using a plastic tub. The kind with handles. Would that be ok?

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The 24 inch pots I use are plastic clay lookalikes. I just buy those because I like the look of terracotta (as well ss real terracotta) but the tubs and other suggestions work fine too.
I buy the plastic because it's lightweight compared to real clay pots.
All of my smaller "garden" is in real terracotta.
You could even plant directly into a 1 or 2 cubic foot bag od potting soil. If you punch or cut some drainage in the bottom. And lean the bag against a fence.

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Sorry it took me a few days to get back.
Yes, those are the buckets I meant. I got one this weekend, and a bag of potting soil. I think I'll fill about half way with soil from the back yard. That thing is huge and would take a lot of potting soil. I have'nt grown tomatoes before, will I need to put a tomato cage or some kind of stake in with the plant? I looked at some plants too but waited to talk to someone first. I saw mostly 'better boys'. Dad said that is a good one. Does anyone have another suggestion? I don't quess I could do squash in a container? They need to spread don't they?
On another note, I had a plant grow in my front flower bed last year. It looked like a pumpkin or watermelon. I figured watermelon cause we had a picnic and thought someone dropped seeds there. I let it grow, it spread to the yard and made it hard to mow there. (OH DARN) I pulled all but two blooms off, and let the two grow. One quit growing and dried up, but we still had one left. When we cut it at the end of summer what a suprise, not a watermelon, but a pumpkin, though not ripe. Disappointed all around. Still don't know where the seed came from.

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OK it didn't.
Pics are on my flickr page.
Sorry

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