How to Grow Tomatoes in a Container – Romas in 2007
April 21st, 2007 – This year I wanted to grow some tomatoes, but I felt that the ground in the backyard was just too hard, full of rocks and lacked the nutrition to nuture any kind of decent vegetables. So what I did was to take an empty cat litter container…
…and drilled holes in the bottom for drainage reasons, filled it up with potting soil and planted the tomato seeds. I placed the container on the back patio where it would get about 30-40% full sun every day and I watered them every day and waited to see how this little experiment unfolded.
April 28th, 2007 – After about a week or so I had small seedlings that poked their head above the dirt.Â
May 11th, 2007 – They’re doing really well, growing nice and strong. The other plants that are in the box are carrots that I originally planted with the tomatoes. I pulled most of them later on.
May 18th, 2007 – The tomatoe plans have started to bush out and cover the mouth of the container. at this point I pulled most of the carrots and a few of the weaker tomato plants so the ones that are left in there will grow stronger.
May 26, 2007 – The tomato plants are getting really tall now. I knew that I needed to get something to hold them up. I gound an old grill rack that had been thrown in the dumpster next door where they were building a new house. I bent it and stuck it in the dirt with the tomatoes.
June 2nd, 2007 – As you can see, within one week the tomato plants already overtook the grill rack. I am going to have to find something larger to hold the tomatoes. I also saw the first flower buds on the plants. I will most likely pluck them since thay are the first buds, we will see.
June 25th, 2007 – I broke down and bought a wire plant support from Lowes. It was only $2-3 so I was not that upset. These things just keep growing
July 8th, 2007 – I went away for a week on vacation. I left my tomatoes and the rest of my plants in very capable hands.
When I got home I found that I actually have tomatoes growing on the plants. The time is almost near.
July 15th, 2007 – I have noticed a thinning in the leaves on my tomato plants. This picture is actually of the back of the plant. A storm from last week knocked over the entire planter. I guess it is getting kind of top heavy. When I set it back up, I turned the leaning side towards the house. I have also notice that the roots are covering the top of the soil. I believe that the plants have nearly exhausted the nutrients in the littler box. That is my fault for planting 8-9 plants in one box.
There are plenty of tomatoes on the plant at the moment. There has to be a couple dozen tmatoes on the plant. I am waiting for one of them to start turning red. Should be happening soon.
August 4th, 2007 – I have Red Tomatoes!!!!! The plant itself seems to be shedding it leaves at the bottom to be able to grow the tomatoes. I have picked 4 tomatoes so far. They yave tasted great. I even saved some seeds so I can plant them again next year.
See. They are Red!
August 13th, 2007 – The plant is still growing. It is taller than the metal stand it is growing in. The leaves at the bottom have all died, but the new growth at the top is nice and green. The tomatoes are still growing nicely.
September 2nd, 2007 – Well, I believe that the tomato plants have finally used up all the nutrients in the soil. They just have quit producing tomatoes and all the leaves are dying. I think I got about 2 dozen tomatoes out of the plant. I pulled the root ball out of the kitty litter container and this is what I found.
It is crazy. The roots formed a nice impression of the bottom of the inside of the container. Interesting. I learned that I should only have one tomato plant ina container. I had about 12 plants in this one container. They were all fighting for the nutrients. So next Spring I will keep it to one plant per container.
See You Next Year,
April 19th, 2008 at 11:39 am
[...] I thought it was so good, I had to start my own. I had a couple of successes in 2007 with my Kitty Litter Roma Tomatoes and my Wick Fed Hydro Cucumbers, I thought I would expand what I grow this coming [...]
April 27th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
[...] These are the tomatoes. I have a beefsteak variety and a roma variety. This year I have planted only one plant per container. I did this because of what happened last year. [...]
May 1st, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I’d like to share a few tips I learned while growing my own tomatoes in containers.
1) You are definitely right about only having one plant per container. You don’t want your tomatoes to have to compete with each other.
2) The leaves near the bottom of your plants were likely turning yellow and dying because of a nutrient deficiency. When tomato plants are healthy the leaves should have a nice dark green color.
3) Try getting some tomato fertilizer that you can dissolve in a gallon of water. Also buy a bag of pulverized limestone. Whenever you fertilize, add equal parts fertilizer and limestone to your water and water your plants with it. The limestone serves two purposes: It balances out the fertilizer by keeping the pH levels from getting too acidic. It also adds calcium to the soil which helps prevent blossom end rot which can ruin your tomatoes.
4) One reason your tomatoes stopped producing could be that the plant was determinate. I am pretty sure that Roma tomatoes are determinate. Determinate tomato plants produce one crop all at once and that’s it. Determinate types tend to be popular for containers because they tend to not grow as large. Indeterminate type plants will keep growing and producing tomatoes until the frost kills it.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Thank you so much for the tips. I have already started my tomatoes for this year at http://roberttgasperson.com/articleblog/category/garden-diary-2008/ Check it out.
May 28th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
This was such a cool experiment (with great results), that i had to add a link to your website. I decided to try something similar except using a home built self watering container. What makes this experiment great, is some of us don’t have the luxury of garden space, and get tempted to plant more than 1 plant per container. Obviously, you had some great success here. Keep up the good work.
May 29th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Thank you. This project was fun, and I plan to continue to experiment over the next few years to see what best suits my growing abilities.
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Thanks for putting this up on the web Robert. It inspired me to plant my own tomato container garden. I’m using some 5-gallon buckets and they are doing great! I planted Early Girl plants in the containers and a Beefsteak in the ground. I love not having to weed the containers since the weeds in the ground garden were driving me crazy until I put some weedblock down and mulched with hay. Anyway, thanks again and good luck with your future gardens. Keep us posted!
June 4th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Your Welcome. I have enjoyed watching these plants grow. I am trying the romas in a wick system this year. We will see how they do.
June 5th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
[...] to share. I struck gold in the form of a blog by Robert Gasperson where I found the following post about his adventures in growing Roma tomatoes in an empty kitty litter [...]
February 18th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
Cat litter contains chemicals that are harrmful. My biggest concern would be the length of time the litter was originally put in the box. Some boxes stay on shelves for a long time before being sold. Each chemical that the Unites States uses can be found at MSDS; this stands for material Safety data sheets. http://hazard.com/msds/ Cat litter contains chemicals such as toluene and quartz silica. These are carcinogenic to people and animals. Why would a person want to utilize a cat litter knowing that the material contained harmful ingredients? These chemicals stay in the container, there is no way to get rid of them. It stays in the plastic.
February 19th, 2010 at 10:44 am
I wondered about that. I did bleach the inside of the container first. We ate the fruits without any harmful effects. Maybe someone would use a different container; maybe something that held food rather than kitty litter. You could also say that the plastic itself sould be harmful. There are talks about plastic leeching chemicals into water when it gets hot. This may be something we need to think about before growing in any kind of container. It was an experiment on my part that only partially works. Thanks for your opinion.