re: Growing Tomatoes and Peppers in 5-Gallon Buckets. "tips"

Tomatoes will need to be supported in some way because the plants themselves will not support the weight of the leaves and fruit and will spill over the bucket and cover the porch.

I also stake pepper plants, but mine are in the ground and subject to whatever nature throws at them as they grow. Bell peppers can get to be pretty plentiful and heavy on the plant and the branches are not all that strong to hold the fruit so I tie them off to keep them upright.

Hot peppers always bear much smaller fruit, so they can do well unsupported.


If you have a wood deck on your porch I suggest you put a few small blocks of treated wood under the buckets to allow water to drain and not simply collect under the bucket. That could lead to water damage to the porch deck.