re: Tips for planting tomatoes in five gallon buckets?

I had bought these and they’re working well (like $23 for a 10 pack of 15 gallon)

Amazon

I never have luck growing them in the ground. Pots always work better. I can move them inside if we’re expecting really bad weather. Couple of years ago I had a half dozen in the ground that got pummeled and from then on I just use a pot.

For me I have verticillium wilt fungus in my soil that hits my tomatoes every year. They grow great until the fungus makes it into their system.

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Interesting, the one time i grew them in pots they did awful.

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Well crap. I had a long drawn out post about my current experiment with raised beds vs 20 gallon grow bags vs 17 gallon muck tubs converted to wicking pots when we lost power and I lost it.

Suffice it to say, so far, the wicking pots are performing exponentially better than the grow bags and raised beds. The grow bags are performing much better than the raised beds. All had the same soil and the same fertilizer until a week ago when I switched from 7-22-8 granular to 8-24-24 granular in the raised beds and 4-18-38 liquid in the pots. The new growth in the beds is starting to look much better and flower production has increased. Peppers and tomatoes planted March 1st.

My 2 cents.

I've grown in 10gal grow bags for three years. They work very well. I also grow tomatoes in raised beds.

Pros to grow bags:

- almost impossible to over water
- you can fertilize more often with liquid fertilizer
- easier to fight soil-borne fungus or disease

Cons to grow bag:

- in the summer in south Louisiana, they have to be watered twice a day. I've set all of mine on irrigation this year, so if you go grow bags, I'd recommend doing that.
- I find the plants much more susceptible to leaf curl, which I believe has something to do with the roots getting hot up against the side of the bag. I haven't found this to affect production at all though.

Also note that the sizing amongst different brands of grow bags is NOT consistent. 10 gal from one brand may not be 10 gal from another. The brand I use is called Honest Outfitters. I ordered from Amazon.

Half 30 gallon drums. Creole.

Any advice on what fertilizer to use for container tomatoes and peppers? They are planted in Miracle Grow performance organics container mix.

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Miracle Grow performance organics container mix.

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has fertilizer in it
hold off until you have good vegetative growth.
when you see the flower buds start to sprout start with a fruiting fertilizer there are several that are specific to tomatoes, it will say that on the bag.

just being honest I usually don’t fertilize. Start with peat moss, compost, worm casings, and a time released general purpose fertilizer when you plant and you shouldn’t need to feed after that