Container Gardening

I first heard about growing cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets two years ago, when I was at my local farmer’s market. One of the booths was selling pre-planted hanging baskets with cherry tomatoes for some exorbitant amount of money: $25 or so, I think. I was tempted in spite of the high price: I love fresh cherry tomatoes, and these were beautiful plants, with gorgeous tangles of vines and cascading fruits. In the end, though, I decided against it.

It turns out, though, that it’s easy to create your own hanging baskets for cherry tomatoes, and for much less money than the farmers were asking. Here are some tips to get you started.

The first step, as with most container gardening, is to choose the container. Just about any garden center or hardware store will sell simple wire hanging baskets such as the one shown in this ad, which are cheap and practical. Many come prelined with coconut coir, but if yours doesn’t, it’s easy to find and purchase liners. You can usually find baskets like this for under $10. It’s a good idea to get one a minimum of 12″, and 14″ is better. Still, you can grow cherry tomatoes in smaller baskets, if you choose your variety carefully.

Once you have your container, you can choose a cherry tomato to plant in it. My article on best container cherry tomato varieties has information about good varieties of cherry tomatoes for growing in baskets. You can either grow your cherry tomato from seed and transplant it into the basket, or buy the seedlings direct. It is not a good idea to plant seeds directly in your hanging basket.

Once you have a good-sized cherry tomato seedling, you will need to plant it. You do not want to use soil for planting in baskets. Choose either a good soilless potting mix or a medium of sphagnum moss. Soilless growing media hold water much better, which is very important when working with small containers such as hanging baskets.

Fill the basket around halfway with the potting mix, then set the seedling in the basket. When growing cherry tomatoes, it’s a good idea to plant it deeply: tomato plants can form roots along their main stems, so the root system will develop more quickly if part of the stem is buried. Once the seedling is placed, fill the basket in the rest of the way. Water heavily. Soilless planting media will hold a great deal of water, which is why they’re so good for containers.

When choosing a place to hang your cherry tomato basket, make sure it is a sunny location. Growing cherry tomato plants need a lot of sun. As a minimum, they should get six hours a day, and more is better. Also consider placement: you want easy access to the plant, so you can water it and harvest from it.

Your plants will die each year with the frost, but the baskets are reusable each year with a fresh liner. Enjoy your cherry tomatoes!

This is the first year I’ve done any experimenting with upside-down plants.  My husband bought me the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter for Christmas, and I’ve been itching to try it out for months.

A few months ago, I made an aborted effort to hang it in my sunroom.  It didn’t turn out very well: the hook ripped out of the ceiling, and the entire system crashed down to the floor, spilling dirt and crushing the seedling I’d placed in it.

Oops.

For my second try, I decided to take some extra precautions.  Below are the extra steps I took to ensure a stable mounting system for the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter.

1. Get a new hook
The hook they include with the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter is really very short for the load they expect it to bear.  I went out to my local hardware store and got a larger hook, designed to hold a weight of over 200 lbs.  Is that overkill?  Almost certainly.  But the last thing I want is to have the tomato plant get larger and fuller and lush, producing beautiful fruit… all of which is destroyed when the hook gives way.

2. Mount the hook horizontally, not vertically
When you insert the screw into the ceiling, the threads are the only part of the screw holding it in.  All the weight of the plant is working against the weakest part of the connection.  It would not take much splintering to rip the hook free of the stud into which it’s screwed.  When you mount it into a wall, parallel to the ground, the entire length of the screw helps support the planter.  The wood would have to crack significantly before the screw ripped loose.

3. Use potting mix, not soil
Soilless potting mix is much lighter than dirt, and will add less total weight to the system.  It’s much easier to hang it with potting mix than it is with soil.

I’ll update on the effectiveness of the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter later in the season.  Next year, I’m going to try some of the make-your-own recipes for upside-down planters, to see which are more and less effective.

If you’re interested in growing cherry tomatoes in containers, you’re in luck: as a class, they’re among the easier tomato varieties to grow.  However, depending on your particular taste or the kind of container you have, you can choose from among many varieties.

The first question to ask is what kind of container you want.  There are three real choices: hanging baskets, small containers, or full-sized tomato planters.  If you want a full-sized tomato planter, you can choose from among the many full-sized varieties on offer.  If you want something smaller, a little more research is required.

Hanging Baskets

To plant cherry tomatoes  in a hanging basket, you need a variety that thrives with shallow roots and does not grow very tall.  Tomatoes with long trailing vines will spill attractively from the basket.

Florida Basket: Produces red fruit around an inch in diameter, in slightly elongated globes.  Determinate.

Floragold Basket: Cherry-sized round tomatoes, gold in color when ripe.  Determinate.

Anmore Dewdrop: Cherry-sized round tomatoes, red when ripe.  Prolific fruiter.  Determinate, but will have a second crop once the first is harvested.

Micro Tom: Itty-bitty plant, which will fit even in a 4-inch pot.  Can be planted a few to a basket.  Round red fruit, smaller than a penny.  Determinate.

Small Pots

Most basket tomato varieties will also work in small pots.  If you choose, however, you can use a slightly larger variety, which grows to around a foot or two in height.

Anmore Treasures: Slow to grow, but can be started early.  Around 12″ tall, with bright red round fruit, 1″ in diameter.  Sensitive to cracking from uneven watering.  Determinate.

Tiny Tim: Fast-growing, with only 60 days to maturity.  18-inch plants can fit in a 6-inch pot.  3/4 inch fruit, bright red and round.  A heavy fruiter for its foliage.  Determinate.

Totem: Very small plant, at only 10-12 inches.  Small, red, round fruit.  The leaves are very attractive, making this work well in a semi-ornamental garden.  Determinate.

Yellow Pygmy: Bush-style plant, with low, dense foliage.  Tiny yellow-orange fruit, 1/2 inch in diameter.  Slightly acidic, sharp flavor. Indeterminate.