Tomato Planters – What Are Your Tomato Planter Choices?

If you don’t have the room or desire to have a regular vegetable garden for your tomatoes, that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a tomato garden. There are a number of different tomato planters that can get you growing tomatoes without a garden.

The most well know tomato planter is the Topsy Turvy upside down tomato planter. We have a full review of the Topsy Turvy, but in summary this planter lets the tomatoes grow upside down and grow to the ground from a hanging container. There have been hanging tomato planters for many years, but these tended to be smaller and the plants grew upright and then hung over the side of the planter. Any of these hanging tomato planters have a number of advantages.

• Few weeds.
• No tomato cages or stakes needed.
• Excellent air circulation results in good pollination.
• Almost no soil borne diseases.
• Warms quickly resulting in earlier tomatoes.

The disadvantage of these planters is that in order to keep the size manageable, the root container is around 12 quarts or less, which means that in reality, despite what the commercials say, you are limited in the size of the plant that will grow. In addition, since they are exposed on several sides, they will warm up and dry out more quickly than plants in the ground, so you have to be vigilant in your watering of these planters. It’s also good to try using a tomato variety for a hanging planter, like some of the Tumbling Toms.

There are other upside down planters. Gardeners Supply has their Revolution planter, and many folks will just make their own upside down planter from something like a large water bottle.

If you like the idea of an upside down tomato planter, there are a couple of alternatives that stand on the ground, and so are able to hold more soil and can support either bigger tomatoes or more tomato plants. One of these is the Topsy Turvy Tree planter, which will hold three tomato plants, and another is the Upside Down Tomato Garden, which will not only hold up to four tomato plants, but a few other plants growing right side up like flowers, herbs, or peppers. Or you may just choose to grow your tomatoes in a pot on the patio or balcony.

The common limitation of most of these planters is that they will dry out more quickly than the garden. One way keep your tomatoes watered is to use a self watering planter, the most popular of which is the Earthbox system. These self watering planters typically have a water reservoir that extends the period between times you have to add water. They will still tend to use more water since they are exposed on multiple sides, but the amount of water needed is not usually a problem, its the constant vigilance that’s the issue, so these can be a big help, allowing you to leave them unattended for a few days.