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Tomatoes are a common crop plant that is grown all over the world. They are used as an ingredient in a variety of cooking styles, and for many people, they are a favorite snack all by themselves. Fortunately, this tasty treat is also a pleasure to grow. Let’s learn more about how to grow this plant, what equipment is needed to do so, and which planters are best for this process.
Best Tomato Planter on a Budget
Bosmere Green Tomato Planter Bag
This tomato planter is inexpensive, easy to carry, and easy to store. It features a simple design but it can deliver huge harvests.
Pros
- It is inexpensive
- It can be set in tight spaces
- It is sturdy
- it drains well
- It stores in small places
- It can hold 2 to 3 plants at a time
- It reduces and even eliminates weeds
- It can also be used to grow potatoes and other types of vegetables
Cons
- Its handles can degrade after sitting in the sun all summer
This pack of three green patio tomato planter bags is perfect for growing tomatoes on your patio or balcony. Each bag is made of durable polyethylene and features drainage holes to prevent overwatering. Measuring 14 x 18 inches, each bag can hold one tomato plant and is reusable season after season.
Best Tomato Planter for Small Spaces
Back to the Roots Tomato Grow Kit
This Mason jar is designed for growing small cherry tomatoes without any hassle. It is perfect for those who have no space to grow an outdoor garden or for those who do not have a green thumb.
Pros
- It is designed to grow organic tomatoes
- It is designed to grow tomatoes all year round
- It is designed to fit in a window sill
- It has a replacement guarantee if tomatoes do not grow as promised
- It offers to donate a kit to a classroom when a picture of the kit is shared and tagged online
- It is easy to use
- It comes with ideas and recipes for using the harvested tomatoes
- It has a lot of great reviews
Cons
- It only grows cherry tomatoes
There's no need to worry about intoxicants that may hinder your plant's growth because the Back to the Roots Kitchen Self-Watering Vegetable Planter is completely organic and not genetically modified
Best Self-Watering Tomato Planter
Gardener’s Victory Self-Watering Planter
This is a tomato planter that is designed to make growing crops easy. It provides all the necessary water to the plant without any hassle.
Pros
- It is designed to grow many different types of plants, not just tomatoes
- It comes with a support system
- It is designed to allow airflow to the plant’s root system
- It has wheels attached to its bottom for easy moving
Cons
- Some customers have stated that the clips break easily
- Some customers have stated that replacement parts are not available
Developed specifically for beans, peas, cucumbers, clematis and other climbers, it all starts with the Gardener's Victory Self-Watering Planter
Best Tomato Planter for Growing Tomatoes Upside Down
Topsy Turvy
Since many types of tomatoes are vining plants, they typically need stakes and support systems to grow well. An upside-down tomato planter is an excellent way to grow tomatoes without worrying about setting up supports.
Pros
- It is compact and flexible
- It is self-watering
- It removes the need for support stakes
- It reduces pest infestations and diseases
- It makes harvesting easy
Cons
- It does not hold a lot of weight, only small tomato varieties grow well on it
- Plants need more water since their root system is exposed to more airflow
- The stalks tend to block sunlight from reaching the fruit which means the fruit does not ripen properly
- Growing upside down can stress out the stems that are designed to grow toward sunlight
Everyone loves the taste of a delicious homegrown garden tomato but planting a garden and trying to take care of it is back breaking work and after all that, your tomato’s can still end up on the ground and spoiled but now there’s an easy way to grow delicious homegrown tomatoes without all that work. 
How to Deal with Common Diseases and Pests in Tomatoes?
Tomatoes are very attractive to many different pests and they are also susceptible to disease. To ensure that you get a healthy and hefty crop, learn what infestation and pests are apt to attack your tomato plants and how to prevent or deal with them.
These are the most common problems faced by tomato plants and how to best deal with them:
Aphids
This type of infestation shows up in the form of tiny insects that live in clusters on plant stems and leaves. The best ways to deal with these insects are:
- Remove them by hand if they are only a few
- Remove leaves or stems that have a large infestation
- Introduce ladybugs to the garden (they consume aphids)
- Apply an insecticide to the plant
Designed for use on caterpillars and worm type insects, such as cabbage looper, bagworm, gypsy moth, fall cankerworm, elm spanworm, and more. 
Blight
This type of disease is very difficult to control. It is best to treat infected plants quickly or learn how to prevent the blight from occurring in the first place. The best ways to deal with this disease are:
- Apply fungicide to the plant
- Avoid watering the plant, but rather focus on watering the soil around the plant
- Rotate crops every season
- Water the plant in the morning so that excess water has time to evaporate
Corky Root Rot
Symptoms of an infestation of this fungus are:
- Brown lesions on the plant’s roots
- Plants with stunted growth
- Plants that are suffering from dieback
- Roots that look like cork
The best ways to deal with this infestation are:
- Only plant crops when the soil is warm
- Rotate crops every season
- Use soil solarization
Curly Top
This virus shows itself in the following symptoms:
- Leaves that roll upwards
- Leaves that curl
- Leaves that become rigid
The best ways to deal with this type of infestation are:
- Plant the crop under a little shade
- Apply neem oil weekly
- Remove any plant that is infected
Cutworms
This is a caterpillar that will eat straight through a plant stem if not stopped. The best ways to deal with them are:
- Use compost when preparing your garden bed for planting tomatoes
- Remove weeds from around the tomato plants
- Maintain a 3 foot circle of dry soil around each tomato plant, if possible
- Remove any larvae from the plant or garden
- Install a cutworm collar around the plant
- use a pesticide
- use the slug bait
Flea Beetles
This type of insect jumps and even looks similar to flea. It enjoys consumes many types of crops, not just tomatoes. The best ways to deal with them are:
- Apply a botanical insecticide to the plant
- Dust plants with diatomaceous earth
- Remove weeds and debris from around the plant
- Set out yellow sticky traps to catch adults
Gray Mold
This is a type of fungus that attacks leaves and stems. Symptoms of an infestation of gray mold include:
- Gray and fluffy spores covering infected parts of the plant
- Leaves that grow irregularly
- Oval legions on the plant’s stems
The best ways to deal with this type of infestation are:
- Apply fungicide to the plant
- Provide plenty of space between plants to encourage airflow
- Reduce leaf wetness
- Removes any fruit, leaves, or stems that show signs of infestation
- Remove debris from around the plant
Organic gardeners trust our solutions to keep garden pest control simple – and let nature do the rest. Let goodness grow.Garden Safe Brand Fungicide3 is designed for organic gardening. This ready-to-use formula acts as a garden fungicide, insecticide and miticide – it’s three garden products in one. 
Hornworms
These are large green caterpillars that love munching on leaves, fruits, and vegetables. The best ways to deal with them are:
- pick them off by hand
- Apply an organic insecticide
Nematodes
There are around 20,000 different species of nematode identified. Most of these are microscopic and very difficult to notice until the plant is already under stress. The best ways to deal with this type of infestation are:
- Rotate crop types every season so that the nematodes don’t have time to get established
- Sterilize the soil
- Add beneficial nematodes to counter the negative effects of the detrimental nematodes
White Mold
This type of mildew grows on plants during warm and dry weather. It looks like a powder covering leaves and will eventually turn the leaves yellow until they shrivel, dry up, and die altogether. The best ways to deal with this problem are:
- Learn to properly feed the plant
- Learn to properly water the plant
- Remove leaves that show signs of infestation
- Remove tomatoes from plants that show signs of infestation
- Spray the plant with a mixture made from five parts water and one part milk to prevent infestations
Whiteflies
This type of insect is tiny and enjoys drinking plant juice. They leave behind honeydew after visiting and munching on a plant. The best ways to deal with these flying insects are:
- Apply horticultural oil to the plant
- Apply insecticidal soaps to the plant
- Introduce ladybugs to the garden (they consume aphids)
- Set out yellow sticky traps to catch adults
- Spray down the plant
FAQs
Answer: There really isn’t a need to lose friends over this age-old question because tomatoes are both a fruit and a vegetable. Here’s how:
Tomatoes are a product of a plant that is both the edible portion and the reproductive portion of the plant. This is a descriptive quality of what a fruit is.
Tomatoes are treated as vegetables in the world of nutritionists and culinary professionals and for this reason, they are considered vegetables.
Answer: Most types of determinate tomatoes grow well in planters since they only need well-draining and loose soil. However, indeterminate tomatoes grow better in the ground.
Answer:
• Determinate tomatoes do not require that their suckers be pruned or removed, while indeterminate tomatoes grow better when their suckers are removed.
• Determinate tomatoes grow to a determined and fixed size, while indeterminate tomatoes continue vining throughout their growing season.
• Determinate tomatoes produce mature fruit in a few weeks’ time, while indeterminate tomatoes continue to produce fruit throughout their growing season.
• Determinate tomatoes remain small and compact, while indeterminate tomatoes continue growing until they are killed off by frost.
Answer: There are actually many types of tomatoes that thrive in planters. Here are just a few options:
• Patio Tomato
• Rome Tomato
• Sweet Million Cherry Tomato
• Husky Red
• Jet star
• San Marzano
Answer: Tomatoes require soil that drains well and has a lot of rich and nutritious organic matter. The ideal type of soil for a tomato plant includes compost. Fox Farm Potting Soil is an excellent and organic choice for potting soil.
Answer: Yes, this plant requires plenty of fertilizer in order to produce a healthy crop. Give the tomato plant its first feeding just after it is set in a planter.
This should be done with an organic fertilizer that is also slow-release. Since these plants are heavy feeders, they should also be fed with an organic fertilizer in liquid form every few weeks.
Answer: Tomatoes require regular watering so that they do not wilt. This means they should need to be watered every day or two, but to know for sure, the soil will have to be tested. If the top two inches of the soil in the planter tomato are dry, the plant should be watered thoroughly.
Answer: Tomatoes require at least 4 hours of full sun each day.
Answer:
• Purchase seeds from a reputable seller
• Fill planters with a seed starter mix
• Moisten the seed starter mix
• Set two or three tomato seeds ¼ of an inch deep in the mix
• Cover the seeds with the mix
• Moisten the top of the mix
• Set the planter in a warm area
• Cover the planter with plastic to hold in moisture
• Keep the mix moist
Once sprouts appear, remove the plastic and set the planter in a warm and sunny spot
Answer: No, cracks in tomatoes are typically a sign that the tomato went through a dry period followed by a period of increased moisture levels. It can also mean that the tomato is ripe and ready to be harvested.
Answer: Tomatoes grow well in zones 5 through 8.
Best Tomato Planters: Conclusion
Tomatoes are a versatile food crop that can be used for salads, soups, and sauces. They are also fun and easy to grow. So, the next time you wonder which plant will be the tastiest, easiest, and most helpful to grow in your garden, consider a variety of tomato plants.