Container tomatoes for a compost test

[pointer80]

Hello everyone, Here is some tomatoes I did for my wife in some whiskey barrel planter as a test using the city compost that is available for free. I wanted to test it out to make sure there are no ill effects. Thanks.

[rainbowgardener]

Looking good so far. But have you grown tomatoes before? Are you familiar with how big the plants get? One plant per barrel would have been better (unless these are some dwarf or determinate variety). And they will need to be staked or caged.
Did you mix the compost with something? Compost doesn't usually do real well in containers. Too heavy and tends over time to pack down and turn into a brick.

[pointer80]

Hello everyone, Here is some tomatoes I did for my wife in some whiskey barrel planter as a test using the city compost that is available for free. I wanted to test it out to make sure there are no ill effects. Thanks.

I plan on eventually staking them. These are cherry tomatoes and the containers are about 27 gallons each. I had the extra tomatoes so I stuck them in.

[imafan26]

Cherry tomatoes can still be an 8-10 ft vine. Unless those are determinate ones,one per pot will be better. Tomato roots get large and they are heavy feeders. The tomatoes look good now, I don't have luck with compost in pots. It holds too much water and my city's greenwaste compost has a pH 8.13, much too alkaline for acid loving tomatoes.

How much compost did you use in the pot? You will still have to fertilize. The pot is not large enough to have a large population of beneficial bacteria and fungi to support such a heavy feeder.