Cons: The plants are in dark containers which will lead to high temperature variations for the roots of the plants. An organic farmer once told me that one of the most important tricks for growing great tomatoes in very hot climates like ours is to make sure their "feet" remain at a constant temperature and that they don�t get too hot. There are many that will tell you that if the roots of tomato plant get over 70 degrees (F), the plant will not set fruit. They will grow like crazy but you will get no tomatoes.

Did I give good advice? Do you have any other tips?

I usually grow two or four plants and one year I placed shade cloth around two containers and left the other two in full sun. I could not tell any difference in any of the plants. I got about the same number and weight of tomatoes from each one.

The single most important factor I've found is water. It's not just volume that's important it's also frequency. If the moisture content of the soil varies very much the tomatoes will end up with radial cracking and cat facing. I now have a system set up that waters each plant every four hours. The timing of water will vary as the plant grows. I start with one minute of water every four hours and by the end of the season it will usually be five minutes every four hours. I judge the time by how long it takes for water to start coming out of the bottom of the container. I planted tomatoes on March 9 this year and my water time is now up to two minutes.

The next most important item is support. A large plant with a crop of growing tomatoes is very heavy and it is easy for them to fall over and break the stem. Initially I built 16' tall wooden towers with horizontal supports every 12", but have now switched to using PVC pipe. My plants will typically grow to over 15' in height and using PVC pipe allows me to add height as the plant grows.

If I knew how to post pictures on this forum I could show you what I talking about.

The first is a shot taken a few years ago when I was using wooden towers for support. Notice the nylon shade sloth around the bottom of the containers. I had two other plants growing at the same time that did not have the containers shaded and could not tell any difference in either quantity or quality of the tomatoes.

The supports were made from 2X4's - 16' long with horizontal at about 12".

This year I used new pots after getting a split in one last year. Here is the sequence:

first I drill a pattern of holes in the bottom of a 35 gallon plastic garbage can:

Next I place some nylon shade cloth over the holes to allow water to drain out while keeping the dirt in:

Then I put in the support base. This is 3/4" PVC pipe with a "Tee" and 5" "wings" to keep the uprights from pulling out:

Finally I fill the can with potting soil - about 2.5 Cu. Ft. and add the plants. Later I put in the ring header I made from 1/2" PVC with a pattern of 1/16" holes to provide a uniform distribution of water around the container without digging holes when the water is coming out:

As the plant grow I add a PVC "tee", uprights, and a horizontal cross piece to tie off the vine. I only allow one main stem to develop so that the plant will get good air flow all around and the leaves will dry out. If the plant gets bushy and does not dry out pretty quickly each morning or after a rain fungus and mold will take over in a short time. This shot was taken Sunday. The plant is a "Parks Whopper" and is now 42" tall. I allow no more than 3 tomatoes per cluster and usually only one or two. I find doing that gives me fewer but larger tomatoes and I end up with about the same weight.

I change out the potting soil and sterilize the containers every other year. If not I start getting disease early in the year.

I fertilize about every 7 - 14 days with Miracle Grow tomato plant food. I've learned to judge when to fertilize based on the distance between clusters. With proper fertilization the clusters will develop about 6" apart. Too much and the clusters will be 8" - 9" apart, under and they will be about 4" and very slow growing.

The only fertilizer I use the Miracle Grow. I tried using 13-13-13 one year, but I didn't get nearly the yield.

The tomato size is typically about 1.2 lb each. My all time record is 2.1 lb. Here is a typical (560 gm) Parks Whopper from last year:

Another question for you: I am trying tomatoes because I had some grown in Camp Verde and they made the most delicious sauce. I tried again with store tomatoes. Not even close. Being a city girl, I had to do this in order to learn the difference. Do you think it's possible to even remotely replicate the great tomatoes with a custom soil mix and tender care?

You are certainly serious about your tomatoes! Thank you for the pictures.

I think just about any well draining soil will work for container tomatoes. In fact I used to make my own, but it got to be too much work and I got lazy and just bought the potting soil.

I used about 1-1/2 cu ft of dirt I dug from an area in the yard, about 1 cu ft of peat moss, and 2 or 3 lbs of vermiculite, add a couple of hand fulls of 13-13-13 and mix the whole batch in a wheel barrow. It grew tomatoes just as well as the potting soil, but was a lot of work to mix and I ended up some big holes in the ground.

As I said in my first post - if you have good, consistent watering everything else is easy.