Growing Tomatoes in Pots & Containers

You don't need a garden to grow tomatoes. A sunny patio, a balcony or a doorstep — paired with a big enough pot — will give you a steady crop of warm, sweet tomatoes all summer. For many UK growers, pots are the obvious choice: they put the plant exactly where the sun is and keep it close to the kitchen.

Growing in pots is simple, but it asks a little more attention than growing in the ground — chiefly around water. A tomato in open soil can send roots down to find moisture; a tomato in a pot can only drink what you give it. Get the watering right and everything else falls into place. This guide covers the differences that matter in containers, from the pot to the varieties. For the full sowing-to-harvest method, see the main guide to growing tomatoes.

Why pots work so well for tomatoes

Tomatoes are one of the best crops for containers. A pot can be moved into the sunniest, sheltered corner you have, containers warm up faster in spring (which suits a heat-loving crop), and fresh compost each year avoids soil-borne diseases like blight. For anyone with a balcony or a paved-over plot, they turn a space that grows nothing into one that grows dinner — and our guide to growing food in containers covers other crops that thrive the same way.

Choosing a container

Bigger is genuinely better with tomatoes. The size of the pot sets the size of the root system, and that sets the size of the crop. A cramped pot dries out in hours; a generous one holds moisture steadily.

Minimum size — aim for a pot at least 30cm across, holding 20–40 litres of compost per plant. That is the floor, not the ideal: for vigorous cordon (vine) types, a 40-litre tub will outperform a small pot every time, because more compost holds more water in reserve.

Material and drainage — plastic and resin pots hold moisture better than terracotta; old buckets and storage boxes work if you drill holes. Drainage holes are non-negotiable — tomatoes hate waterlogged compost, so stand pots on feet or bricks to drain freely. Grow bags are fine too, but plant two (not three) per bag and add a watering ring, as the shallow shape dries out quickly.

The best varieties for pots

Choosing the right variety is half the battle in a container.

Bush and tumbling types — the easy winners

These are the stars of container growing. Bush (or determinate) tomatoes stay compact and stop at a set height, so they need no pinching out and little support. Tumbling varieties cascade over the sides of pots and baskets, keeping fruit off the ground. The classics — 'Tumbling Tom', 'Maskotka' (a heavy-cropping trailer with brilliant flavour) and 'Balconi' (bred for balcony pots) — are all forgiving and ideal for a nervous first-timer.

Cordon types — for big pots and a bit more care

Cordon (vine, or indeterminate) tomatoes keep growing taller all season and need a cane, tying-in, and the side-shoots pinched out. They grow happily in a large container of 40 litres or more, and favourites like 'Gardener's Delight', 'Sungold' and 'Shirley' reward the extra attention with a long, heavy harvest. You can buy seeds and plants from Suttons, Thompson & Morgan, Dobies and Crocus.

Compost: getting the mix right

What you fill the pot with matters as much as the pot itself, since there's no garden soil underneath to help. Use a good peat-free multipurpose compost as your base, but bulk it up with around a third John Innes No.2 or No.3. This loam-based compost adds weight (which stops tall plants blowing over), holds moisture better, and carries a slow-release reserve of nutrients to back up your feeding. For a fuller comparison, see our guide to the best compost for containers. Before filling, place a layer of crocks or gravel over the drainage holes so they don't clog.

Planting up — and why you plant deep

Wait until the risk of frost has passed before tomatoes go outside for good — late May in most of the UK, later in the north and Scotland. Before that, plants raised indoors need hardening-off: stand them outside for a few hours a day over a week or two to acclimatise them to wind and cooler nights.

Here's the one trick that makes a real difference in pots: plant deep. Tomatoes grow new roots from any buried stem, so set the rootball low and bury the stem up to the lowest set of leaves, pinching off any that would sit below the compost. The buried stem sprouts an extra tier of roots for a bigger, sturdier, more drought-resistant plant — and in a container, every extra root counts.

Watering — the make-or-break factor

If you take one thing from this guide, take this: watering is the single most important part of growing tomatoes in pots. Get it right and most other problems never appear.

Containers dry out far faster than open ground — a full-grown tomato on a hot July day can drink several litres. Through summer, water at least once a day, morning and evening in a heatwave. The compost should stay evenly moist, like a wrung-out sponge — never bone dry, never waterlogged.

Consistency is everything — it's the steadiness of supply that matters, not just the amount. Letting the pot dry right out then drenching it causes two classic problems: the fruit splits as it suddenly swells, and the plant develops blossom end rot, the sunken brown patch on the base caused by calcium failing to reach the fruit when water is interrupted. Both are watering faults, not diseases, and both are preventable with a steady routine — our blossom end rot troubleshooter explains the mechanism.

Self-watering options make life much easier if you're out all day or away for a weekend: self-watering planters have a reservoir the compost wicks from, and drip systems on a timer do a similar job. For more on keeping pots hydrated, see our guide to watering containers, and use the watering calculator to gauge how much your pots need in a typical UK summer.

Feeding for a heavy crop

The compost carries enough nutrients for the first few weeks, but a tomato is a hungry plant and a pot's reserves run out quickly. Once the first flowers open, start feeding weekly with a high-potash tomato feed — potash drives flowering and fruiting, so a proper tomato feed gives more and better fruit than a general one. For the full feeding regime at each stage, see our guide to watering and feeding tomatoes.

Support and position

Support — bush and tumbling types mostly look after themselves; cordon types need a sturdy cane or tomato frame pushed into the pot at planting time, with the main stem tied in loosely every 20cm and the side-shoots pinched out.

Position — give your pots the sunniest, most sheltered spot you have. Tomatoes need warmth and at least six hours of direct sun a day to ripen well, so a south- or west-facing wall is perfect: it catches the sun and radiates stored heat back overnight. Shelter also helps the insects that pollinate the flowers.

Tomatoes in hanging baskets

Tumbling varieties were made for hanging baskets. Use a large basket (35cm or more) — small ones dry out far too fast — filled with a moisture-retentive peat-free compost, one plant per basket. Hang it somewhere sunny but within reach of the watering can, as a basket in full sun needs watering at least once a day, often twice, in high summer.

Harvesting

Tomatoes are ready to pick once they've coloured up fully and come away with a gentle twist. Leave them to ripen on the plant as long as you can, as that's where the flavour develops — a sun-warmed tomato picked straight from the pot is the whole point of growing your own. Pick regularly through July to October. As autumn closes in, any green tomatoes left on the vine can be ripened on a windowsill, or in a drawer with a ripe banana whose ethylene gas speeds them along. To gauge how much a couple of pots might yield, try the yield calculator.

A simple month-by-month calendar

February–April — sow indoors on a warm windowsill or in a heated propagator. Prick out into individual pots and grow on in good light, potting on as they grow. Don't put them out yet — frost will kill them.

May — begin hardening-off on mild days. Once frosts have passed, plant up your final containers (planting deep) in their sunny spot.

June — plants establish and flower. Begin weekly high-potash feeding as the first flowers open, and start tying in cordon types and pinching out side-shoots.

July — the first ripe tomatoes arrive. Water daily, feed weekly, keep tying in and pinching out, and pick regularly.

August–September — peak harvest. Keep up the watering through any heatwaves to avoid splitting and blossom end rot, and remove lower yellowing leaves for air flow.

October — pick the last ripe fruit, bring green tomatoes indoors to ripen, and empty spent compost onto the garden.

What to grow alongside tomatoes

Tomatoes share a pot or a patio happily with herbs — basil is the classic companion and is said to deter whitefly — while a pot of marigolds nearby draws in pollinators and the hoverflies whose larvae eat aphids. Almost everything else you eat will grow in a pot too — salads, chillies, courgettes and French beans — and our guide to growing food in containers is the place to start. When you're ready to grow on a bigger scale, the main guide to growing tomatoes covers the whole journey from seed to harvest, in pots, borders and greenhouses alike.