On Wednesday I took a look at pot sizes for planting tomatoes.
Diameter : minimum of 9” and anything up to 14”.
Volume : minimum of 9 litres but greater is better.
So what have I used ?
My first plantings are in 30cm/12” diameter pots from Asda. Buy 2 for £3. I’m not recommending them as they didn’t have drainage holes and I had to make them. Not pretty! ( Language or holes.)
The pots are 24cm/9” deep but taper.
Counting the number of tomato plants I have challenges my maths, so even with no taper I couldn’t work out the pot volume. But as 8 used 75 litres of compost they must be about 9 litres. So the diameter is ok but greater volume would be preferable for some of the taller cordons.
My second plantings are in 32cm diameter pots from Wilkinson. I prefer these. (I got the last 7 and felt very guilty when a lady asked where I’d got them and I had to point to the empty shelf.) £ 1.49 each. Ready made holes. The Grecian fluting may be a bit high falutin for tomatoes but otherwise fine.
No taper and 24cm deep. From the amount of compost used, I think they hold about 11 litres.
As you may have spotted from the photos I didn’t follow my own advice and stake the plants when putting them in their new pots as I couldn’t get bamboo canes. Shopping karma was clearly in operation as Wilkinson who when I was last in had lots, had sold out. I’ll need to look elsewhere for plentiful cheap canes.
I used Multipurpose compost. Some from last year, bought from the farm shop but not opened and some bought this week from Asda. 2 x 70 litres for £6.
I remembered the advice re letting compost warm up in your garden before using it. Last years’ unopened bags were doing just that and the Asda compost sat in the car for a day (because I couldn’t park near enough to home to be within lugging distance) but I’m happy to pass this off as part of the plan.
Feeling bad about the lack of canes I also adhered to the tepid water advice (that I had previously been planning to ignore) and added 1 litre of boiling water to a 10 litre watering can of cold water to provide a tepid first watering .
I’m now excited to see the plants grow to fill their new pots. They were ready for that extra wriggle room. This is a photo of the roots of one sown 16 March and transplanted 21 May.
