Different ways of planting Tomatoes

Planting tomatoes in containers is easy, but some things need to be considered for the plant to grow and produce properly. This post will talk about our experience trying four different ways of planting tomatoes in containers and what has worked best for us.

Tomato was our first plant to try to grow last year. We tried different ways of planting tomatoes, including using a cardboard egg carton, throwing a tomato in the soil, a hydroponic system, and getting a seedling from a mature plant at the end of the season; we did try quite a few different techniques.

Placing tomatoes seeds in the container soil

This was our first try. We took all the seeds from the tomatoes and placed them in the soil in a big container. We used organic store-bought tomatoes and planted two kinds of tomatoes (cherry tomatoes and regular tomatoes) in a container.

What didn’t come as expected:

• Because we threw all the seeds from a whole tomato into the soil, there were so many seedlings in one spot that they were struggling to try to get the same nutrients that are limited in the container. So, I separated the seedlings into indifferent containers.
• Because we planted the seeds in summer (which is late to start tomatoes), we only harvested for a couple of months.

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What went well:

• Because the time we threw the seeds in the soil was summer, we got a big success of getting a lot of seedlings. They got all the sun and warm weather to grow.
• We got two great tomato plants that generated tomatoes until late October. The two pictures above are from last year’s crop.

Hydroponic System

We intended to grow tomatoes in winter. We didn’t buy the hydroponic growing system, as it was a little expensive for us at that time. So we looked at different ways other people were doing hydroponic. Instead of a hydroponic grow kit, we used the following materials:

• Mason jars cover with paper to avoid light going through.
• Pebbles
• Grow-lights
• Grow-Domes and baskets
• Food for plant
• Grow Sponges
• We used organic store-bought tomatoes

What didn’t come out as expected:

• To maintain the water in its best conditions, it needed to change the water twice a week. This took a lot of plant food that we bought for the plant.
• The plant didn’t grow as much as we expected.
• The amount of investment we did, between the food and what we tried to produce, didn’t work for us.

What went well:

• Plants started to grow well in the beginning.
• We think that as a fast seed starting it may work.
• We transferred the plant to a container (we took the plant out of the sponges) and it grew well in the container.
• The picture above shows the tomato plant from the hydroponic system.

With this method, I would think it is better if we had bought a hydroponic growing system as in the long run, the investment would pay off with fruit coming every winter. The hydroponic growing system comes with a pump that allows the water to flow, keeping the roots healthy and the plant growing.

As a result, we decided to try a more traditional way of planting.

Getting a seedling from a mature plant

This was me saying thank you to this plant. It was my first tomato plant and gave me so much fruit until the end of the season. I took a seedling that grew beside the mature plant and planted it in a small container and kept it indoors in my house all winter.

The tomato plant grew very, very slow. Their leaves started to get yellow and didn’t look too good. Not sure if it was dormant. But as soon as spring arrived, and we finally had the sun getting into our window, the plant started to revive.

It grew fast, and its leaves were green again. I was surprised to see how it came back to life and started producing flowers!!!!! Look at the picture on the left.

This may be a good system if you want to get ahead on the harvesting. Because the plant was already halfway grown when spring arrived.

Cardboard Egg Carton

This is how we planted all our seeds this year, and it’s working well.

We take a cardboard egg carton, fill it with potting mix, add the seeds, and water it every day. There is a post where I explain the “Indoor Seed Starting” step-by-step process. After the seedling has grown, we cut as much as possible on the side of the cardboard and the bottom before planting the seedlings into a bigger container.

Tips: Spray with water all over the cardboard to make it easy to cut everywhere.

What went well:

• It was easier and less stressful for the plant to be transplanted to a bigger container with this method because we keep some of the egg carton structure with the plant.
• The egg carton will disintegrate with the soil, as the carton is biodegradable.
• Plants have grown sturdy and without any problems

As of today, we haven’t seen any downside of this method.

I hope this information on different ways of planting tomatoes helps you and inspires you to grow tomatoes at home.