A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum The Tomato Forum Help Please?

My roommate and I grew tomatoes last year on our balcony. Not too bad, the cherry tomatoes were the best growers, although we did get a decent amount of the normal sized ones. Please don't ask me what kind, he bought them from some catalog and then lost the names. LOL.

We had issues with the larger tomatoes doing a rotting thing on the bottom. I was told we didn't have enough fertilizer, so we added some and it worked fine.

Now here's where I think we need some help. We left the plants on the patio all winter. They were still growing cherry tomatoes into mid December. We stopped watering them around Christmas. I really thought the cold nights (some nights went down to 28) killed them but I found out in February that I was wrong. After 3 days in the mid 60's, I started noticing some flowers on one of the plants. A month later, more flowers on the other plants and small tomato buds on the first one. Today we have more flowers and at least a dozen tomato buds, with the oldest ones now being grape sized.

These plants are in the same pots as last year and haven't been fertilized yet this year. He was trying to decide whether or not he should throw them out and start fresh or keep them. I think he's decided to keep them.

What should we use for fertilizer and should we transplant them into a larger container on the patio? These plants are all at least 3 feet tall and I'm worried that transplanting them might be too much of a shock. But aren't they rather rootbound now and how would we fertilize them, as big as they are? I'd really like help from the more experienced growers, please.

JT62: Welcome to the forum . I have a big boy now that is 2 years old and still making fruit. I fertilize with Fish Emulsion not chemicals. Make sure not to over water them your in a cooler area then I am in Texas. When your bloom unless you have bees or lady bugs in your house you can thrash them yourself so they self pollinate. Mine has been transplanted into a bigger pot (5 gal. bucket) it is doing fine I have it outside with my other Tomato plants . Been eating fresh tomato's for a while now. When you transplant your plants make sure you use the same soil as in the pot now and just add enough new soil to fill the pots full make sure you plant it at the same level it is now planted if you plant it deeper it mike damage the plant. Hope this helped you some and good luck with your plants.

Pretty much what Jimmy said, Hey, JV! yeah, why not keep 'em? you might want a few new ones for this year, but it sounds like those are doing well. I wouldn't worry much about fertilizing, but like Jimmy said, some fish emulsion, or better yet, Kelp or seaweed extract, will provide anything they lack.
Wish I had some ripe tomatoes! Or even plants big enough to bloom.
I would not transplant while there are new fruits forming, and I wouldn't worry if they're rootbound, the fruit they're forming should be fine. Don't use too much nitrogen, it could re-direct growth to foliage, the rot on the bottom you mentioned was undoubtedly Blossom End Rot, it's pretty common in container grown tom's, it's caused by irregular watering. you MIGHT benefit from a dash of Epsom salts, magnesium sulfate, but I would beware of doing too much and killing them with kindness, be sure any fert's you use are more dillute than the label recommends.