The plastic bag idea is ingenious (your neighbors will love you if you put the things on a balcony! cackle!!!). If you try this scheme, use white ones, not black or dark green, because the dark color will absorb a lot of the sun’s heat and bake the roots.

Look for cheap alternatives to pots: discarded boxes, old wooden crates, large plastic paint buckets (call a painter–those guys throw them out by the dozen), the inside holes of cinderblocks (tarragon and rosemary thrive in these, for unknown reasons), those concrete drainpipe pieces you can get at masonry yards, plastic tubs from thrift stores and yard sales, etc. Yard sales, BTW, are good places to find perfectly fine plant pots at bargain prices, BTW.

Other commenters are right about the number of tomatoes/pot. Put in a tomato and then use some other small veggie, such as a butter lettuce plant or two, to fill in and maximize use of the soil. Radishes, lettuce, chives, green onions, and the smaller varieties of carrot will do.

For hevvinsake don’t water those things on the deck. Get four or five small pebbles of about the same size and slip them under the rim of the bottom of the pot, so as to hold the pot up off the surface. This will really cut down on the growth of mold under the pot and on discoloration of the deck or concrete under the pot. Also it obviates having your pot sit in a dishful of water (rots roots, breeds mosquitoes).

Wire “cages” to support the tomato vines are handy. Here are two more frugal alternatives:

* At HD or your nursery, look for green, stiff plant supports about two or three feet high. They’re just green sticks–I think they’re made of plastic. They’re very cheap. You just poke them into the soil and then gently tie the plant to them as the plant grows.

* Stack three or four cinderblocks, or flip an empty plastic pot upside down. Use this as a stand. Place your tomato pot on top of the stand, and allow the vines to cascade down. This keeps the vine and the tomatoes off the ground without your having to tie them up at all. A variation on this is to hang the pot from a beam, if you have one that’s sturdy enough to hold the weight.

http://www.yougrowgirl.com/thedirt/2008/04/03/your-questions-answered-containers-for-tomatoes/

I’ve also read that tomatoes are one of those plants that actually does well when progressively planted in larger pots. Each time you can plant it DEEPER than the last time (covering up part of the stem) and the stem will start to grow roots out of it-giving the plant a better root system. So if you decided to replant them one to a pot you may want to consider it.

On the cost value, I usually ignore any kind of formal accounting and ignore the cost of things that will get reused ad infinitum.

I made the mistake of having crowded tomatoes my first year, and I was growing them in a garden, not even in containers. Give them their space so their foliage can absorb as much sun as possible and develop a strong root system. I have a feeling if you leave that many tomatoes in one pot, you’ll either wind up with dead plants, or just a couple fruits, which wouldn’t be very exciting.

You may want to consider maybe a little more complex container system to increase usable space and increase yields. I have used containers for the last three years to grow tomatoes and have had great results from the ones I made. There is a company that makes “official” versions called earthbox but they are very expensive. I found plans online that you can assemble 2-3 homemade ones for the cost of a “real” one. I did actually buy an earthbox but I think the ones I made work better. You just need to google “earthbox plans” and one link turns up a .pdf that has all the plans for a few different versions that may interest you.

Any questions let me know!

Additionally, you need to stake those puppies before the root systems expand, not afterward. Good luck!

I like it! You may want to consider acquiring some plant rods (not sure if there is more specific name) for your tomato plants so that they can grow nice and tall.

Great job…once I get some free time and energy, I’ll be right there with you.

thanks!