Research I've done so far says one plant. This year, after erecting a 6' or so high fence something dug underneath where I made a door. and got in the garden. I know I should have gone down a foot or so of chicken wire or whatever into the ground. I blocked that off with some bricks and so far I don't think anything of significance has gotten back in.

I picked a few tomatoes when they were at the breaker stage, something I learned here - and a few small ones that were ripe, and very good. Next year I'm considering growing tomatoes and cucumbers in containers, or make something to contain dirt on the deck and of course surround it with some find of fence. I know there's a lot of information online which I'll continue to research, as well as here. Five gallon buckets are cheap enough, but I wonder if making something to contain 6 - 8" or so of dirt directly on the deck would work? The theory is the water would drain between the deck boards.

The other situation is not even related to predators. In general the tomatoes didn't do that well in the garden, not that many and they were small. I'm thinking good quality soil on the deck in containers or something will produce better results next year. On another website I keep seeing an ad for a free 5 gallon container gardening guide to be emailed. I see there's a lot of posts here, I will review them.

If your deck is wood, what you propose will rot your deck.

If it gets hot where you are, tomatoes won't do as well in containers as in the ground because the roots will be so much hotter.

Rather than switching strategies I would try to figure out why your tomato's didn't do very well in the garden. Can you tell us your watering and fertilizing strategies? What varieties of tomato's did you plant? How did you start them and when did you put them in the ground?

Sorry I just saw these! I have the thread set to 'Watch', but never got an email notification. Maybe it went to spam?

So much for dirt directly on the deck then. I bought the plants as usual, they were 6" or so high. Before we had a ton of rain in July I'd water at least every other day. The soil isn't that great, maybe that's why not such a good yield. I also added in ashes from the wood stove thinking that may help. I put them in the ground in mid May.

It does get hot where I am, so ideally next year I'll have them in the garden. I may move the garden to a different spot where there's more sun.

"Watching" a discussion may or may not trigger an email. You can setup your preferences for notifications in your profile.

I would move any tomato plants to the sunniest location possible. amend your soil with compost and dehydrated cow manure. I had the worst ever soil to work with. It was just dust. when I watered, the water would pool on top of the "soil" as if the soil was repelling the water. the soil had no texture to it and whatever was planted there grew but with great effort on my part. I talked to the guy I deal with at my fav garden center and he suggested compost and manure. I split a yard of mushroom compost with my neighbor and that helped defray the cost. the effort was well worth it. the two beds I did last year and this year have produced great plants. remember to plant those tomatos deep and help them along with some epsom salts. they'll thank you for it.

Hi Steve. I THINK the only forum that generates email alerts is the "Ask a Question" forum. Others show up in your Thread Watcher automatically if you start it or respond to it.

The general guidance is one tomato plant per five-gallon container. I've found that to be the minimum effective size. In my experience, by maturity the roots so completely fill the container that it needs daily watering. Here, at the height of a heat wave I watered twice a day. Feeding is critical.

I'm always experimenting, so this year I'm trying two plants per 8.5 - 9 gallon pots and more frequent feeding. Mixed results so far suggest they are too crowded. My one known (to me) indeterminate cherry is producing, but the fruit is puny.

If I had the room I would much prefer to grow in the ground.

PS: gratified to read your reference to the breaker stage. I remember last year's conversation.

Hi Zoe (how do you put the 2 dots above the 'e'?)
Sorry I just saw this! And I think you're right, this being posted in something other than the 'Ask a question' forum means it won't generate an email alert. Don't like when I'm late like this, I'll have to remember that.

Well here we are past the growing season here in Connecticut, but I'm making note of replies for next spring. Today I even scoped out where I may put part of the garden in the ground. I may try a container or two on the deck, but as you said ideally plants will be in the ground.

I did bring in a parsley container a few weeks ago. It's been doing well enough, nothing like fresh, even from an indoor plant. I guess something like that will grow about the same as in the ground.

I'll have to set myself a reminder to 'Watch' this thread.

My season just ended with a couple of freezing nights. Got fruit right up to the end on Super Sioux.

If you're interested, two plants per 8-9 gal pot were too crowded. The plan was to fertilize faithfully every week, but that didn't happen, so the summer crops weren't robust. However, I also planted late and most fruit hadn't set when the heat hit, so that was a factor. Also planted two new varieties that were total duds, so can't gauge those. The Sioux really took off in the fall. Heck, who knows?! good luck with the parsley. Remember it's a biennial, so will want to flower in its second year. They're pretty tough. Even though I do dry it, I agree about fresh being best!

Thanks for the tip re: 2 plants being too much for the pot. I had to look up Super Sioux! Interesting they took off in the fall. The only thing that does around here are chives, and maybe lettuce and scallions if I had some.

And thanks re: the parsley - dried is good too, seems to take on a different flavor. I do want to dry some. The plant doesn't have many leaves (do you call them that?) now but I'll keep watering it. I have chicken wire around it so my cats won't eat it.