Tumbling tom, how many plants

adamadamant

I have a large pot, 50cm high x 50cm diameter, which I intended for a specimen plant, but for this summer lockdown I think I'll plant some Tumbling Toms, or Tumbling Bella.  There's a fantastic photo of a cascade of cherry tomatoes in a big pot in this week's FT gardening column.  How many plants do you think a pot this big will take, or is it likely to fill out with just one plant?  Any ideas? Thanks

BobTheGardener

That's a big pot for one tomato plant of any kind, so I'd say three would be ok.  You may get away with one or two more but watering may become a problem later on.

adamadamant

Thank you! 

adamadamant

That's what I thought!

Purplerain

I grow one tumbling tom in the black pots you get 8 for a pound at the Morrisons flower counter. Sorry I don't have the dimensions at the moment but they are quite big and deep and I would only grow the one. They are prolific producers and take up a lot of room. You can probably gage from that how many your pot can take.

adamadamant

Thanks Purplerain.  I did hear that they need depth to do well, I guess your pots are probably 3 litre pots.  There'll be more toms than we'll know what to do with! 

edhelka

This is absolutely huge for tomatoes, I normally do 10-12l for large tomatoes and 5-8l for smaller hanging basket types. So theoretically, you could do a lot there but there probably isn't enough surface space. I would do 4 or 5. Filling it for just 3 sounds like wasting a lot of compost.

Pete.8

If the pot is 50cm tall and 50cm round then filled to the brim it would be about 45 litres (not 10L as I thought before...)
You could get 3 in there a couple of tumblers at the front and something a bit taller behind.
Maskotka grows to about 3 ft and is a bush variety.
Should look great too

adamadamant

Excellent thank you