Homemade Raised Tomato Boxes

Materials

• Make raised tomato boxes from wooden or plastic tubs, old whiskey barrels or pots. Use rot-resistant cedar, redwood or engineered wood materials. Drill holes in the bottoms of all boxes to ensure good drainage. The boxes can be any size, although the minimum size you'll need for one tomato plant is 2 feet by 2 feet. Avoid chemical-treated wood for growing edible produce.

Large Tomato Boxes

• Small tomato boxes work well if you have limited space and want a patio garden, but try raised garden boxes if you want to grow several tomato plants. Build raised tomato boxes out of cedar timbers, secured to make a box with galvanized screws. Make the boxes as long as you like, but build them only 3 feet wide for easy access. The boxes should be at least 8 inches deep, but you can make them deeper by using wider lumber and more courses of lumber. Plant one tomato plant per square foot. For instance, plant 18 tomato plants in a bed 3 feet by 6 feet. Add row covers or hoop tunnels to keep young tomato plants warm. Mulch the soil with untreated grass clippings or straw to reduce weed growth and retain moisture.

Benefits

• Building raised tomato boxes takes some time and money, but the rewards are usually worth the effort. Raised tomato boxes warm up more quickly in the spring, allowing for earlier planting. Weeding and maintaining tomatoes in boxes is simpler and the plants may yield larger amounts of fruit.

Considerations

• Fill raised tomato boxes with a lightweight potting soil, rather than straight garden soil, which is too heavy and may contain plant diseases. Add agricultural lime or other base fertilizer to ward off blossom-end rot, which affects tomatoes grown in acidic soil. Select compact, determinate tomato varieties for small tomato boxes. Stake or trellis indeterminate types growing in larger raised beds to control their heavy growth. Water the plants frequently because they dry out more quickly on hot days, and fertilize them every three weeks with a water-soluble balanced tomato fertilizer once they begin to bloom.