What is the truth about container size?

[Tania]

Originally Posted by stromato

ty, Tania, for sharing the benefit of your experience with us. Just wondering—have you ever tried putting 8 plants in your 40 gallon containers? I’m speculating that the plants, spreading their roots through each other over 40 gallons and having the advantages of the large mass of 40 gallons of soil mix, might do much better than 8 plants each in their own 5 gallon pot.

No, I only grow up to 4 plants in the largest containers. As I never prune my tomato plants, they grow so big, it is simply not enough space for 8 plants. 4 are already a dense foliage mass that makes it very hard to see which fruit belongs to which plant.

I do get a very good yield from my 5 gal containers. The trick with smaller containers is to use a very good mix that is light and fluffy and has good water retention capacity and great porosity.

I tell my customers that the better the mix, the better the end results are in smaller containers.