I've very competitive. Obviously I learned this from my dad because we are comparing how our tomatoes are doing. He is growing tomatoes in the ground and I"m growing them in buckets and mine are doing much better. I am determined to have better tomatoes than him this year. :-) - Trish R

Wow! They're really growing! - Derrick

Yeah, I'm excited! Some of the tomatoes already have blooms! - Trish R

Have you had any trouble with any kinds of pests so far? - Derrick

No, and I haven't used anything yet for bugs. I will probably spray them with insecticidal soap once they start making fruit. I've had to chase the squirrels away several times but they haven't done any damage to the plants. - Trish R

I've noticed that my container plants start out better than those in the ground, but they don't always end up as big (in the long run) as those in the ground. I think it might be a matter of needing more space to grow for the roots, but I'm not sure. - Katy S

That's happened to me before, too, when I used a container that was too small. That's also why I used 5 and 10 gallon buckets this year, to make sure each plant had enough room. - Trish R

It actually worked out for me, since I had way too many tomato plants for one person, anyway, but I would use the larger sizes (like you did) in the future. - Katy S

I'm going to have too many tomatoes, too, but I plan to can them and make sauce and salsa. Part of the fun for me is just the challenge of growing them. - Trish R

Excellent! I made a lot of sauces. Plus, my neighbors (who could see how many tomatoes I already had) kept gifting me with their extras so I had even more than planned. It is fun to grow them. I like to try at least one different variety each time. I've been playing with some of the heirloom varieties, lately. - Katy S