Growing Tomatoes and Peppers in 5-Gallon Buckets. "tips"

Tomatoes will need to be supported in some way because the plants themselves will not support the weight of the leaves and fruit and will spill over the bucket and cover the porch.

I also stake pepper plants, but mine are in the ground and subject to whatever nature throws at them as they grow. Bell peppers can get to be pretty plentiful and heavy on the plant and the branches are not all that strong to hold the fruit so I tie them off to keep them upright.

Hot peppers always bear much smaller fruit, so they can do well unsupported.


If you have a wood deck on your porch I suggest you put a few small blocks of treated wood under the buckets to allow water to drain and not simply collect under the bucket. That could lead to water damage to the porch deck.

In my experience the grow bags work better than buckets. It has better air circulation and it simply drains better. As someone else stated you have to put a stake in the container unless you’re planting “patio” tomato plants.

The hardest thing about containers is maintaining a balance between water and fertilizer. They dry out quicker, which means you water more, and rinse out nutrients unless they’re added consistently. I use a drip system with a timer to water each plant and hit them frequently with a weaker balanced fertilizer. As someone else mentioned, blossom end rot is an issue for the same reason, I use gypsum as a calcium source when transplanting since it breaks down slowly. Other than that, just make sure they’re in a spot where they’ll get 6-8 hours of sun a day.

Add a little 13-13-13 to the potting soil. Maybe a TSBP but no more than that.