Should tomato plants be grown in large pots instead of in a raised bed

I plant 2 Early girl plants in a 14" pot and get a ton of of tomatoes thru the summer and into fall. It causes rootbound and in turn that makes more tomatoes, remember to water it every day though!

There are a number of possible reasons for your tomato plant issues. First, when you refer to small tomatoes v. the others, do the small plants have many tomatoes ripening at the same time? If so, you could have ”determinate” tomato plants in the smaller plants. Determinate tomato plants grow to a certain size, set fruit and ripen all the fruit over a short period. In comparison, an “indeterminate” tomato plant continues to grow during the season and continues to set fruit with ripening occurring over a fairly long period of time. If you have a fairly short growing season you may want to grow only determinte plants if you can’t take advantage of the longer fruiting Of the plant. Additionally, each variety of tomatoes can have a significantly different yield, size of tomato, etc. Other possible factors are the amount of sunshine each plant gets, does part of the bed get more shade than others? Less or more rain? Has the soil been amended with the same things throughout the bed? Hope this gives you some ideas to consider.

I have a raised bed, but I am sure you can put them in large pots as well. I like the raised bed as it is very easy to take care of the plants.

I don't think it matters.

How you plant tomatoes does not make a difference, if in a vegetable garden they need to be rotated.Soil is a major part as well as fertilizing.What have you done in the past so proper answers and not guesses can be given

If you use indeterminate tomatoes, make sure you have plenty of support for them going up and this will keep them more contained. You need to make sure that the tomato plants aren't too close together so they get air circulation. If you plant smaller tomatoes, like early girl, you may get more tomatoes, the same for the cherry sized tomatoes. Most tomatoes that are larger may have less tomatoes due to their large size, like beef steak. I always have a few veggie plants by our garage so that my hubby can get in on seeing then grow and one is always a tomato plant. Last year I was literally giving away tomatoes off that one. It was in a very large pot. We bought it as a patio tomato and it ended up being five feet high without the height of the pot included! I had the tallest tomato cage on it that I could find and still ended up getting really tall stakes to support the the top branches from bending in half with the weight of the tomatoes that just kept coming. Do not foliar feed your tomatoes, only feed on the soil, otherwise you will get beautiful lush tomato plants with only a few tomatoes. If you use a pot, you will need to give it a calcium supplement as it is real common to get blossom end rot in potted tomatoes. You will see it show up just as they are starting to ripen. I have a spray I got at a local greenhouse that you spray on the leaves and it gets it to the tomatoes quickly. It won't help the ones that already have it forming, but will keep any more tomatoes from getting blossom end rot. Make sure you water them good and fertilize potted veggies, the nutrients get washed out quickly with all the water they need to grow healthy.

I garden in a raised bed and I love it. It's a lot easier working when standing than it is on your hands and knees. I think the 3 most important issues when gardening is: soil, pollination and watering. I use a mix of one-third soil, one-third manure and one-third sand. The sand is used for water retention. I do a lot of "self pollinating". It's so easy. I very lightly jiggle the stalks of my plants. And, finally, watering. I do deep root watering and it makes a huge difference. I use a soaker hose. It's really just a long hose with pin size holes running down the length. The pin holes allow water to come out in small streams. I make sure the streams are no taller than 6 inches. This way I'm watering the roots, not the leaves. I hope this helps you. Best of luck to you.

I prefer raised beds because it's better for the root system. With containers I would recommend terracotta because they hold the moisture. The more room a root can sprawl the better so which ever you choose make sure you're giving the plant plenty of room to grow in the soil.