Container Vegetables: Peppers and Tomatoes

I know this is the post you've been waiting for!  Let's start with peppers:

If you like 'em hot, you're in luck!  Here's a simple rule of thumb with peppers:  the smaller the fruit, the smaller the plant.  As hot peppers of all varieties tend to be much smaller than sweet peppers, you should have no trouble growing them in a container.  You'll harvest more than you can eat, even from one plant.  Try making your own hot sauce or crushed red pepper!

Sensitive taste buds?  No problem!  You can grow plenty of sweet bell peppers in a container as well!  (Just make sure it's of a decent size, and only one plant per pot.)

Peppers and tomatoes will need to be started from seed indoors six to eight weeks before last frost, and then moved outside into full sun when it's warm enough.  If you only want a couple of plants, you may be better off saving yourself the hassle and buying small plants from a nursery.  (Wait 'til just after Mother's Day, when the prices drop.)  Of course if you're feeling ambitious, there's nothing better than watching those cute little seedlings sprout up while there's still snow on the ground outside!

Tomatoes will need staking, so find yourself a nice round pot large enough to hold a tomato cage.  Your local nursery - if it's any good at all - will have at least one or two varieties of "patio tomatoes" which are recommended for growing in pots and may not even need staking.  Feel free to experiment with other varieties, though. Any tomato will grow in a pot with enough space and support!

If you're looking for something a little more interesting, the good people at Seed Savers Exchange have a few recommendations for you.  Try growing some really unique Cream Sausage, Green Sausage, Czech's Bush, Nebraska Wedding, or Silver Fir Tree Tomatoes!

Green Sausage Tomato

Nebraska Wedding Tomato

Another option for growing both peppers and tomatoes in containers is the Topsy Turvy Planter - As seen on TV!  My neighbor grew a fine crop of cherry tomatoes on one of these last summer.  I can't vouch for how a plant with larger, heavier tomatoes would do, though. 

Regardless of type, size, or turvy-ness, all tomatoes and peppers will appreciate hot weather and full sun!