This is a short video on how I planted 2 of my tomato plants in 20 gallon Hydrofarm fabric containers. The 2 variety of tomatoes are the Ramapo from Rutgers …
Question by Retodd: Can tomatoes grow without full sunlight?
My porch gets MAYBE 2-3 hours of sunlight a day. Will my tomatoes grow?
Best answer:
Answer by saaanen
They will grow, but will not produce much. They need 6-8 hours for good production. Can you move them, or put them in big pots, in the sun?
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
i just wasted 5:16 min of precious time.
You probably failed because you used “soil”, not “soil-less mix” in your
container. I bought a few packs of the Ramapo Seeds in early March and only
took 3 weeks from Rutgers. The plants are now about 3 foot tall and planted
in May 16th (the time of the vid). For seeds try Harris seeds they do not
have the Ramapo but they have Moreton but other NJ nursaries may have
Ramapo seeds or plants. Thanks for watching and sorry to waist 5:16 seconds
of your time. What happen to the other 2 seconds?
Those grow bags didn’t work for me at all (a usually successful tomato
grower). And yes, I know very well what a Ramapo tomato is and it looks
like Rutgers is keeping them for themselves as they are very difficult to
find.
what happened with the other 2 seconds? The video is 5:18 sec
Tomatoes need 6+ hours of sun per day. With the limited sun your get, they will not make much fruit.
Soil, sun and water requirements
Tomatoes require plenty of sun. As for soil, they will grow in just about anything you throw at them. An old survivalist manual says you can grow them in newspaper if you add the right fertilizers and I don’t think that’s far from the mark (although I haven’t been brave enough to try). That isn’t to say that soil amendment is a bad idea.
I am always in favor of adding compost and manure to anything but the wettest soil. They do very well when planted in containers, as soil can easily be changed or improved from year to year (raised beds are good for much the same reason). Uniform watering is the key to nice fruit. Even watering can prevent leaf-end roll, blossom end-rot and “cat-facing”, those misshapen crags and cracks on the stem end of the fruit. (I find the new moisture crystals help keep things on an even keel if I miss a day or two). Can’t say this enough; tomatoes are about the watering!
To cut to the chase – NO. They need both the sun and a favorable amount of air circulation to grow (along with proper soils).
Tomatoes can grow on little sunlight but only 2-3 hours is probably too little. They really need at least 6-8.