Best Soil For Tomatoes Rich in High Potassium (Sweeter Tomatoes)

When you think about growing tomatoes in your home, you likely envision long days of sunshine, a warm climate, and soil that’s rich in nutrients.

Those four conditions are necessary, but they’re not necessarily alone. There are other factors you need to consider. They include your soil’s pH, drainage, soil consistency, and more.

So, if you want to find out the best soil for tomatoes or other things you need to know when growing tomatoes, check out this post, as we have covered everything in-depth.

Let’s get started. 

How much soil and space does a tomato plant need

Tomatoes thrive in a well-drained loam and sandy soil. When planting it in a container, you should choose a 5 to 8-gallon soil container to allow the tomato roots to grow deeper. The tomato plants should be spaced 55 to 65 cm apart for optimal growth.

Tomato plants are shallow grower, and their root goes up to 8–12 inches deep in the soil. Therefore, you should be able to grow tomatoes in most soil types except heavy clay soil.

If you’re planting it outdoor in clay soil, you should amend the soil first by first tilling and then adding organic compost, peat moss, sawdust, and other amendment materials.

The plant spacing depends on the variety of tomato plants, such as indeterminate tomatoes and determinate tomatoes.

The indeterminate tomatoes continue to grow throughout the season. They can become quite large and need support to keep it straight. These are preferred for outdoor gardens.

The determinate tomato plants stop growing at a certain height and are smaller in size. This makes them ideal for growing in containers with less spacing.

Tomato Plant	Spacing
Determinate Tomato Spacing	1 to 2 feet
Indeterminate Tomato Spacing	2 to 3 feet
All other Tomato Types	3 feet

The best soil for growing tomatoes in pots

1. Burpee Organic Premium Potting Mix

Burpee’s Certified Organic Premium Potting Mix is formulated to make it easy to grow healthy, strong vegetables and flowers. It contains everything your plants need to thrive, including a slow-release fertilizer for long-lasting blooms and bountiful harvests.

The mix is also a rich source of minerals to keep the soil pH at optimum levels for complete plant nutrition. In addition, the slow-release fertilizer feeds the tomato plant for up to 3 months without needing to worry about supplying it with extra fertilizer.

The premium formula growing mix holds water for a long to maintain the moisture needed for the tomato plants to grow. The main ingredients are compost, perlite, coir, and fertilizer. The potting mix has 6.5 pH, which is slightly acidic and suitable for tomato plants.

2. Miracle-Gro Expand ‘N Gro Concentrated Planting Mix

Miracle-Gro Expand ‘N Gro Concentrated Planting Mix is a triple-fortified, highly concentrated Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Plant Food version. It’s perfect for container planting and outdoor gardens where space is limited.

This miracle in a bag contains the essential nutrients to enable plants to grow flowers and produce fruit and vegetables. You’ll be amazed by how it helps your plants flower and grow. The soil can hold up to 50 percent more water than other soils.

The potting mix has 45-15-50 NPK, which has higher nitrogen than phosphorous needed for a tomato plant, but it helps with the initial growing stage of the tomato plant when growing it with a seed.

The high nitrogen helps with the growth of tomato leaves. Also, the extra nitrogen helps to switch to different crops after growing tomatoes.

3. FoxFarm Organic Potting Mix

You can create a lush garden with FoxFarm’s Organic Potting Mix. It contains a balanced blend of organic compost, peat moss, perlite, and other ingredients, making it ideal for container gardening.

The mixture helps retain moisture and provides nutrients for your plants. This organic potting mix features a coarse texture that makes it suitable for most plants, including large-leafed varieties.

It’s a great choice for gardeners who prefer to grow plants without chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The potting mix soil pH level is adjusted to 6.3 to 6.8, allowing for the best growing condition for tomato plants.

4. Perfect Plants Organic Potting Mix

Perfect Plants Organic Potting Mix is a premium blend of composted forest humus, sand, perlite, and peat moss.

It encourages the healthy growth of flowers, vegetables, herbs, and other plants. The mix is sterile and pH adjusted, which is perfect for seeds, cuttings, and seedlings.

It has all the essential nutrients and optimized soil conditions needed for tomato plants and other edible plants and trees. This rich soil texture potting mix is perfect for growing flowers, vegetables, and herbs in your home or garden. 

#5. Black Gold Organic Potting Mix

Black Gold is a superior grade organic potting soil precisely blended for growing tomatoes in containers. The product is designed to ensure optimum drainage, superior water retention, and good aeration while still providing essential nutrients to your plants.

The potting mix is enriched with organic matters, perlite, and earthworm castings. It comes in a 16-quart soil mix bag with OMRI-listed organic material.

It’s enriched with nitrogen that helps with the growth of tomatoes. However, you may have to supplement with phosphorous-rich fertilizer when the tomato cherry starts growing.

This is a great organic potting mix good for growing vegetables at home or even ornamental plants. 

How do you prepare the soil for tomatoes?

When you’re planting tomatoes from seeds in the ground, the garden soil is the crucial ingredient for a successful tomato plant. Loose, loamy soil is the best for the tomato plant to grow as it helps the roots grow and expand easily.

When planting the tomato in a container, ensure that you choose a large four to five-gallon container. If you want to maintain well-drained soil in the container, the pot should have a 1/4-to-1/2-inch hole at the bottom.

You can prepare the loamy soil by mixing in equal proportion sand and silt with clay. The sand helps with drainage and aeration, while silt improves the soil’s ability to retain moisture. The clay in the dirt helps with retaining nutrients and minerals needed for the tomato plant.

If you need to do soil amendment, you can start it by digging 15 to 20 inches deep and adding compost, nutrients, and organic matters such as fish fillets.

It helps with improving soil texture and natural nutrient levels in the soil. For excessively clay soil, you should add perlite and coco coir that help reduce the compaction.

What should be the soil pH level for the tomato plant?

You have to maintain the proper pH level in the garden soil for the tomato plant to grow its best. Tomato like slightly acidic pH levels that is between 6.2 and 6.8. This is, in fact, near neutral to slightly acidic.

The proper pH level in the soil helps the plant absorb the required nutrients to grow healthy, juicy tomatoes. You can use a soil tester to determine the pH in the ground. For too acidic soil (lower pH), amend the soil by adding dolomite lime to reduce acidity.

For a too alkaline soil (higher pH), add sulfur or ammonium sulfate to bring it back toward a neutral or slightly acidic state.

How much water tomato plant needs?

The water requirement for the tomatoes depends on the weather, pot size, and type of soil. In a growing season, the tomato plant needs 1–2 inches of water per week.

If you’re growing a tomato plant in a container, then it needs more water than tomatoes growing outdoor due to faster water evaporation.

You should water slowly but deeply until excess water runs from the drain hole at the bottom. If you live in a hot area, you can add a little bit of mulch that helps retain moisture and then water it two to three times a week.

When planted outdoor, you shouldn’t supply too much water during harvest time as it dilutes the tomato flavor.

How much sunlight to provide to a tomato plant?

Tomato plant needs 6–8 hours of full sunlight to thrive. Tomatoes grow best when it gets unobstructed direct sunlight. This means you have to plant beforehand at a location where it can get the full sunlight. When planted in a container, you have to move it in an area to receive the required sunlight.

For juicier and richer flavor tomatoes, direct sunlight is vital. You can taste the difference between tomatoes grown in a greenhouse and tomato outdoor where it gets a lot of UV light. The outgrown tomato usually tastes sweeter and tastier than growth in a greenhouse.

When should you fertilize the tomato plant?

Tomatoes need to be fertilized regularly with organic matter to grow healthy. The best fertilizer for tomatoes has a higher concentration of phosphorous and potassium compared to nitrogen, such as 2-3-1 (N-P-K).

A  garden soil rich in phosphorous and potassium encourages flowering and strengthens the foliage. Also, extra minerals such as calcium from bone meals prevent the blossom end rot. But don’t remove the nitrogen entirely as it’s vital for growing healthy leaves.

While fertilizer is essential for growing juicy tomatoes, you shouldn’t overfertilize as too many nutrients can damage the delicate roots. Instead, garden experts recommend adding fertilizers when you see it start producing tomatoes.

If you’re using a potting mix with a slow-release fertilizer or compost added to it, you don’t need to provide any extra fertilizer to the plant.

How do you stake tomato plants?

Before you stake a tomato plant, you have to prepare the ground. First, lightly water the soil to make it soft and accessible.

Then, depending on the type of tomato plant and its full growth size, you should choose an appropriately sized stake. This prevents you from changing it later if the plant has grown larger than the stake itself.

You should place the stake 8–10 inches away from the central stalk of a tomato plant. The stakes should be sturdy to provide the necessary support to plants with fruits on them.

Insert the stake 10–12 inches deep in the ground. You can tie the tomato plant to it with a rope or a wire, so the plant doesn’t fall off.

What is the best compost for tomatoes in containers?

Soil that contains up to 30% organic compost is the best for tomatoes. However, it may not have some essential minerals inside if you’re making compost from home. To fix this, you can add a blend of granite dust to the compost, which adds the required nutrients to the soil.

You can also buy compost from the garden center to apply in the tomato soil. You should check the U.S. Composting Council Seal of Testing Assurance (STA compost) certification on the compost to ensure it’s of higher quality.

How often can you plant tomatoes in the same soil?

For the best growth of the tomato plants, you should rotate them after every three to four years. This helps soil to renew nutrients and prevents any issue with the pest or disease problem.

When you’re planting tomatoes outdoor with different plants, you can do crop rotation. Crop rotation is a method of alternating crop types in a single field to reduce the number of inputs needed to produce a given amount of food.

Don’t forget to share this post