Tomato Container Soil Mix
Solanum lycopersicum
Heavy-feeder tomato soil mix optimized for indeterminate and determinate varieties in containers.
- Container:
- 10-15 gal indeterminate / 5-7 gal determinate
- pH:
- 6–6.8
- EC:
- 2–3.5 mS/cm
- Sun:
- 6–8 hr
Components
Percentages by volume. Quantities scaled for a 10-gallon container (US units).
| Component | % | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Quality potting mix Base structure, initial nutrients | 30% | 12 qt |
| Coco coir (low-EC, buffered) CEC, moisture buffering | 25% | 10 qt |
| Perlite Drainage, aeration | 20% | 8 qt |
| Vermicompost / Worm castings Nutrients, microbes, growth hormones | 12% | 5 qt |
| Aged compost Microbial diversity | 8% | 3 qt |
| Charged biochar Long-term CEC, nutrient retention | 5% | 2 qt |
Per-container amendments
Scaled linearly to your container size. Apply at transplant or as side-dress per the notes on each line.
- Tomato-tone or 4-6-3 organic blend Tomato-tone or 4-6-3 organic blend.1 cup
- 0.2 cup
- Basalt rock dust or azomite3 tbsp
- Epsom salt2 tbsp
- Bone meal Or 1 crushed Tums at root zone.2 tbsp
- Mycorrhizae inoculant At root zone.2 tbsp
Growing notes
- Bury 2/3 of seedling stem at transplant — adventitious roots give 2-3x root mass.
- BER is almost always a calcium uptake problem from inconsistent watering, not Ca deficiency.
- Heavy mulch (2-3") keeps soil moisture even, prevents BER.
- Switch to 2-5-5 bloom blend once fruiting begins.
- Cage or stake immediately at transplant.
Want to scale this to a different container size, save it to a plot plant, or track applied dates? Open it in the interactive calculator.
References
- Peat moss and 1:2 cocopeat:peat moss top tomato biomass; vermicompost+cocopeat matched peat moss — Aslan & Bayrak (2025) . J Soil Sci Plant Nutr
- Cocopeat produced longest plant height vs perlite alone (tomato) — Mavrona et al. (2001)