Growing a 6ft long tomato vine in a 4 inch pot.

[KaguyaCloud]

Six months ago, I have decided to root an indeterminate Rosella Cherry tomato cutting inside a 4 inch pot as an attempt to see if I can miniaturize the plant to fit within the constraints of my small living space. I have to say that I failed to make the plant small. Here are the images to show the progression
https://imgur.com/gallery/rosella-bonsa ... nt-FofnpcM

Conditions:
40,000 lux for 15 hours using two 2ft long LEDs rated at 24 watts each.
Homemade Coconut coir and perlite potting soil(70% coir hydrated a dilute MaxiGro, 30% perlite).
MaxiGro hydroponic fertilizer(Diluted 37.8g of powder to 5 gallons/19L of water).
76-82F(24-28C) ambient temperature.

When fertilizing with hydroponic nutrients, I measure the ppm of the water coming out of the pot to determine if it needs to be fertilized again(usually when it drops 200-400ppm). When the nutrient levels are high(800-1600), I use tap water. Once the plant has grown past the grow light, I winded up the vine using twine to that it would grow the opposite direction.

At a certain point, there wasn't enough water that the container could hold to meet the daily consumption of the plant itself. So, using a plastic saucer/aluminum food container, I decided to begin to over-water the plant so that it has enough water to last itself for a day. The root ball seems to be healthy after taking it out.

Fruit quality was pretty good. Flavor was as intense and sweet compared to the one I grew in a 6 inch pot. The fruit themselves seem to be about 50-75% the size, but quality was consistent. I also seem to learn that the fruits can crack despite being ripe when the soil moisture levels are very extreme(i.e. letting the soil dry out to the point that the plant is wilting, then flooding the pot). This may mean that for this variety, water still diffuses to the fruit despite the fact that it has been a month over the breaker stage.

I had to get rid of it once became too big to manage, but I'm sure I could have kept it alive for longer with more proper maintenance. It was almost 6ft long when unwound. In any case, I've learned a lot from this experiment. Nutrients are highly limited in smaller pots, but can be supplemented with regular applications of dilute hydroponic fertilizers. Pot size does stunt/slow tomato growth, but not by too much when given ample nutrients and light levels.

[Labradors]

You could try it again using the Kratky hydroponics method (with added fill-ups when necessary). I'm growing two "House" tomatoes using this method. One is in a 32 oz Mason jar, the other is in a gallon-sized glass pickle jar. They've been growing since February and have given me lots of tomatoes.

[bower]

The root ball reminds me of hydroponics plants - well it's basically hydroponics when you use a tiny pot and liquid ferts.
Nice results all the same, and why not, if it gets you tasty tomatoes in a small space.

[Cole_Robbie]

There are large scale indoor cannabis growers who grow very big plants in 6" rockwool cubes. Some of them use moisture meters and automated systems that let the cubes dry out just a little between waterings. There are different schools of thought as to the best moisture levels, or spectrums of, and varying over the lifespan of the plant. It would make for interesting research with hydro tomatoes, to try to duplicate the flavor of dry farmed plants in soil.