New to container growing question

[bohica]

Hey folks,
I am new to container growing this year, I've always planted in the main garden because the soil is as near to balanced as i believe I can get it. That said, this year in an effort to give other plants more room in the garden I was able to get my hands on huge containers, these are the ones that our Nurseries use to transport 8-10 ft trees to customers locations, most were 3 ft wide and 2.5 ft deep so I figured I would be safe.
I started the following varieties:
Big Zac
Delicious
Hillbilly
Giant Belgium
Zebra
Black Krim
and a variety that has been grown by a friend in RI for a few generations in his family, he called it canadian big boy, I couldnt find anything that was even near that name? These tomatoes produced over 40 lbs of tomatoes fer plant, huge, well packed sweet flavored fruit, I have no idea what they are, but the results were common for alot of growers.
I filled my containers obviously starting from the bottom with sand for drainage, Garden soil and compost mixed well.
I havent given the plants anything more then Soluble Kelp, a little fish here and there, and a weekly calcium spray.
All is going well, plants are huge producing well, we picked our first tomato the end of June, but I've noticed that a few of the varieties, including the delicious are putting out a ton of flowers in a small area, I counted 10 tomatoes (small yet) in an 8 inch area, I cant imagine them getting to even sandwich size being so many together like that?
Is this common in Container plants?
Thanks in advance
Tom

[dice]

It probably depends more on the cultivar than the growing
medium, and to some extent nutrition (plenty of phosphorus
promotes flowering).

With an Azoychka and a Persimmon growing side-by-side in
the same large self-watering container, sharing soil, fertilizer,
water, and sun exposure, the Azoychka will produce clusters
with a dozen or more flowers in a cluster, while the Persimmon
produces the same 3-5 buds per cluster, widely spaced around
the plant, that it did when I grew it in the ground a couple
of years ago.

On a cluster with a lot of fruit set, the fruits will be smaller
than if you only have a couple of fruits on a cluster. Total
pounds of fruit might be higher, though.

One thing that I do with containers like that is drill 1" holes
all over the bottom of it, so that roots can reach down through
it into the soil below to get extra water. I line the bottom with
grass clippings when filling it to keep the growing medium from
falling out when I move it around. If the containers are in a
garden bed, something that I do in one bed on the side of
a raspberry patch to let seedlings get better light, I simply
cut the bottom of the container out completely before
filling it. (Someone growing in containers because their
soil has disease issues probably does not want to do this.)

You may find this document useful for understanding the
fine points of container media:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/CN004

(A companion volume from the same source on diagnostics
and monitoring:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/CN002
)

[bohica]

I try to balance my feedings, as I posted, Kelp, fish, calcium, and a few other nutrients from compost teas. My containers have plenty of holes in them, I took special care to drill many to assure proper drainage.
Trust me when I tell you that after years of competitive growing, I know how to push a plant when necessary....lol, this isnt the case here, I do have to correct my original post, the cluster of fruit is actually on the green zebra tomato and I had to recount..lol...there were 16 fruit in that 8 inch area, I'll try to get a few pics to share, its not really a problem, I am just curious, the Hillbilly and that RI variety along with one of the Zacs have nice big fruit.
Thanks for the links, very interesting!

[dice]

I seem to recall that the world record tomato was produced
by cutting off every other flower on the plant while it was
developing. Some commercial growers with a target tomato
size that they want to deliver to market prune clusters to
just a few set fruit to get bigger tomatoes on average from
a particular cultivar.

But some cultivars only produce a few buds per cluster no
matter what, while others produce big cascades of flowers,
given a sufficient supply of phosphorus (without even
considering multi-flora types). This is independent of
average fruit size. Some large fruited types will set a few
fruit on a cluster of a dozen or more flowers and then drop
all of the rest of the blossoms. Others simply produce smaller
fruit on average on that particular cluster.

[bohica]

Thanks, I think I've figured out what the issue is on the one particular plant with clusters...lol
My wife thought it was amusing to switch the name tags.....the one in question is really a sun gold...doh.....its all normal....sorry for the inconvenience.