Breaking My Tomato Losing Streak

[Melissa569]

This year, now that I have moved back to the country and will be using a greenhouse (instead of my apartment patio in the city), I am DETERMINED to break my tomato losing streak.

I will be growing in containers in a green house. But my problem in the past has been-- I use a 4-gallon bucket and fill it with miracle gro potting soil (or any decent soil I can find for a decent price). Then I end up with skimpy plants, curling leaves, and only 3 or 4 golf ball-sized tomatoes per plant

But I don't contribute this to containers, because I have seen some people use containers (4 gallon) and get TONS to fairly sizable tomatoes. I am just hoping that I can pick up enough tips this time to get some good success.

This year, I bought a "Rapitest" soil test kit at ACE Hardware (first time ever using one, maybe that's my problem, lol).

Our natural soil up here in the mountains is really loose sandy lava ash (but people say it has lots of nutrients?). I've seen other gardeners up here grow some monster food, so I'm hoping I can manage this time. So I was thinking mix our sandy lava soil half and half with potting mix. But first, I wanna test both our natural soil, and the potting mix. To see what I might need more (or less) of. I will be doing my soil tests on both today, and posting the results on my youtube videos (its the video channel called "GardenCalifornia" on Youtube, if anyone is interested. And I'll be putting all my progress there too.

The reason I will be using containers in a green house is because we are just infested with rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks up here who will eat absolutely everything you try to grow. Seriously, they will leave you with nothing. Last year, my outdoor "in the ground" garden was wiped out by them, I didn't get anything at all. lol.

I tried everything-- deterring them with seed/nut bowls or veggie bits and pieces elsewhere, cat litter and pepper flakes around the outside of the garden fence, sage brush woven into the fence, sprays.... Nothing worked, they just kept on coming, lol.

I've reached the conclusion that the only way to actually HAVE a harvest is to put it where they can't get it-- in a green house.

But yeah, I really wanna get to where I can grow some decent tomatoes in containers finally. Any tips you guys have would be great. just getting the seeds going now, so plenty of time to act on it.