I grew Heirloom Brandywine tomatoes last summer in huge black landscape pots, I'm guessing 15 gallon and some even bigger, and produced some of the best tomatoes we've ever eaten and had extra to share. The biggest problem we encountered was the plants grew so tall, app. 12'-14', and kept on producing.
Our neighbors thought it was hilarious!
This year I'm trying another experiment. Sooner or later this is going to probably have my neighbors laughing again but I'm going to attempt to grow these super-tall plants on arches. Right now the arches are low, as the plants grow I'll add other sections, to a max. height of 8' in the middle.
I haven't grown the Sweet 100 cherry tomato but my nephew did...on an apartment balcony...and the tomatoes looked like grapes they were so abundant. It really made quite a pretty plant, stayed healthy all summer, and bachelor Alan had more tomatoes than he could manage.
Talking about gardening in containers, we found that when other friends' tomatoes were severely compromised by the long summer rains we often get, we were O.K. because the water could drain through the pots and not stay soggy for days on end.
Last year I also spent days on end mixing a concoction of soil, composted cow manure, additives (even egg shells) but this year I'm just using a good quality potting soil and Miracle-Gro for vegetables. I honestly would prefer not to grow the mammoth plants we had last year for several reasons, including the fact that my time is severely compromised this year.
One hint I absolutely must share, that worked like a charm, was to hang plastic Easter eggs in my tomato plants to keep the birds out. I happened to have 2-3 dozen plastic eggs I had painted bright red for party decorations several years ago and I drilled tiny holes in them, stuck Christmas ornament hangers through the holes, and hung them. As God is my witness, a mockingbird flew down and pecked a plastic "tomato" while I was hanging them!
All summer I doubt we lost over 2-3 tomatoes to the birds!!
Good luck! Someone told me years ago, a seasoned vegetable gardener, that you couldn't grow good tomatoes in buckets but I promise you can...just keep them well watered and well fertilized!!
Ann
P.S. Don't laugh and I'll post a picture of my 2005 gardening project!!