Grape tomatoes, super sweet. Holes in the bottom for drainage, a layer of rocks above that, most of my pots have topsoil with potting soil on top, soil goes up to within one or two inches of the top. I water by watering can. I wish I had an irrigation system. Most days I water after I come home from work. On hot days, 90+, I water the most sensitive plants and the hanging pots in the morning as well.
Besides the tomatoes, I have bell peppers, strawberries, onions, chives, and one zucchini. The zucchini is a bush variety, not a vine type. Even so, it will try to spill over the edge of the pot (and I've got the zucchini in a half whiskey keg size pot). Oh, I have some flowers, too, just for looks. But it's the vegetables people comment on. The annuals came from a nursery. The tomatoes were about 4" high when I transplanted them. Now my tomato trees are over 7' high. (If it's over my head, it's a tree.)
Fertilize once a week with Miracle-Gro or Schultz's equivalent (20-20-20). I pick off the earliest flowers. I want the plants to grow big before I let them fruit. Tomato plants need support, like tomato cones (wire cones you can stick into your buckets), and ties to hold up stray branches. My local hardware store carries rolls of velcro tape for tying up plants. That works great. You can unstick them and move the ties as the plants grow bigger.
Zucchini is water and temperature sensitive. Hanging pots of strawberries dry out faster than the big pots on the ground. Impatiens and hydrangeas are sensitive to heat and dryness, too. Tomatoes and peppers seem tolerant of the heat, but they use more water as the plants get bigger. Tomatoes can be sensitive to too much water. A drizzly rain lasting a full day can cause tomatoes to split.
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