I have good luck with any good potting mix. What is even better is a
good growers mix. You want a loose mix. One year I used regular garden
soil and it turnd into hard pan(much like cement)
I agree that sand made your water rush through the soil so quickly the
roots probably never had a chance to take up the water and plant
nutrients. I have had great success growing tomatoes in containers.

I also find the small cherry types do well,any small size tomato like
Roma , or small salad size tomatoes do well,forget the large beefsteak
they do not do well.

It is true too much nitrogen will stimulate a tomato to produce too much
foliage at the expense of fruit production. Look at the fertilizer
numbers on your plant fertilizer label. The first number is the
Nitrogen number,over 15 is too high. the second number is the one that
stimulates root growth, fruit and flower production (that is good if it
is 30 or higher)the last number in the formulation is the potash and
should also be low or all you get is root production.

Instead of granular fertilizers use the water soluble fertilizers
designed especially for tomatoes. Schultz Plus,Miracle,even Walmart and
lesser knowns make a formulation specifically for tomatoes and fruiting
plants. The label will have directions for feeding plants either every
14 days or for daily watering. I personally lightly feed container
tomatoes every 7th watering. First give the soil a good drenching with
plain water,this helps saturate the soil well to prepare it for feeding,
then water again with the feeding solution.

Plants in containers on hot days may require watering sometimes twice
per day on a really hot day.

Do your tomatoes get at least 5-6 hours of sun per day? They require it
to produce well. Bees that pollenate dislike really hot weather. Last
summer was a real scorcher nationwide,I noticed the bees were not as
active on the days of high temps. I noticed them working early in the
day and disappearing when it got really hot.


Good luck with your garden this year.