I live in East Tennessee. This container tomato plant has been growing outdoors since the middle of April, with the exception of a few frosty nights.
It has two almost ripe tomatoes and a ping-pong ball painted red as a distraction to the birds!
The 5 gallon square bucket has about a dozen small holes drilled in the bottom and a rolled up dish towel in one corner. It was filled with 50% peat moss and vermiculite and it is sitting in a deep pan of water. And of course it gets fertilized from time to time.