@farmerman,
My wife finally bought a plant; a small tomato plant that she re-potted into a shallow porcelain one. She took it to our friends to take care of it, because we're going to be gone for almost three weeks, and our friend just laughed at the shallow pot. She said tomatoes need deep soil for the roots, and when we visited them this morning for the planning of our party, she had replanted it into a large plastic pot.
Even I didn't know tomatoes needed deep pots.