Container gardens

Love your containers and that is a great price for knockouts!

I stuck my potatoes in pots this year, horse feed buckets I got from my neighbor, not real attractive but they're doing the job. Too much rock up here to grow them in the ground and so far so good.

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"Being normal is not necessarily a virtue...rather, it denotes a lack of courage".

Thanks! I got the metal shelves on the far end of the pic out of a neighbor's trash ... they were black, slightly rusty and missing a few screws. I fixed them up and gave them a shot of Rustoleum Painter's Touch in 'Berry Pink' ... I wonder if the neighbor ever drives by our house, sees and recognizes them?!

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

I'm a total container gardener. I use all sizes of containers. Most successful in Earthboxes - onions, radishes, strawberries, peppers, beans, okra, broccoli - and large plastic pots for tomatoes, cucumbers, and melons.

Herbs go in any size container I have that is empty.

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Life is short....Do not waste it on unworthy people, ideals, or activities.

I also use containers exclusively, and perch them on tables, pillars of concrete blocks, and boards laid between saw horses. Right from the go this year I had the thirstier tomatoes and zucchinis on a drip timer but still have needed to do hand hose watering a couple times a day. Too many critters at ground level, and ground squirrels, pack rats, and even javalinas as well as birds still do considerable damage even with chicken wire type barriers. Gave some 15 pounds of zukes away to a seniors' lunch event maybe ten days ago at the peak of their productivity and quite a few smaller batches to others as well as a *lot* we've been eating. Last few days I've been trimming brown leaves back on them and throwing a few entire plants away hoping to leave a bit more root room for those remaining. However, highs for our ZIP code reporting station coming up now are running like this: 108 106 108 109 108 109 113 113 111 111 111. Well. Even if the monsoon rains do in fact get going around the end of that stretch I figure it'll do most of the squash and tomatoes in for good. Too much water needed to just keep non-producing plants alive when it goes like that so I'm beginning a process of planting new green bush beans and transplanting eggplant and okra into larger pots vacated by euthanized tomatoes, or into ones now empty. Was late getting eggplant going so they aren't producing yet but I expect they will do fine by August or so. I also hit a major Craigslist score spotting a fellow selling 15-gal heavy black plastic pots for $1 each, and 45c for 5-gal sizes. Bought over 50 of them, now all I have to do is paint them a reflective color, shop around for a bunch of extra compost, and set up more structures to keep them off the ground. Actually, I suspect I'll mostly use them as replacements for present containers since I've been losing increasing numbers to wear and tear.

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WillowGirl that container arrangement is gorgeous!

I've tried containers here but it seems like the sun cooks them. I might try again in the fall.

Just wanted to update this thread with a new pic ...everything is getting SO BIG!

On the other side of the door:

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

Very impressive!

I didn't seal mine at all, but I probably should. It was in bad shape when we got it, some of the drawers had to be rebuilt, and some are yet to be rebuilt. the side and back panels were moldy and gross, so I yanked 'em off. Hopefully, I'll find time to do that when it cools down a bit!

I tried planting tomatoes and peppers in about ten food grade 5 gallon buckets this year, just to see how it went. However, I believe I made a mistake which has caused low production and not great growth.

I filled the buckets with soil only. Apparently, buckets have a tendency to get soil compaction, and many plants' roots don't do well when the soil is very dense and compact, for lack of aeration. I should have used good, loose potting mix I have been told (after the fact). Oh well.

If anyone can confirm this, chime in, but I can tell you that my plants are getting plenty of sun, water, fertilizer, etc., but the plants aren't doing very well.

Where do you people get your dirt/soil? If I had to buy it, seems like it would get costly. I don't compost; just don't have enough scraps for that.

I use well amended garden soil and compost mix. I like 55 gallon barrels cut in 1/3rds. I use the center band to make tiered beds. I also like big black tree pots for warm soil loving plants (peppers, tomatoes). It gives them an early start and holds some heat while they are in the hoops. I have vegetables in pots and interplanted in the foundation plantings, outside the greenhouse, shop, barn and cabin. I started a lot of things in pots as we knew we were moving. Much easier to move the plants in containers for sun/shade, watering and heat/cooling. I make use of raised beds and conventional gardens....James

I start my seeds in Miracle Gro potting mix, so the seedlings don't have to compete with the 'weedlings.' Everything gets transplanted into pots filled with composted cow manure. For some plants that need a little leaner diet, I mix the compost 50/50 with sand.

The compost is very moisture-retentive, which helps even out the 'dry and drown' cycles to which container plants usually are subjected! I fertilize about every 2 weeks with a weak Miracle Gro solution.

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

My plants all died when I used potted mixture- TOO light, did not hold water and did not insulate against the heat. I try to use 50% composted manure and 50% garden soil with an inch or two of chopped leaves in the bottom of the pot.
I have been told about "soil compaction" also and it hasn't been a problem for me in the last 15 years EXCEPT in the fabric "pot" which the soil turned to concrete in. Too much air sucked all the moisture out.
If you have been getting heavy rains you may have soggy soil in the pots, with the roots being starved for oxygen- if that is the case, I rescued my potted blueberries from overwatering and sogginess with lack of growth, poor leafing-I went to the beauty supply store, bought 35% hydrogen peroxide and added that to the pots (diluted 50/50 w/water) It got some oxygen to the roots and we totally stopped watering after that except for the 50/50 peroxide for 10 more days and the bushes did better.
One thing I have noticed here is that the heavier-than-normal rains have flushed nutrients out from the pots leading me to increase the fertilization. I fertilize the pot dirt once a week and give a foliar feed another day. I think with the abnormally high rainfall in the SE you're probably seeing the results of nutrient loss. Try increased fertilization and foliar feeds.
Down here the sun bakes the nutrients out of the pots (main reason why tropical soils are nutrient poor) I have observed on average a 25%-33% loss of soil depth every year in my pots so starting with the second or 3rd year I try to add chopped leaves and composted cow manure in spring and fall.
But again, I really think potting medium is only good for inside house plants- not for outside food crops.

Thank you! I will give that a try. I appreciate the feedback.

HI,

I have always had flower, herbs and tomatoes and other plants in containers spread throughout my garden to increase yield, grow specialty
plants and just to experiment with.

This year I planted yard long beans in window planters and placed them on
my upper deck (so they grow up the railings and drape down), at the base
of my grape arbor so they grow among the grapes and even under the branches of my weeping cherry so they grow up into the tree. I have a lot
of bean and squash "trees" in my garden. They are growing great in these planters and I already have some that are 15" long.

Has anyone tried wild rice in containers? I have seen it done and debating as to whether to use containers for them next year or just dig trenches for them in the garden.

I grew some rice in containers (Carolina gold) but it didn't do real well. I tried to grow it as upland rice and it's genetically a wetland rice. In other words, needs its feet wet. I have another packet but won't try to plant anytill next spring. Your wild rice should do well in tubs with no drainage. The problem with wild rice, as I understand it, is the seed is very fragile and hard to germinate. It's not like the grocery store brown rice where you can throw a handful in a trashcan filled halfway with composted manure and with water kept an inch or two deep and expect to see SOME germination..Let us know if you succeed!

I am loving all these pics! I have containers with peppers and tomatoes as well. I filled them with a mixture of soil, quite a bit of peat moss, and compost. When transplanting, I also added a shovelful of compost and a tablespoon of Epsom salt in each hole. I also added mulch later to retain moisture, and fertilized with fish fertilizer (quite possibly the nastiest stuff ever).

It's my first year of doing any sort of gardening, but so far everything is still alive. Our mistake this year was that we drilled too many drain holes and the buckets are draining too fast. Our set up is certainly not pretty, but I don't care too much about what it looks like at this point, as long as stuff grows

Could you maybe try mulching to retain moisture? I feel like with our containers, all of the good stuff is getting flushed to the bottom . I've also read that Epsom salt sprinkled around the base of the plant will help. Our plants don't seem to be very tall to me, I'm not sure how tall they should be but a coworker was telling me hers are almost five feet tall already (she plants in a raised bed).

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Be patient; they may turn out just fine!

Three years ago, I grew a tomato plant that produced more than 80 fruits in a container just a bit bigger than a 5-gallon bucket!

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

MNMANABEAR tomatoes need base (high pH) and you gave them peat moss which is quite acidic. Plug some drain holes by stuffing shredded newspaper in or digging a tiny hole down from the top and packing with a coupe three inches compacted newspaper. Then give your tomato pots a feeding of agricultural lime every week(I give my 5 gallon pots about 1/3 handful every week or two, my corn a handful twice weekly) and water in. I think if you reduce acidity you'll see an improvement.

Maybe next time do the drain holes on the outside of the buckets, up an inch or two>?