Container Gardening: Odds & Ends

[dickiebird]

I do a lot of peppers and tomatoes in containers, mostly 5 gal buckets.
The drying out of the soil is the biggest problem. If you water and the water runs straight through and out your weep holes you need to stop that watering and ait 15 mins. or so and then resume watering.
If your soil levels goes down with toms or peps you can add soil at anytime.
My soil mix is composted from our chicken and donkey droppings. Every now and then I add a bit of 12-12-12 to each bucket, just cast on top the soil and water will take it in.
I also use Epsom salts when fruit starts to set.
Good Luck

THANX RICH

 

[Michigan_Nick]

Great info Dickie, thanks! Never thought to go quite as big as 1 plant per 5 gal bucket, but I may need to give it a go in the future. Probably helps to develop a great root system for the plant. I also have peppers and tomatoes going (among other things) and want to improve on the yield each year. Thanks again and I enjoyed your signature - "...I just find I enjoy annoying people a lot more now. Especially younger people!!!". I'm a young whipper snapper myself and appreciate you taking the time to respond.

 

[digitS']

A number of times I have said that my backyard tomato plants are in containers of about 5 gallon size. There are 3 plants this year, each to its own container.

Each to its own 7.997 gallon container! Feeling the need to be accurate, I measured and checked online . Those tree pots are much bigger than I thought! Well, they have less than 8 gallons of soil since they are slightly tapered. Also, I had them completely full of compost 6 weeks ago but it has settled ... some. I have more compost and should refill.

They are doing great, looking much better than the much higher number of tomato plants in the garden. However, they may already be reaching some limits for the roots. In past years, the garden tomatoes caught up with those in the backyard and produced better ... not a lot better, however. I was able to slide those tree pots onto the hand truck and carefully move them to the carport a couple of nights, protecting them from the frost .

Steve

 

[Michigan_Nick]

Thanks for your input, Steve! There's always pros and cons to anything and you mentioned a couple in your reply. This, right now, is the best I can do if I want to garden. I'll take this opportunity and run with it if that's all I have. I'll only get better with each season. Gotta get going on a better compost setup so I can keep filling in and nourishing what I have going right now.

 

[Titan Farm]

@Michigan_Nick
I'm at work now but I'll try to post a little more lengthy post when I get off tonight but I have had plenty of good luck growing in containers [fabric pots] but you have to more than enough room for your plants to grow. Pepper in no less than a 5 gallon container better would be a 7 or 10 gallon container. Tomatoes do best in a 10 gallon container for determinate and at least a 20 for indeterminate better yet woul be a 30 gallon container. I know that a 30 gallon container sounds like a lot of room but my tomatoes are filling up a 30 gallon container and I'm thinking of going to 50 or 70 gallons next year.
Like I said I'll most more tonight when I get off work.

Oh one other thing, if you go with a fabric container you don't have to worry about your plants getting pot/root bound.

 

[Michigan_Nick]

Hey sounds great Titan, can't wait! I guess I underestimated the size of the pots I would end up needing. Not sure if you read through the thread, by it's my first year gardening and a whole lot of trial and error. Will look forward to your more lengthy reply!

 

[Titan Farm]

Hey sounds great Titan, can't wait! I guess I underestimated the size of the pots I would end up needing. Not sure if you read through the thread, by it's my first year gardening and a whole lot of trial and error. Will look forward to your more lengthy reply!

Sorry late getting back with you, had to swing past the farm after work.
A lot of people underestimate the size of containers you need, you could get buy with smaller size containers but 1 you will be watering a lot and 2 your plants just wont do as well.

For container I highly recommend fabric containers, plants stay cooler, you water less, have excellent drainage, plants wont get root bound and you do have some fudge room with size of the container since with fabric container the plants will air prune there roots as the roots grow out of the fabric. Fabric containers will range from a gallon size all the way up to a 1000+ gallons and you can also get fabric raised beds that range from 4 foot x 4 foot to 4 foot x 16 foot. The options are endless.

For soils I will let you know everyone has there own idea on what is a good soil for containers, some are really good others are just a mix of dirt.
If you want to mix your own I would say do a you-tube search Super Soil mixes. A good super soil mix should have all the amendment in it to get you through a season with out adding any other nutrition to it or at least very little extra nutrients. Another option you have is to use a good pre bagged mix. The soils you see at the big box store are not what you want, in plain words there junk and you will have nothing but trouble with them.
Look for a good garden center of better yet a hydroponic store and look for Fox Farms Ocean Forest its a very good soil and most hydroponic store carry it. If your lucky and can get your hands on Big Roots that is another good soil. Both soils tend to run a little hot and could burn young plant so I would cut the soil with some Promix BX.
In my containers I used basically equal parts Fox Farms Ocean Forest, Big Roots and Promix BX and my plants love it and are growing great.

Two tips for you, 1 once you plant your tomatoes, peppers ect. add some red wigglers to your containers and 2 plant a low growing cover crop.
The cover crop will help keep the soil cool and if it starts to get a bit high just trim it down a bit. If you trim the cover crop just add it to the top of the soil the worms that you add will get to it and "compost'' it right in the container for you.

 

[Michigan_Nick]

Hiya everyone,

Just wanted to get this up and going with a few questions, lessons learned from last season, etc. Feel free to share anything related!

Last year was successful as my first real year of gardening (in my eyes). I had a bunch of "makeshift" containers and had success with my 5-gallon buckets. They're cost effective, have proper depth and diameter. Do you have any other containers you've recycled and had decent success with?

I also had a pallet that allowed me to plant in four quadrants where I had some success with other cucumbers and tomatoes. The soil depth was great at the start and kinda went flat by the end of the growing season. All in all, a great turn out from both the 5-gallon buckets and pallet "bed".

I also had some other odds and end pots that certainly weren't the standard 12" recommendation. I had various peppers throughout those. These grew relatively well, but had to maintain and baby them daily with water.

This is more or less how I will be gardening again in summer '19 and will probably still follow along in this thread as I start my seeds within the next couple weeks. This year will be filled with a bunch of fruits, vegetables and much more variety in general.

 

[AMKuska]

Have you made a "Salad in a Bowl" yet? I used to sell these in a farmer's market and they were very popular. You can put a loose leaf lettuce start, 2-3 radishes, and 2-3 green onions all in a hanging basket style planter. Leave it on a plate (to prevent mess) on your kitchen counter by a window, and it will persevere.

 

[Michigan_Nick]

I'm actually not familiar with what this is. I'm still pretty novice with any and all things gardening, relatively speaking. Still a lot to learn in my time. Can you elaborate a little bit on the "Salad in a Bowl"? Is this just kinda planting all the relative vegetables in a salad all together, or am I mistaken? This seems very efficient and something I definitely check out. I've yet to grow any lettuce (or any leafy greens for that matter), never grown radishes, and struggled with onions. So that's where I stand with em haha.