Container Gardening - Growing Vegetables.

Im trying to grow some vegetables in Clay pots and plastic pots. The veggies i have chosen are Tomato's chillies, and few herbs. My question is, can i grow most of the vegetables in Pots, provided that i take extra care of the plants. Im planning with Egg plants, Beans, and Lady's finger. What should i concentrate more on, if im able to grow vegetables in container gardens.

Reply to
krinish
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Yes. My largest pots for tomatoes are about 20 inches across. Eggplants and peppers will grow in smaller pots. I grow regular size plants. I use cheap bagged topsoil. They require a lot of watering and tomatoes need calcium to prevent blossom end rot. Getting ready to pick my first red tomato and have peppers and eggplant that could be picked at any time. Frank

Reply to
Frank

This may not seem relevant, but are you home all day, or gone at work?

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

Well ill be at work, but My mom can take care of it all day. Keeping the Soil moist and other things as such.

Reply to
krinish

OK - that's half the battle. Containers can dry out VERY fast. Faster than makes sense just by looking at them, especially clay pots. Besides frequent watering, another way to minimize the problem is by using enormous pots, but those can be difficult to move.

The other issue is that most plants don't want the soil to be hot. If the plants are in the sun, the pots will be at least as hot as the surrounding air, sometimes hotter. Find a way to shade the pots, but not the plants themselves. Use the bigger ones to shade the smaller ones, for instance.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

Not to nitpick, but you can also use the smaller ones to shade the larger ones. I elevate some larger pots, then have medium ones in front and small ones on the third tier down. The foliage from each lower tier shades the upper tier. Use small pots at the lower level with draping foliage to shade their own container.

The point being the same as yours.

I have one pot of currant tomatoes, large pot at that, that needs a minimum of two waterings per day. I tried more cherry tomatoes in a five gallon bucket. They are doing well, but it takes at least three waterings per day.

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie

A former neighbor used RIT dye to make burlap a bit closer in color to the bricks behind her potted plants, and draped it over the pots for shade. Worked nicely. Burlap is a highly underrated tool for the gardener. I gave a roll to a beginner gardener as a housewarming gift, and got a "what's this for?" reaction. (I think she was more impressed with the Tupperware and wine glasses from other party guests). But, a year later, she commented that the burlap gets used for all sorts of things.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

Thank you very much for this idea! So simple. DOH!

Nice natural look.

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie

That's not true. Some pot materials may heat up but so long as the soil is moist there will be no heat build up around the plant's roots whatsoever... as the water evaporates the soil will actually cool. Were your fercocktah theory true plants wouldn't survive, and of course would turn science on its head. The main purpose of clay pots is that they absorb water and permit air to penetrate, they act like air conditioners. What you never want to do is to place potted plants near any wall that reflects the heat of the sun (if you must better a dark colored wall that absorbs heat than a light colored wall that reflects), radiant heat will cook the foliage even though their watered roots remain cool.

Growing vegetables in pots is very easy. Try to stay away from plastic and metal pots, better to use clay and wood. Stay away from those resin pots that resemble concrete, they're plastic. Thick walled concrete pots are not very good either, they are too impervious.

Reply to
Sheldon

Your comments are based on assumptions which are unlikely to be dependably true.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

Topsoil is the worst medium for growing plants in containers. Because containers are an isolated environment, many gardening techniques are completely different than techniques for in ground plants. The most important aspect of containers is the growing medium which needs to drain well, provide air to roots, and retain water somewhat. You need to use a potting mix, not potting soil that is sold in bags or especially not topsoil. You can buy potting mix in bags at the big box stores -- there are several brands including Miracle Grow. I mix my own using pine bark fines, peat moss, perlite, and slow release fertilizer.

That said, things will grow in containers filled with topsoil but they will grow much better with a better growing medium. I used to use topsoil and potting soil in my containers until one year we had a bad drought and my plants suffered greatly because my growing medium was unforgiving. Then I read this:

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container plants, especially tomatoes, have done much better in the last few years after mixing my own potting medium.

Reply to
Mark Anderson

Your mix sounds fine but I'm doing OK. I do need to amend soil with lime and fertilizer and keep adding them. As others point out, a lot of watering is needed - in very hot weather sometimes twice a day. Four tomato's, three peppers and two eggplants give wife and I all summer vegetables we can handle. I used to have a big garden in the back before shade and deer did it in. Spent a lot of time gardening and needing to freeze/preserve/can the excess. In my golden years, it is much more satisfying to grow stuff on my deck but I'm not going to do it in a high intensity way that takes more work than visiting local farm markets ;) Frank

Reply to
Frank

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