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03 Feb 07 - 02:31 PM (#1956729) Subject: BS: Container gardening From: Zany Mouse Knowing that Catters have a wide range of knowledge and experience I thought I would put this question out there and see what it trawls. I'm thinking of growing some veg and fruit in container pots. Apart from strawberries in one of those terracotta pots with holes in the side I haven't tried anything else. Any help/experience out there? Rhiannon |
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03 Feb 07 - 02:34 PM (#1956731) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Stilly River Sage If you live in a hot climate try to shade the planter pots in summer because they'll get too hot and dry too fast for the plants to thrive. I think you're in the north of the U.S. so it's not as much of a problem, but here in Texas I've built a loose stone wall in front of a bunch of potted plants to keep them from overheating. Otherwise I can't keep them wet enough to grow all summer. SRS |
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03 Feb 07 - 02:37 PM (#1956733) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Scooby Doo Rhiannon, I grow herbs in enclosed pots outside my french doors.I am thinking of growing tomatos in compost bag this year.But you do need to water them more than in the ground. Yas |
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03 Feb 07 - 04:43 PM (#1956819) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: dianavan Zany, I live in B.C. and have trouble during July and August with containers. They dry out very fast. Maybe if you lined the container with plastic but otherwise, forget it. More trouble than they're worth, unless your home all summer long and have lots of water. |
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03 Feb 07 - 04:48 PM (#1956824) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Jean(eanjay) I haven't really grown veg and fruit in containers (except for some lettuce seedlings that were given to me by a friend. I put them in a container and they were brilliant; I just pulled off leaves as I needed them.) only things like pansies. I lost a bit of interest because of the constant watering. One of the things that I think is important is the compost you use. |
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03 Feb 07 - 04:49 PM (#1956826) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: katlaughing Ask your local gardening center about special varieties, esp. tomatoes which are specifically for pots. My brother started "pot" tomatoes early last spring, from seed, and had them 4-5 feet on his front deck all summer through early fall. They were delicious. The babies I took from him and put in pots didn't do well, though.We live in hot and dry plus high altitude sun, so I had them in partial shade (facing east as his did, but more shade). By the time they produced tomatoes it was obvious they had been in need of more sun, smaller pots, and more even watering.:-) According to the search I did at our fav. seed company's catalogue, all of the veggies listed HERE are "container" plants. |
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03 Feb 07 - 05:05 PM (#1956849) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Cluin I do sweet peppers every summer in containers on the back deck. They do pretty well and it keeps the bugs out of them for the most part. Haven't brought them inside but I start the seed inside in peat pellets every beginning of March. |
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03 Feb 07 - 06:56 PM (#1956939) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: RangerSteve Tomatoes will work, as will hot peppers, spinach, salad greens, Try googling vegetable seeds. I've found that most of the mail order seed places will tell you what's suitable for container growing. |
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03 Feb 07 - 08:05 PM (#1956988) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: GUEST Sweet cherry tomatoes tumbling from a hanging basket - put tin foil dish in bottom of basket to preserve water, plenty of lining and water daily...at eye level they are easy to pick over and insects don't seem too keen on making the journey up there. |
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03 Feb 07 - 08:14 PM (#1956992) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Zany Mouse Thanks for all the super ideas, Catters. I knew you wouldn;t let me down. Incidentally I live in England on the South Yorks/North Notts border, so it's quite wet, rarely have frost and summer is fairly moderate. Thanks again Rhiannon |
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03 Feb 07 - 10:28 PM (#1957074) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: catspaw49 I have had pretty fair success with the tomato plants with some really impressive harvests but tp put it in a word.......WATER! Sounds like your clime is better but don't let them dry out! Want to have some fun and get a lot of comments? Take your big #10 can with one end cut off as usual. Cut a 3 inch hole in the center of the other end. Plant a cherry tomato like the hot100 in the hole and fill the can with dirt up to about an inch from the rim. Drill a couple of holes and put in a rope handle and hang it up. The tomato is growing DOWN out of the bottom but then naturally turns up as it grows! When it begins to grow over top of the can support it so it can fall over and go back down again. This is a neat turn on the cascading tomato plant and will give you a great conversation piece as well as a more dense looking mass of tomato! Spaw |
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03 Feb 07 - 10:56 PM (#1957104) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Bee-dubya-ell A hint to help keep large (five-gallon size) containers moist: You can provide several hours of low-tech "drip irrigation" by using a water-filled plastic milk jug in which you've poked a small hole. Use as an adjunct to regular watering, not in place of. Works for non-containerized gardening as well, for squash/melon hills etc. |
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03 Feb 07 - 11:09 PM (#1957108) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Liz the Squeak Do you have access to used tyres? They make a great potato tower. Best wedged into a corner, stack them up 3-4 deep (or 1 cars worth) and fill with compost. Plant a couple of potatoes in and away you go! The important thing is the shape of your container. Straight sided or wide bottomed is best, for deep rooted plants. They're much more stable and available in a huge variety of designs and materials. Bedding stuff with shallower roots can live in smaller, wide topped pots quite happily. Those terracotta pots with holes in the sides are OK after a fashion, but I've always had problems with mine. The bottom holes don't seem to do so well. I suspect it's the weight of the soil compacting it down. I would suggest you don't use the same compost every year but empty it out once the strawbs have finished and put a draining layer of gravel half way down when you refil. Tomatoes do fine in growbags, as did the courgette plant I had one year, although that did start to ramble down the garden path at an alarming rate. There are some varieties of soft fruits now, particularly raspberries and loganberries, that can be pot grown. Peas will do well against a wall or fence or along a balcony, but they need pretty deep and well composted earth and are mostly not worth the effort - unless you get a bumper harvest, you only get a couple of meals worth out of them. Runner beans are fun and pretty, but the same planting applies. As with everything, the secret is regular watering and not allowing the compost to dry out - certain composts when dried almost never retain water in the same quantities again. Good luck! LTS |
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04 Feb 07 - 12:11 AM (#1957147) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: katlaughing What is a "growbag," please? Neat idea, Spaw! |
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04 Feb 07 - 12:12 AM (#1957150) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Janie Check out the large self watering containers for veggie gardens at Gardeners Supply. They're plastic and they look it, but they work well. Janie |
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04 Feb 07 - 12:47 AM (#1957160) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Liz the Squeak A growbag is a big plastic bag of peat or compost. You lay the growbag on your patio, deck, balcony, wherever and cut holes in the top of it for the plants to go in. The plastic bag keeps the warmth and moisture in, the plants grow out of the top. I see from Google that 'growbags' are what they are now calling those 'babygro' things with sleeping bag-like bottoms rather than legs. Do not get the two confused. One is not waterproof. Zany - Lakeland Plastics used to sell a 'growbag greenhouse' which was a pop-up green house made of plastic that had shelves in it for 2-3 growbags. I don't know if they still do them, the catalogue didn't show them earlier. B&Q might do something similar. LTS |
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04 Feb 07 - 08:36 AM (#1957362) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Nessie Hi Rhiannon - you might want to consider an irrigation system if you're liable to hosepipe bans or if you're away a lot, but you'll find most things will thrive in pots with the right soil and plenty of water. Outdoor bush tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, runner beans etc are good to start with, but have fun experimenting. (That Hosta you dug up from your garden for me is flourishing because in a pot it's not snail bait!) Nessie |
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04 Feb 07 - 04:24 PM (#1957702) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: katlaughing Thanks, LtS. Nessie, my friends keep slugs out of their strawberries by keeping shallow dishes filled with beer among the plants. It works!:-) |
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05 Feb 07 - 10:50 AM (#1957938) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Stilly River Sage I use shallow containers of beer throughout the summer to get the slugs and snails. Works like a charm! Sorry to have misplaced you, Zany! A friend of mine was in the UK 25 years ago to care for her grandchildren because her daughter moved them there to do her PhD. She bemoaned the lack of good produce. In letters I tucked in seeds for her garden (I remember onions as something she really missed). SRS |
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05 Feb 07 - 10:56 AM (#1957948) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: WFDU - Ron Olesko Are you familiar with square foot gardening? It removes the concept that many people have of planing vegetable in rows, which are appropriate for large farms. You can grow more in small space, and it adapts very well to building containers for patios and other small areas. Check out their website at www.squarefootgardening.com I created a 4x4 garden and was overloaded with tomatoes, peppers & egglplant as well as herbs (oregano, parsley & basil in one square foot!) |
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05 Feb 07 - 01:43 PM (#1958072) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: terrier A way I use to keep veg pots moist is to sit them on top of suitable containers ( old washing up bowls, etc.) filled with small pebbles. When filling the veg pots with compost (don't use peat based)trail some strips of fabric through the drain holes at the bottom to use as wicks. I usualy leave the base of the pot 3 or 4 cm below the level of the pebbles. Fill the pebble containers with water and leave the plants to sort it out themselves. Esp.good for tomato plants. The general rule is to water the pebbles and feed the pots (with the plants in!). Growing plants this way,you don't need as much compost and the plants will send roots through the bottom of the pots to take up water. |
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05 Feb 07 - 02:03 PM (#1958096) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Stilly River Sage Square foot gardening was quite popular 15-20 years ago. The main thing about that is to build the raised bed, but raised beds have a lot of things going for them. SRS |
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05 Feb 07 - 03:03 PM (#1958157) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: WFDU - Ron Olesko The fellow who came up with the square foot gardening idea and television show apparently had some sort of issue with PBS and the book publisher. The book and show disappeared and the ideas behind it were not pushed. The website shows the author has been pursuing the ideas and pushing it in other countries, and the book is now back in print. I really find it to be a great idea. Throwing out preconceived notions opens up new ways of gardening. Building the raised bed is very easy to do, just a few pieces of lumber and some nails. Do not use treated lumber as the chemicals will find their way into the soil. The wood should last you for a few seasons. As for the issue of watering, you want to add more compost - not less. Compost will act like a sponge and actually help retain water. A good mix of vermiculite also will help retain water. |
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05 Feb 07 - 03:23 PM (#1958183) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: terrier I was only pointing out that peat based compost is not the best for retaining moisture. Large volumes of compost will stay moist longer but if the pot is sitting on top of a water reservoir, you need less compost, in fact, less compost means that the plant tap roots will get to the all important water supply sooner, but then it is more important to make sure the plant is getting enough nutrients. The square foot garden system has had a lot of press over the years and seems to have a lot of sense in it. I've been meaning to have a go for several years now but never got round to it. Esp. since my garden stays very wet, raised beds are the way to go. How about using car tyres as raised bed walls? Just a thought. |
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05 Feb 07 - 03:27 PM (#1958189) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: catspaw49 Karen and I did the Square Foot thing for awhile and we did really well with it too......except for corn. You plant in circles which I thought was great but so did the local wildlife population that we NEVER could keep out of the corn.....so MUCH food in such a TINY area. I think one of them left me a thank you card if I recall correctly. Spaw |
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05 Feb 07 - 03:35 PM (#1958202) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: WFDU - Ron Olesko I see your point Terrier. I would worry about having large bowls of water sitting out, even with pebbles, as they attract mosquitoes. I guess it is fine if you are not able to water every couple of days. I usually think of compost as recycled vegetative material. I have a compost bin with old leaf and plant material, some grass clippings, vegetative waste from the kitchen, coffee grounds, etc. I do use some peat moss, but not much. I even add cow and/or chicken manure to the heap. I've found that compost really does help retain moisture, especially if you add vermiculite. The square foot garden website gives a "recipe" for the mix which is the initial step in creating the soil for container. Afterwards, I just add a couple of shovels of compost when adding new plants. We had a hot spell last year and nothing dried out. The car tires seem like a great idea. With the square foot method, the tires actually will waste space as everything is planted in a grid, and with a circular tire some of that space changes - but you can improvise of course. |
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05 Feb 07 - 04:18 PM (#1958240) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Liz the Squeak Tyres from square wheels?? LTS |
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05 Feb 07 - 04:19 PM (#1958242) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: WFDU - Ron Olesko Square wheels?? |
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05 Feb 07 - 05:38 PM (#1958325) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: catspaw49 "Square" foot gardening Ron... Spaw |
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05 Feb 07 - 07:25 PM (#1958443) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: GUEST,JTT The Three Sisters method was how Americans used to grow corn before the Europeans invaded. You put a dead fish into a hole, and follow it in with three corn niblets. When the corn stalks are about six inches tall you take away the two weaker ones and sow three beans and three squash seeds. Again, when they're big enough to judge, take out the two weaker ones of each. As they grow, the fish fertilises the corn, which supports the beans, the beans set nitrogen in the soil and the squash's hairy leaves keep mice from the beans and corn. For the people who invented this method (and also gardening with multiple canals for climate moderation and watering), the corn goddess was central to life. I can only conjecture how shocked they would have been at the genetic modification of maize, the most GM-messed-with plant on earth. One of Cortez's men wrote an account of the invasion in which he describes walking for several days past a single field of corn planted in this way. |
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06 Feb 07 - 05:41 PM (#1959617) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Liz the Squeak Always plant several seeds in one pot ~ one for the Devil, one for the crow, one to die and one to grow. That's how my family did it, seemed to work for them. LTS |
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11 Apr 07 - 07:20 AM (#2022029) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Mr Happy "How about using car tyres as raised bed walls? Just a thought." Old tyres are great for growing spuds - when you want to 'earth up' - just add another tyre! |
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11 Apr 07 - 09:10 AM (#2022111) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: bobad "You put a dead fish into a hole" I tried that once and every morning the fish was dug up, so I quit with the fish in the hole. |
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11 Apr 07 - 12:43 PM (#2022318) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Liz the Squeak Did you make sure the fish was dead? I'm about to plant my potatoes now... not in a tyre tower (the car still needs 'em) but in a raised bed. They've been sprouting happily for a while and now they need to be buried. I'll keep you posted on how they do, fertilized almost exclusively by cat poop. LTS |
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11 Apr 07 - 02:08 PM (#2022411) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Donuel If you put the water holding granuels from disposable diapers an inch or two under the soil you can miss watering without any harm done. Don't put that stuff at the bottom of the container, it will expand several inches and break roots. |
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11 Apr 07 - 02:26 PM (#2022432) Subject: RE: BS: Container gardening From: Q (Frank Staplin) Container gardening not recommended for Alberta, unless one can sink the container in soil to rim level in the winter. For the average gardener in zone 3 or 2, requires too much care. |