Question for 7/6/2018... Container varieties...

[daylilydude]

Some have lots of gardening area and some like me are growing in containers, but my question for today is... are you growing any container varieties and what's the reason you chose that particular variety? Container varieties meaning determinate, dwarfs, bush any variety that you think would grow in a pot... am I making any sense?

As you know i'm only growing in SWC's this year and the really only things i'm growing that have anything to do with containers are bush cucumbers (Pick-A-Bushel Hybrid) and bush watermelons (Bush Sugar Baby)... and I have 1 determinate tomato out there (Celebration)... what about you??

[paulf]

Our containers are doing pretty well. We planted the regular varieties we usually put in the ground. Maybe next year it needs to be some smaller varieties.

[pepperhead212]

I grew a number of "dwarf" tomato varieties this year, but they aren't the smallest - 4-6 ft max. - and all indeterminate. I grew them so that I could plant them in the bucket SIPs, and plant them a little closer, and on the nylon trellis, which collapsed under some of those huge plants.

The only other thing I get to plant in containers is basil. Serrata is a great small basil that I have grown for years, and Siam Queen Thai basil is another small variety that I grow.

[guruofgardens]

We're growing 6 dwarf varieties of tomatoes this year trying out the heavier fabric pots. I am quite impressed with them. The other dwarfs are the 5 gal. white buckets with 8 - 1/2" holes an inch from the bottom. We're comparing the two grows.

I grow lots of peppers in the 4 gal. black pots. They usually struggle for the first few months, but starting around August, they'll really start to thrive. The peppers I have in the larger pots are doing really well, but they do get shaded out from about 10a-4p.

With no room left in the community garden (I gave up one of my plots to a young teacher), I'm trying pattypan summer squash in larger pots. So far everything is OK, but we'll see when it's time to see some fruit. They're very small still.

[hairymooseknuckles]

I grew Dwarf Striped Rumplestiltskin. It was kinda stingy with fruit, but it's very thick limbed and bushy. I also had a mystery plant that only grew a foot tall. It was plentiful with fruit though.

I grow for fun and the excitement of saving seeds!

[paquebot]

I've been growing lots of things in large pots for years. Tomatoes peaked several years ago with with about 50 7-gallon pots with dwarf types. Some worked well but most that did were merely short determinates. Others were 4' veresions of some larger indeterminates and didn't belong in pots. With lack of space and physical ability this year, not as many short varieties. The ones doing well are Boney, Lime Green Salad, and Utyonek.

I found lots of advantages to containers besides accommodating short varieties. One can regulate the planting mediun and fertilize the plants rather than the whole garden. A 7-S pot can hold 3 or 4 chard plants. Same will handle about 30 radishes. One will also handle one Sweeter Yet cuke or two Pick a Bushel.

I won't ever plant another carrot seed into the garden soil. All carrots now go into pots. The medium is is important as it must contain nutrients and retain moisture. Thus most of mine is old horse manure mixed with compost. The plants "eat: it. With the carrots, I'll start with 7 gallons packed in. Four months later, the pots are still full but more than half the volumn is carrots. They will have "consumed" 3½ gallons of the organic matter.

Five-gallon pots are not big enough for most standard vegetables. I've used them for green onions where they do quite well. Two parsley plants will do fine. The oddest that I have is one rutabaga per 5-gallon pot. Should be some huge globes!

There is one thing about all my pots which do not allow it to be called container gardening. All are set on soil and some are an inch or so into it. Tbe roots follow the water trail out through the drain holes and into the soil below. Thus they are really extra-tall rsised beds.

Martin




The truth is more important than the facts.

[brownrexx]

No containers here but I am growing Little Lucy okra because hairymooseknuckles, sent me some seeds. It is a dwarf variety and can be grown in a container but I have 2 of them in-ground. They are really pretty plants and just started flowering today.

20180704_133813 by Brownrexx, on Flickr

[spike]

Normally I grow potatoes and melons in pots but didn't this year. I do have my peppers and garlic in a raised bed and containers. Never take chances with my peppers.

[september]

Always have some tomatoes and peppers and eggplant singly in pots, but also I grow zucchini, cantaloupe and watermelons in large (20 gallon?)pots as well as in the ground. I inherited a bunch of super large old nursery pots from my niece who managed a garden center, big enough for trees that the melons go in. The pots usually bear earlier, but fruit are smaller and fewer than those in the ground. Usually two plants per pot.

[Hensaplenty]

Because we were moving, I planted in pots. I did plant a 4' x 10' raised bed at the new place, but later than I normally would.
1. Tomatoes were doing well before the move. Now, I've got fungal issues which is SO normal for the south anyway. My best performer has been Arkansas Traveler!
2. I have only grown peppers in containers for two years, but they have done FANTASTIC both years. I will probably continue this.
3. My one and only pole bean (in a pot) has yet to flower.

[bestofour]

I planted a tomato plant in a big flower pot and so far it's just sitting there. I have several in buckets and they're doing great.

[bluelacedredhead]

I used to plant a lot more containers than I have in recent years. I just don't have the energy to haul water every night from the rainbarrels and I hate using municipal water because we have metered water.

This year I have 4 tomatoes in containers. Two Dwarf Beryl and I have no idea what the others are? They came up from seed that was supposed to be a micro tom and they most certainly are not. Perhaps the micro tom wasn't stable and has reverted to a larger sized plant? The fruit themselves are small like the original seeds I acquired. Oh well, nothing more fun than a Mystery Veggie. I also have  two potato bags with purple sweet potatoes.

I also have 5 Gooseberry bushes and 5 Nanking Cherry bushes that have been in containers since 2011. I get enough gooseberries for one small batch of jam (5 jelly jars). But the cherries have been a problem all along. Usually the squirrels beat me to the fruit but until this year, there hasn't been much fruit to begin with. This spring, they were loaded with blossoms. The weather was unusually warm and yep, then a snap freeze. These plants are cold hardy but the blossoms not so much. I had two cherries, but they were delicious.

And lastly, brownrexx , gifted me with some Burpee's Bush Butternut seeds last year. They are a small plant and what I would call a single serving squash. They will be a staple in my garden forever (thanks brownrexx ,) and if a move to an apartment with a balcony is necessary as we age, I will most certainly be able to raise these in a container.