Don't You Feel Guilty, Colin ?!

[snohare]

BBC Nature - 'Stunted' pot plants cannot reach full potential

I know, I know, you're going to say, "B..b...but I use dustbins as well !"

I have to say, this research does reflect my findings. Growing in pots is much harder than in the ground, I'd say... I take my hat off to those who manage it well.
So, just what are the ground rules for growing in pots ? Water well from below ? Friable soil ? Choose the right species to grow ?

[Bren In Pots]

When I only grew in pots i found watering the hardest to balance, its been much easier to grow now that we've filled in the pond and dug up part of the lawn to make beds.

[snohare]

So are there different best methods for watering different plants, Bren ? Does it vary according to weather and other circumstances ?
I must confess, I have had a pretty abysmal record until very recently, when I set a dozen pots with strawberries, cabbage, courgette, spring onions etc, in a big 3 foot gravel tray. Ever since then they seem to have thrived. But leaf crops don't seem to be responding so well.

[Farmer_Gyles]

i don't have much choice other than to grow in pots for much of my veg .... i do try to give it the biggest possible pot where i can .... watering is a pain, but has to be done ....
things will be much better when i finally get an allotment

[Bren In Pots]

I used to water from the bottom and feed from the top difficult bit was not to waterlog the plants by leaving them stood in water.

[veggiechicken]

Normally, I don't have the patience for pots (Not you Pottyx) as the need to water them gets me down! This year all my squash plants in the ground were demolished by slimies and, at the 3rd attempt I stuck some in pots. They are the only ones to survive - so deffo somethings will be in pots next year. Maybe as a backup/insurance with some in the soil too.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Snohare short answer NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The people who did the research are probably very highly educated with letters after their name etc.

This does not make them clever or gardeners just educated. I read the report some weeks ago and was not impressed at all. Its the same thing about fish only growing to a certain size in a tank, well no they don't. An american fish breeder grew a fish in a tank and by keeping the water perfect and feeding correctly the fish grew so that its tail touched one side whilst its nose touched the other, cruel yes but proved the point.

I have 20 years plus of growing in containers, follow a few basic rules it is simple and highly productive, right variety, right size container with good drainage, water as needed, and feed after the first 6 weeks if the plant is going to be in the ground for longer than that.

It can't be difficult I can do it.

Colin.

[snohare]

Aha, the horse's mouth...!
Interesting what you say about the researchers.
Of course our tendency is to think (or in the case of journalists, to imply) that the researchers conclusions are the last word in the theory. But science doesn't work that way - all they've found out is that under those particular conditions, such and such happens. It's a peephole to reality, like a flake of plaster coming off a wall to reveal a little bit of the mural hidden below. If you can't see enough, it's still just a guess to say what's there.
Modify one variable in an experiment, and something entirely, or subtly, different might happen. And then the theory changes - like a second flake of whitewash coming off. Science is just a way of gradually making guesses more accurate, its answers are not Moses coming down from the Mount with tablets of stone.
So, my burning question to the man with the actual experience is, does it help if the pots are taller ? Because that is how it seems to me, and I'm wondering what size of pot I need for my wee brassicas; I can go with largeish but shorter plant pots, or flower buckets which are slightly larger diameter, and need more soil.

[Glutton4...]

Doesn't it depend on the particular plant?

ie. A wider, shallow pot for those that send out more lateral roots, and taller narrower pots for those that send out a deeper root...

Just a thought...

[Farmer_Gyles]

re: pot sizes .... i have morrisons buckets and 12" tomato pots and 10" pots .... i'm working on 'biggest plant goes in biggest pot" .... or something like that .... working from the spacing stated on the seed packets .... so the smaller brassicas are the cabbages that are planted 18" apart, so they go in the smaller pots .... and so on .... i've had 3ft leaves from black kale planted in the ground, so hoping i'll get close to that from kale in morrisons buckets ....

[Florence Fennel]

I don't grow much in pots now (apart from tomatoes), as I've pinched plenty of lawn and created beds, but I'm definitely going to try some bowls of onions this year since seeing Colin's photographs. They look better than a bowl of hyacinths. I have got three gherkins in a builder's bucket and they're looking healthy, about 5 feet tall and still climbing.

[Feral007]

Oh those onions sound good. Are colins onion on a thread here or on his blog? Colin......oh Colin....

I don't grow in pots because they just cook in summer. Son wants to do some pots on the deck in a row to divide off part of the deck and make it like a separate room - hope he's going to water them in summer tho. It's the baking heat that puts me off pots. If you don't water every day without fail they are crispy.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Sorry about disappearing last night its my birthday today and SWMBO had organised a surprise bean feast.

Pot sizes.

As everyone knows I use dustbins & plastic water tanks for my spuds plus Morrison flower buckets (MFB's) for my 1st earlies.

I have some perennial herbs, and fruit bushes in large pots.

Everything else gets 8 to 9 inches of soil depth in various home made containers, plastic troughs and of course MFB's.

Watering.

Yes this can be a problem but there are little things you can do to ease the burden.

First make sure your container has good drainage.

Never fill your container to the brim with compost always leave at least 2 inches of space that way you can flood the container with water. This will ensure the container is wet top to bottom and it will not need watering so often except in the hottest weather, makes it easier to feed to. As an example I water my dustbins with a 2 gallon bucket, 1 bucket per bin. Except in the driest weather I can get away with watering every 3 days or so.

My bought troughs have inbuilt water reservoirs that last up to a week. Lidl had some this year with a pipe allowing you to water from the bottom should you so wish I seem to recall they were about £3 each. At a mtr long and about 8" x 6" one would keep you in mixed CACA salad leaves for weeks. Another for spring onions, 3 cut down MFBs for radish and its fresh salad all season.

Feeding.

I use Growmore as a general NPK neutral fertiliser along with Miracle Grow for green growth and Tomorite for fruit production. By fruit I mean everything from toms to spuds and runners.

Our organic friends can advise on alternatives for those who wish to go down that route.

Organisation.

Very important this. Successional sowing is a must so I have lots of modules, and pots from 3" upto 6" along with 12 root trainers and a few specialist pots I have picked up over the years. If I get it right, everytime I pull a lettuce there is another one ready to take its place.

As I harvest my main crop spuds there are PSB in MFBs waiting to go in the dustbins. I just sweeten the existing compost with Growmore and bang em in. Pic is this years example taken today.

For peeps who can't dig (I have a back problem) container growing offers a viable alternative, providing good fresh food and the enjoyment of gardening.

Colin.

[Glutton4...]

^^ Not as potty as his name, it would seem!

[veggiechicken]

^^ Not as potty as his name, it would seem!

I daren't ask whether he's Tubby - since its Potty's birthday.........