Tub's

[nosferato]

hi all,
Ok is there any veg that you can not grow in a pot/tub.
I'm totaly out of "soil space" as the kiddies like the grass so was wondering if there omthing i would be wasting my time with thanks

[Hazel at the Hill]

Not if the tub is big enough, is the flippant reply!

Some things do better than others in tubs tho' - a clever grape will be along with a list on sensible ones to go for, I'm sure, but in the mean time if you do a 'search' at the top of the page on containers, there's quite a bit of info on here about them.

Welcome to the Vine, by the way!

[nosferato]

thank you for your time

[sewer rat]

Hi nosferato
What sort of veg are you thinking of for your tubs - let us know what you wanna grow and we shall try and advise further, but pretty much everything can be grown in tubs, buckets , pots, tyres etc.

[terrier]

I went for a wander around a SERIOUS growing establishment this week just outside Chester. There were rows and rows of trees in pots. The pots were not very big and the trees were HUGE.

[Alice]

You can grow anything in containers Nosferato, if the container is big enough and you are prepared to do enough feeding and watering. Some things are not worth while because the amount of space they take for the size of the crop would be counter productive. Other plants will give quite a good crop in a small space. Tell us what you're thinking about and other grapes will let you know how they got on.
Last year I grew runner beans in a 2 x2 container. Got a great crop. Not too late to plant.

[Alison]

I'm growing both runner and climbing french beans in half barrels this year. It's a bit of an experiment so not sure how well it'll work but they look really nice now that they're climbing up the poles and I've gone for some of the more attractive types so they should brighten up the patio when they start flowering / fruiting.

[Moglets]

Everything I am growing is in pots - 40cm square or round or the 1m troughs, and the potatoes in special bags. So far I have courgettes - first one eaten yesterday - one plant per pot, tomatoes two plants per square pot, lettuce, carrots, leeks, radishes and spinach in troughs all doing well.
Just planted out peas, purple sprouting broccoli and aubergines - so far no problems with those.
Every herb imaginable is also potted up and thriving.
Try to find the types suitable for pots - the big supermarkets have some seeds. They tend to be smaller plants.

I've set up a simple irrigation system so all I have to do is turn on the tap when it's been a dry day.

Biggest problem so far was lugging all the bags of compost home from the garden center - hopefully next year that'll be home grown too.

[Alice]

Well done Moglets. I've had good success with containers too but I've moved on to raised beds to get more room. Well actually, raised beds are just giant sized containers.

[nosferato]

wow thanks for your replies.
i have just counted my pots and i have 26 of them gulp!!.
I'm growing carrots,potatoes,honey suckle, clematis,sweet peas,busy Lizzy's,garlic all in pots. i also have 2 compost bags on the go with potatoes and I'm on my 8Th 70ltr + im on my 3rd 150ltr bag of compost. so just one question after the harvest is the compost reusable??

[Cutecumber]

One important thing to bear in mind is that when you plant a tall-growing crop in a container, it will be even taller than normal.

This means that:

You need taller supports and they are harder to keep firm
You can't always see the top of the plant very easily to check for problems such as pest damage
The plants are more vulnerable to wind

These problems have affected several outdoor crops of mine including tomatoes, sweetcorn and ps broccoli (I don't grow the sweetcorn or ps brocc in containers but they are still issues). Even the foliage of potatoes grown in a container break very easily when the wind gets up and need tying together to prevent this (I lost a main stem this morning - boo hoo )

I am most intrigued that Moglets is trying ps broccoli in a container. My plants have been so huge (height and width) that it was a big struggle to keep them upright in the ground through the winter.

You'd think that I was gardening in sub-arctic Russia, but it's just suburban London, honest!

Oh, and the question about re-using compost: yes, you can, but change the type of crop and add extra nutrients as appropriate to the needs of your new crop. Don't keep doing it, though.