Container Veggies thread

[JanM]

In containers, this year I have grown:

Runner beans - Scarlet Emporer - big yeld, same as last year
Lady Crystl potatoes - don't bother only got enough for one bowlful
Late Beetroot - look good but haven't pulled them up, currently growing in a trug!
Carrots - Early Nantes - planted 12 seeds got 5 up - will try again next year though
Tomatoes - Gardeners Delight - good amount of toms
Peppers - Gypsy - lots of peppers but not many red ones as lack of sunshine this supposed summer!

I have also got some Charlotte potatoes growing at the moment for pulling at Christmas and they are going great guns, hopefully they will be my Christmas present!

I am aiming to try courgettes next year, haven't tried them before so not sure how they will do.

I think you can grow most things in containers but you may not get quite the size of crop you would in the ground with some veg.

Worth trying anything once I think :-)

[CharlotteE]

Successful container growing

Hi

I work for the mag, and I'd like to include tips from members of the forum on growing veg in containers across the UK, for the December issue (on sale 7th November).

Are there any grapes who's like to share their results? It would be good to hear from you if you're in northern England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, as from what I can see from the thread so far, we haven't had many posts from these areas...

If you post your results on this thread, I'll PM you if I think we could use your tips

Thanks everyone!

Charlotte (Editorial Assistant)

[chicken slave]

Hi Charlotte

I am from northern england and moved south last year. I lived in an old victorian town house in the north east and had great success growing fruit and veg in containers. I successfully grew, blackcurrants, potatoes, strawberries, tomamtoes, courgettes, carrots, beans, peas and much more. I have brought alot of the practices from the north down with me, I still grow potatoes, carrots and parsnips in containers (well bags really). I had very little space up north approx 12' x 8' which was shared with the downstairs neighbour I also had a mini greenhouse which mean't most of my plants be it veg or flowers were grown from seed. I even have a friend that caught the growing bug and she is having great success in a very similar situation to what I had. I loved a sunday as we went into the yard and got the veg for dinner. The watering and feeding was a little more difficult than having a garden, but if you got into a routine everything flourished. I have found I had more crop on some things than when they are grown in the garden I think this may be down to controlling the feed and water a little better.

Well hope my fond memories help!!

[SueA]

I grow early potatoes in tubs & containers, you don't tend to get massive harvests but they are usually good quality & escape the reaches of underground slugs, scab & other pests & diseases which you get from planting directly in the soil. I've grown lots of different varieties including 'Winston', 'Colleen', 'Charlotte', 'Rocket' & 'Harlequin'. The one thing you have to remember is to keep watering them in dry weather, also if you add some chicken manure pellets or organic potato food to them when you plant them just the odd seaweed or tomato food dose will see them through.
I also grow courgettes in containers although they haven't been so successful the last couple of years because of the dreadful summers we've had. I got a couple of 'self-watering' tubs a few years ago & these are ideal for courgettes as you can keep an eye on the water level & also add feed through the water tube. 'Tumbler' type tomatoes grow well in hanging baskets, I keep one on the fence by the back door so that I can just pop out & grab a few when I need them, they also look pretty if you grow some parsley or basil along with them. Cut & come again lettuce or salad leaves are great to grow in a shallow container on the patio or even in a windowbox as you can pop out & snip a few leaves at a time whenever you want to. I've also managed to grow dwarf apple trees & raspberries in containers too, you just have to keep watering & feeding regularly as they are relying on you to keep them happy!

[SueA]

I've found tomatoes also grow well in growbags or containers as long as you pinch out the tops before they get too tall so that they concentrate on ripening just a few trusses of fruit. I've grown Itakian plum this year in a large pot & they have done reasonably well until they were struck by blight. Chives also grow well in a window box, in the past I've grown them outside the kitchen window, snipped off some when needed & then left them to flower where they look very pretty & even the flowers can be used to add flavour to salads if you want to.

[Vixen218]

This year i did well with my
desiree potatoes
new rasberry plant
all my strawberry plants
and got loads of green toms which i made into chutney

I also took a cutting of my sister-in-laws large rosemary plant and managed to get 8 successfull plants wich are growing really well and smell lovely, also chives but none flowered as i ate them straight from the ground

What didn't do well
broad beans - not enough room
spinach
savoy cabage - eaten by pilars
celary - didn't leave enough room

Still growing
more toms
onions

so not too bad as every thing was outside and in tubs, will contnue to try again next year

[Shelle]

Over the last 2 years I have grown 95% of my crop in containers.
Consistently, carrots and radishes have been my easiest crop to grow.

This year I added a few things to my range, but due to the weather had mixed sucess.

Potatoes went ok, the bigger the pot to just one or two tubers seems to be the best ratio I found when experimenting with yields. Charlottes were my favs, but even Pink fir apples grew ok although not huge.

I grew half pint peas, never enough for a portion for dinner, but great to snack on a night!

I also grew mini cabbage, cauliflower and calabrese, but never got them full term before being savaged by slugs

I even managed to grow sweetcorn in containers, it all worked but then just as the cobs were about to swell, bad weather came, no sun and lots of rain, thus I only got 2 cobs in total from 10 plants Had the weather stayed decent, I suspect I might have got quite a few cobs so would have been a container success despite living in the north east.

Next year, I will deffo do carrots and raddishes. Will also try again with sweetcorn and peas (but "proper" peas). May do potatoes but feel they took too much compost and costed too much.

[Cutecumber]

As with some other things in life, it's the size (and depth) that counts.

Give your container-grown vegetables enough space and a good growing media - and keep them sufficiently fed and watered - and you'll be laughing. Oh, and know when not to bother - i.e. perennials and very large, long-growing plants.

It is rare to get harvests of the same weight as ground-grown plants - all else being equal - but sometimes it's the difference between something and nothing.

I am about 80% container, 20% ground and my best performers in containers (of an appropriate size) are:

lettuce
carrot - seriously, don't bother with the round ones, it's a false economy. Small, quick growing stump roots types are fine and give you a better yield.
potatoes
dwarf runners
kohl rabi
shallots (from seed)
spring onions
beetroot
parsnip (surprisingly)

tomatoes take much more time and effort than the above, but usually crop well.
cabbages and cauliflowers can be good but you need to pick the right type.

[beckybee]

Has anyone tried sweet potatos in containers? We grew some in the beds last year and they did ok but it was a rubbish summer and the yield wasnt great. I thought I might try in a black dustbin next year to see if the warmth helped.

[fwuffydragon]

Until a few years ago I only had a patio to grow veg on. It's 15ft x 15ft and mostly under a large lime tree (not mine).

Rhubarb - grew fine in large pot (2ft plus) with a nice deep saucer, and kept it topped up with manure! Needs a couple of cans every night during hot weather. Got some nice stalks off it - have now set it free down on the allotment as it got too big!

Runner beans - did these in plastic storage boxes with holes drilled in the bottom - went up the canes, up the fence and into the hedge! Lots of lovely beans - did green ones and purple ones.

Potatoes - got a nice crop of charlotte potatoes one year out of a big 2ft "tree pot" given to me by my parents (now used for rhubarb). Put down a tarpaulin before you empty it out or you'll be sweeping for ages!

Tomatoes - again in plastic storage boxes - got some lovely tomatoes and no blight at all - did "gardener's delight" that year. Need a fair amount of feeding and watering.

Rocket - grows fine in a pot, as did lettuces as long as out of slug reach...

Have also done spring onions, which were good.

I start off almost all my plants in pots on the patio before they get set free on the allotment. I overwinter all my onions and garlic on the patio. Didn't have much success when I tried garlic in a pot one year, but I don't think it was big enough / fed enough / sunny enough.

For veg I tend to plant in 2 parts multipurpose compost to 1 part processed farm manure. I don't bother putting crocks or anything in the bottom.

I still keep all my herbs in pots (apart from the basil, sage and coriander which seem to do better in the garden).

I use the big "stuart gravel trays" from the garden centre round the edges of the patio, and some staging made of those decorative wall blocks with big planks of wood on top to give the "two level effect". It works really well, as it means the trailing herbs don't get mucky in the rain, and the big trays make it easy to water. I have beautiful oregano (golden and variegated!!), marjoram, about 6 varieties of mint, sage, pineapple sage (now 3ft high!!!), "golden delicious" sage, about 10 small bay trees (bought one pot for £2.99 and divided them up!).

Also have a big strawberry pot in the middle on its own little trolley so I can move it around when we have visitors, and a morello cherry tree (3 cherries last year - its first year!). Raspberries have done surprisingly well in the shady part of the garden in big storage boxes, probably because the roots have kept cool. Have also had a few blackcurrants and redcurrants out of big pots on the patio.

I think the key is to get the largest pots you can afford (hence the plastic storage boxes!) and water them regularly. Plants need a surprisingly large amount of root room so any pot much under 1ft deep isn't going to produce the results you want. Salad seems to be fine in 9ins deep pots, but anything bigger really wants a deeper root run.

I tend to grow lettuce / pak choi / rocket in those mini zip-up 4 tier greenhouses with the cover off - keeps them out of slug reach - currently got them in individual 3ins pots, and they're growing fine.

Have also done fantastic sweet peppers and aubergine and chillies in the little greenhouses with the covers on (fronts rolled up) - have had shop-size green peppers, and red peppers, and a couple of beautiful aubergines and lots of little apache chillies and have some cayenne chillies on the way ... I'm stunned how well these have done this year - they're in full sun though which makes a real difference. Take out alternate shelves to give the plants room to grow, and give them the biggest pots you can - mine are all in pots approx 1ft deep by 9ins wide.

[biosh]

Container veg

Only my second year growing anything and started late last year! This year I've had a really good crop from Blue Lake French beans in large pots (3 per 12" pot) sheltered in the gap between my greenhouse and garage wall.

Peas did OK last year but very poor this year. They were more exposed and I perhaps put too many plants in each pot. They also suffered from early birds eating the growing tips.

Tomatoes (in containers in greenhouse) not done well this year, but OK. They went a bit wild under the care of the offspring while I was away for most of July and I probably should have given them a severe pruning when I got back but couldn't be so cruel.

Sweet peppers (also in containers in greenhouse) have done much better tha last year. I managed to start these really early and I've had good crops of 2 pepper varieties and they're still producing (red peppers now).

I've just moved some young lettuce into deep trays in the greenhouse in the hope that they'll support me through much of the autumn/winter. I'm being adventurous and I'm trying the same with ome kale too.

I also tried some 'swift' potatoes in 40L sacks (4 per container) and got between 800g and 1kg of spuds per sack.

In 2 short years I've become obsessed with growing veg........

[Sarah1]

I have grown peppers and chillies in pots in my greenhouse and they have done really well (I carn't remember the variety and I'm not at home so unable to look).
I've grown tumbling toms in hanging baskets and they did really well until they got blight 4 weeks ago!
I've got stawberries in pots and hanging baskets and they did well.
I also had mixed salad leaf in a growbag that did really well.
I also put a few bought potatos which had sprouted in a tub and they did well.

All in all I had a succesful summer with peas, carrots,beetroot, turnips and swede in the garden too. Unfortunatly my cabbage and cauliflower's got eaten by caterpillars.

I also lost my winter potato's in pots to blight and my butternut squash plant has only just decided to have fruit on it!

[uni gem]

Help a student!!!!!!!

Hi
I have just started my own forum/thread, called "help a student gardener (uni project research).
Everyone one that grows their own veg in small areas in containers, I would be really grateful if you could give your comments.

I am going to design a container which utilies small spaces allowing someone to grow their own veg.
As not everyone has a garden of allotment.

Please vistit my forum and give comments.

Many thanks
Gemma

[Gwen11ian]

Is anyone growing winter veg in containers?

1. I'm trying spring cabbage.. but I swear they haven't grown any larger than when I planted them out about a month and a half ago!
2. Trying garlic for the second time. Last year it grew alright.. except when I dug it up the clove was no bigger than when I had planted it! I'm trying a different variety this year, hopefully with better luck.
3. Planted lettuce about a month and a half ago, and it's basically stopped growing as well. Leaves are about the size of my fingernail.

The rest of my veg pots have been taken over by winter flowers and bulbs. I can't bear to let soil stand around empty.

[Two_Sheds]

Gwen, Nothing much will grow over the winter. It's too dark and too cold. The roots will be going down though ... and growth will take off in the spring.
Don't you worry.