Beginner Gardening: Help with Sunflower seedlings, 0 by Jaywhacker

Jaywhacker wrote:
Each one of those pots hold only two and a half gallons of grow mix. There are some misconceptions about how plants roots behave under diffenent growing conditions. Most of the statements you see are based on growing plants in ground beds and are correct for ground bed conditions. Plants growing in the ground send roots in all directions in search of moisture and nutrients. It is true that some have to have long tap roots in order to exist in some ground growing conditions. They have to reach deep for moisture. But put those same plants in a container and supply them with a constant supply of moisture in a quick draining grow mix that allows plenty of oxygen to their roots and they do not have to have a massive root system to support their needs. That is basically what hydroponic growing systems do and the stacked container concept is basically a hydroponic system. If you look at the stalk of the sunflower in the attached picture, you can see that it is healthy, growing strong, and has about reached its advertised heighth. It is not staked. These strong Texas wind gusts may take it down later in the season but right now its roots have a firm grip in that small pot and it is hanging tough. There is a gazania growing in the same pot as well as some other plants. These containers can be intensively planted because each plant is getting what it needs. Think about the way people crowd plants together in hanging baskets. You can do the same thing in these stacked containers. One of my grow poles with 16 plant sites may have as many as 25 to 30 plants growing in them.