asparagus!!!! =(

Mola, I harvest some stalks and let others completely alone to grow and feed the parent plant. My aspagaus has a root base at least 3' in diameter. If you use an earthbox, you'll probably want a big one for a single plant.

My harvest seems to be linked to how much water the plant gets. Once the main harvest is done, I can get secondary, but minor, harvests by increasing the water that the plant gets after giving it a brief rest. In all the years I've grow it, I've never fertilized.

I'm not really very serious about this yet. I have four - three gallon pots with several plants crammed in each one! Is this cruel? Bonsai asparagus?

With every stem growing, just topped, each new one is bigger. They sure take a lot of watering!

I want a 4foot wide X eight foot long X two feet deep water "container" with holes in the top for exchangeable pots. I dream big!!

I wonder, with what is known about companion planting, if there would be trouble with shared water? Hum.

LOL!! bosai asperagus... good one, but stringy and ... well.. I will just leave it at that!

Mola I have lots of 40" X 10' self watering containers. In fact, I grow everything in them. The water does not transport diseases as far as I can tell but they are subject to all the insects and airborne diseases normal to growing in the ground. The constant availability of the water almost totally eliminates blossom end rot.

twiggybuds - my hubby does all the watering, and despite his best efforts, I don't think he give the tomatoes in pots enough water. This past summer I had some in pots and others in the ground - the latter had much less blossom end rot. I think the roots got down into the clay soil under the raised beds. That clay probably stayed moist most of the time, whereas the potting mix in the pots probably dried out from time to time.

Next summer ALL the tomatoes are going in the ground!

Having said that ---- I managed to pick/freeze around 400 lbs of tomatoes!

Twiggy, the pots sit in water all the time? What about mosquitoes?

I cannot comprehend how it is possible to grow a decent tomato or much of anything else in quantity by just top watering daily. After I became disabled and decided to try some flowers in pots on my patio, they worked me to death with daily watering and frequent fertilizing. It's not for me.

I try to keep some water in my beds at all times for the frogs and tadpoles which eliminate the skeeters and help with all the other insects. I only have to add water every 2 or 3 days but if I didn't worry about the frogs, I could go on a trip for a week and return to live plants. Full grown plants lose more to transpiration than evaporation. All vegetables will adapt to having some of their roots in water so long as they can also have plenty of drier, well oxygenated space.

Plants in the ground have a fighting chance and will grow roots deep and wide if there is a water source nearby such as under a sidewalk or raised bed.

Mola I just previewed and saw your question. I have fewer mosquitoes now than before I started gardening with all this standing water because the frogs and toads lay thousands of eggs and once they hatch, that's the end of the problem. The skeeters start building up early in the spring and late in the fall, before and after the frogs, but never seem to get as bad as they used to. I also have legions of lizards and anoles helping me out.

In the late fall and winter, I only water when there hasn't been enough rain to keep things growing well and then let it dry up before doing it again. I could keep water in them year round since almost all the plants thrive all the time with an abundance. The only problem is plants like amaryllis, cannas, and other fleshy summer bulbs and roots. When they go dormant, they'll rot. When they're actively growing, they love it. Once they go dormant, I just pull them out and forget them until the following spring when they get divided and repotted anyway.

If you have frogs and taddies you have a very healthy ecosystem working for you.. If not your screwed!

They are the number one health indicator in a good environment that has FRESH water.

If you have algea.. you got a problem....and algea can bloom over nite.

I only used BT for caterpillars this year. I wouldn't want to harm the tads and really try not to. I also have earthworms in the pots to worry about. I get a lot of duckweed at times and consider that as a good indicator of fertility in the water. This year I only added fertilizer to the tops of the pots and it would rapidly leach out because it rained almost every day for months. Usually it was just showers so I didn't lose all the nutrients by flooding. I like that they get a second chance to be taken up.

It's well documented that healthy soil holds many different kinds of friendly microbes that break down minerals and elements needed for proper plant growth. Their activity is disrupted by fluctuating moisture levels. I've found that fertilizer goes at least twice as far in the presence of adequate water.

These squash plants were overcome with the squash vine borers after I only got to pick about 8 fruits. The small ones on the left were started at the same time but not put in the water beds. They all were pulled out and thrown in the bed. They had totally disappeared within a week and went on to fertilize the green beans that went in next.

twiggybuds - I'm with you

The self-watering pots and window boxes are helpful for that (I got mine from Gardener's Supply). I could never keep planter boxes on my south-facing deck railing until I started using these, fill the reservoir with water and the plants thrive.