What size container is appropriate for growing pepper and tomato plants? I have a supply of 5-gallon plastic containers I purchased from a nursery. Are these too large for peppers and large enough for tomatoes? I have about 10 kinds of pepper seedlings growing in the house now and have clay soil in the yard. I've never tried growing veggies in containers before. Also, several local gardeners told me they sometimes use styrofoam packing peanuts in the bottom of containers to avoid using as much potting soil when the plants' roots don't need the space. Is this okay?
What size container for peppers and tomatoes?
I use 16" pots for tomatoes usually. I don't know how that translates into gallons. I haven't tried peppers in pots, but I have grown eggplants, and for them a 12" is good. I never put anything in the pot but the planting soil. Where you are at, you might want to get white pots to help keep them from getting too hot in there.
I constructed 5 of these grow buckets in about 1 hour, today...they work, too. I have 8 real Earthboxes for my maters. I'll use the buckets for my peppers, eggplants, okra and whatever maybe some beets...
http://www.dougs.org/doug/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=4
Oh, yeah, I might even put more maters in the 5-gallon buckets, too. Remember, only ONE mater plant per 5-gallon bucket.
I would definitely not put any kind of filler in the bottom of the pots. Around here I have a hard time keeping even very large containers hydrated. Most need daily if not 2x daily watering during the hottest part of the summer. As I don't have the time for all of that I mix those water holding crystals in with the soil of my ornamental container plants and even line the inside of the pots (but not the bottom) with (unused) disposable diapers which also contain similar water holding material. This has helped a lot with keeping those containers watered but may not be advisable for use with edible plants. At any rate, I would avoid putting filler material in the bottom of the pot as that would only increase the rate at which pots would dry out.
Last year I planted 1 cherry & 2 beefsteaks in a garbage can. It turned out wonderful & had lots of tomatoes. Add "tums" for calcium to prevent bottom fruit rot & zinc for flowers, which in turn will be tomatoes. Water with warm water & use fertilizer. You start out with a good compost, container mix soil & plant level at about 2/3 of the garbage can. As the plants grow, had soil until you get to about 2" from the rim.
This message was edited Mar 9, 2008 7:35 PM
sharkey - i haved been strictly container gardening for about 4 years now. i use only 5 gal plastic buckets that i buy either at walmart or home depot. i find that the tomatoes do well in the buckets but not as well as if they were in the ground. i also have no problem growing hot peppers in the 5 gal containers with no problem.
i drill two holes the sizew of quarters on each side of the container and then i drill two larger holes at the very top of the container, again through both sides. the holes should be large enough to accomodate a soaker hose which i then run through all my containers. i attach the hose to a timer and thats it. here in new york i set it to go off every day for two hours.
Hmm. soaker hose. now that's an interesting idea. hadn't thought of using one for containers. I really must get out more and spend more time in this forum.
Gymgirl- Will you please explain how you do potatoes in an EarthBox and a 5 gallon pail !!!
BocaBob
Thank you to all that gave advice. You've given me some interesting alternatives. I'm glad to hear that you had success with the 5-gallon buckets, Herbie43, as I have purchased 40 of them (at 50 cents each), but they are the black, thinner plastic ones that you usually see at nurseries. I also have access to some heavier white thicker buckets that held detergent at one time. These would require drilling holes. Is it best to drill the drainage holes near the bottom on the sides (like the nursery buckets) or on the bottom of the bucket?
If all my seedlings in the house do well, I am going to need a LOT of potting soil. I'm trying to find a local nursery that will mix and sell me a pickup truck load, instead of having to buy so many bags. Any recommendations on soil? I'm also considering building a raised bed to avoid using so many buckets. I assume there are threads in this forum that address those as well. Thanks, again.
My city composts the tree limbs, leaves, etc they pick up on the curb and then sell the compost for $10 truck load. Local (Clemson) University tests it periodically and publishes report on what's in there (including any garden chemical residue). I buy that for my gardening needs, flowers and veggies. It's richer and far less expensive than anything I'd get from the store. I mix some of my soil with it, but use mostly the compost. Everything roots and grows like crazy in that stuff. You might check to see if your city offers this option.
Scutler, that's a great idea. Today, one of the local nursery workers gave me his recipe for mixing potting soil. I'm considering giving that a try. I think I would save a considerable amount of money. I just have to find the right container in which to mix it.
leetomkatebob,
that's 'MATERS (as in tomatoes), not TATERS (as in potatoes)! LMBO!
Sorry, but I still would like to know if someone out there has done taters in a Earhbox.
BocaBob
Don't see why not Bob? Although to me it seems like I would not get enough potatos from my EB but I have never tried it! Wouldn't mind growing yams in one of my EBs as I can't seem to buy them locally. I remember, as a kid, living on Long Island, NY and being in the potato capitol where every farmer was growing the famous L.I. potato and picking them from the field and eating them freshly cooked that night. They were delicious!
Well, I have 10 lbs of seed potato coming my way sometime soon( I ordered them around Xmas). I will try some in a EarthBox just to see.
Sharkey, I hope you are able to get the compost from your city. I've found it to be simply awesome here. I layered about 4in of it on top of my tiny vegetable garden. Didn't even bother to till it under. I was giving tomatoes, cukes, and eggplant to almost everyone I passed on the street that year just to get rid of them.
One year I ordered too many ornamentals, many of them bare root. When they arrived I didn't have the beds ready yet. In desperation, I sat on the patio one evening after work and stuck those bare root plants into pots filled with pure compost (just because that's what I had around since I'd gotten tons of the stuff from the city). Not only did they survive, they made incredibly healthy roots and took off growing like crazy. Since then I've also rooted cuttings in the city's compost - hydrangeas, rose of Sharon, roses, and such. I use a lot of the city's compost in my containers. The plants do very well, and earthworms always seem to find their way into the containers, even those that are sitting on concrete.
Since the benefits are many and the price (from the city) is so good, I've literally added several tons of the stuff to my yard over a period of several years. So far I've only found 2 down sides: (1) with all of that super rich soil everywhere, the weeds also grow extremely well and (2)after trucking in some 5 or 6 tons of pure compost, my soil, which once was grey-white clay is now this super rich and jet black stuff that is just fabulous - until my white dog comes in with it all over his face after digging in the back yard or worse tracks the black soil in on his feet. The white clay was not nearly so messy when tracked across the white carpet. Also, my front yard is sloped down to the street for drainage. When it rains heavily I get black stains on the driveway and sidewalk out front due to run off from all that compost.
If your city does offer the (cheap) compost, I'd run don't walk to get as much as you can.
Scutler, I will definitely check with the city about the compost. Our county has a lot of red clay, as in my yard, but I've never seen white clay.
Geological info for the area indicates a large presence of limestone and 'limey-clay (marl)'. At any rate, it's every bit as noxious (for planting) as the red stuff. Almost impossible to get a shovel through even when wet, drains very poorly, etc. When my yard is dry a 200lb man can jump up and down on a shovel as though it were a pogo stick and it won't pierce the ground. I bent my trowel while trying to 'hammer' it into the ground. When it's wet (it gets soggy after even a moderate rain), I can still barely push the shovel through the thick, wet, clay. After several years of trucking that compost in by the ton, I now have real dirt and lots and lots of earthworms galore.
I can certainly identify with that problem. We planted 12 blueberry bushes last October. It took my "over 200-lb. man" a long time to dig those 12 holes in our clay. With the help of good replacement potting soil, peat moss, and mulch, they seem to be doing fine. They are producing leaves and flower buds. There is a bee hive in a nearby tree, so hopefully, I may have some berries this summer if the birds will leave them alone.
You mentioned worms. Should I sneak a few shovels of dirt from my husband's worm bed to put in my flower beds? I've seen him put everything from peanut shells, manure to hay in there. There are thousands of worms living there.
If top those beds with a compost ASAP (I covered mine with a few inches the 1st time), fat and healthy earth worms will show up all on their own in large numbers. It must be compost, not potting soil or peat moss (although adding those items in addition will not harm the process). If I understand correctly, the worms eat organic material from the compost and thus are drawn to it like a magnet. Adding compost is like ringing the dinner bell for worms. They will migrate over from your neighbor's yards (and possibly from hubbie's worm bed, but don't tell him I said that)! They will show up quite quickly, and once there will begin to till the compost in with the soil through their movements. (Of course, they will also add lots of wonderful fertilizer as they eat.)
Before I added the compost, I did not see a single worm while digging holes in the clay. As I dug holes for shrubs and such, I back filled with compost mixed with a bit of the original 'soil' and top dressed everything with more compost followed by mulch. Within a month or so you couldn't turn over a trowel full of dirt out there without finding one or more worms. I didn't have to put the worms there. Once I put down the compost and other organic material, they came of their own accord. Now it's as if my whole yard is one big worm bed.
I can't say enough good stuff about compost. When I moved here the front yard was so hard you needed a pick axe to make a hole in it, and the back yard, being lower, tended to stay so wet due to the lousy drainage afforded by the clay that I could not even walk in certain areas of the yard after even a moderate rain as I would quite literally sink to my ankles in the muck - even with a series of French drains back there. In my research I found that compost seems to be a magical thing which will both increase drainage in clay soil and increase water holding capability in sandy soil.
I covered with a few inches of compost, all of the areas where I couldn't walk after a rain even those that would not be used for flower beds. By the following year, my entire back yard remained 'solid' even after torrential downpours, and I could walk in all parts of the yard without fear of sinking and loosing a shoe. Compost is miraculous stuff. If you can get it for a low price from the city, you should go for it. It should be a much cheaper (and I think better) solution than peat moss and potting soil. (Not that I have anything against peat moss, just that if you can only add one thing I think compost is the best amendment for most soil.) After trucking in all of that compost, I have great soil now. My soil now has the texture of freshly tilled soil even though I have never tilled any of it.
Sounds like your blueberries should do quite well. Good luck with those birds though. I have a few blueberry bushes, too. Mine just recently bloomed and are now loaded down with tiny, green berries. I never get ANY of the berries though. The birds scarf them up when they reach the very edge of ripeness. I see the mockingbirds out there eating them all of the time. I don't mind so much because I also like birds. If I decide I want some of the berries I'll have to cover them with bird netting. Around here the birds and other critters also eat the peaches (while still green), some of the apples, the strawberries, grapes, figs, you name it.
Scutler -- You sound just like me! I grow all kinds of tropical fruits and berries and my animals, especially the birds love it but they always leave some for me. Thanks for the compost tip guys! I just happen to be setting up new beds but I have to buy my compost from Walmart @ $1.79 per bag which is OK. I have sandy soil.