container gardens

Folks had a tomatoe plant in an upsidedown basket last year. Oh, its one of those planters they advertise on TV that green looking thing. Why couldnt one recycle a plastic pail into a container like that, simply cut a hole in the bottom and sick the tomatoe through it? it would give you a total differnt look say for example you lived in a house with a porch you could hang them from the celing around the outside. Kinda give you a semi private/sunscreen.

 

I got mine all mixed up hopefully better. Used 1/3 Peatmoss 1/3 cow shit 1/3 percilite. Did that almost a month ago but its so cold yet low 40's at night upper 50s daytime. So I havent planted nothing.
I did discover there is a ball carrot, round shape instead of long which would work good for container gardening. I don';t know what region it is for and havent seen any seed up here either. I grew normal looking ones last year but some were L shaped
Thinking maybe I should build an angled top that would sit on top of the box and have acrilic glass in the top of that so I can get started earlier with it. Could have the glass top hinged even so on warmer days it could be opened up if needed

 

How you getting on with the carrots etc ??? any joy ??

 

I know last summer I had seen a video on youtube on how to make an upside down tomato planter from empty plastic bottles and such... I think it was a 2 liter bottle maybe? I'm sure looking it up wouldn't be a problem at all. I have a topsy turvey planter right now since it was a gift.

 

I don't know, my tomatoe plants are starting to look a little sickly and like last year the radishes don't seem to develop a radish, just a root down there. Radish seeds did come from the same package as last year. Im thinking on the tomatoes that it might be short nutrients maybe the same holds true for the radishes although im questioning how good seed from a home improvent center is compared to like Gurneys. Lettuce never came up so I planted it again in the same bin. Then I planted additional bins of radish, carrot, onion, peas and beans for a later crop. Is anybody adding any nutrients to theirs, like that mirical grow you mix in water?

 

when i did radishes it was always just miracle grow and lots of water.... maybe the seeds are just old?

 

Probbaly needs some tomato food !!!!

On a good note, I have my first chilli on my plant

 

congrats! hopefully tou get a bunch more

 

I'm away from home for a week (next door are watering them) so hopefully I will have a nice suprise when i get back

 

I make compost tea and dump it on my tomatoes about once a week. Works for me. A couple of trowel fulls of compost ( homemade or bagged) in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, add water to about a few inches down and dump on the bottom of the plants. Cheaper and safer than the other stuff, I think.
Radishes prefer cooler weather. Try planting again in the fall or first thing in the spring. During the summer my radishes are no good either.

Happy diggin!

 

Well I came back and chilli plants are flourished with flowers which = Chillis

I have also had a look at the ones outside, on my rocoto's I've got 5 chilli's on them
and a few more chilli's on my other plants, soon I'll have loads of chili's

 

UPDATE FROM LAST YEAR: I made my self-watering containers (see the youtube video I posted earlier) and planted tomatoes in each. I had 3 varieties of tomato plants and planted a twin to each (actually 2) in the ground just to see the difference.

My tomatoes in the container didn't do well at all. I might have gotten 4 tomatoes total. Three of the ones in the ground did good but something to go the other ones.

My green beans and cucumbers did well in the pots. I overcrowded (I think) the cucumbers and I don't think I got the production I should have. I have a rabbit in the yard who took advantage of a couple of my tomatoes (he only took a couple bites, I don't mind sharing lol) and a couple leaves on my green beans. I put blood meal around my plants and it seemed to keep the deer away, as I read it would.

Last year I watered in the early evening. It's been suggested to water in the morning. I'm going to try that this year. Wish me luck this year!

Any help would be appreciated.

 

it is best to water them in the morning as they would have more moisture in the ground most of which would be soaked up in the sun, even water them a little in the evening too if they have dried out too much

 

Actually I decided it doesn't matter when I water them. They are self-watering so when I water them, I'm just filling the reservoir.

I've been thinking it over. When I dismantled everything to put away for the winter, I noticed the roots grew right though the bottom into the reservoir. This means there was a lot of just water getting to the plants and not nutrients from the soil.

I think I mentioned the fruit rotted on the vine. This can be caused by over watering. If the roots were pulling the water from the reservoir and not getting the nutrients, that would cause it. I'm sure now this is the cause because in the beginning, the plants were doing great. They were outgrowing the ones I put in the ground. It wasn't until later (when the roots had grown into the water reservoir?) that the plant began to suffer.

This year I'm going to put a screen or maybe cloth in the bottom of the soil so that the roots can't grow into the water reservoir. This way, they will be getting the nutrients from the soil and the water will still be fed to the plant as needed.

 

I checked but couldn't find the youtube video I posted last year. Here it is again if anyone is interested in trying the self-watering containers as well. I made the fill tube a lot longer (about 4') and I use that to tie up my tomato plants. I'm going to modify it this year and put a "Y" in near the surface of the soil. This way I can water them without having to hold my garden hose up to the top of the pipe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZUCxBHeq04&feature=related"]YouTube - Build a Self Watering Container

 

You can make a self-watering container using two containers with no pipe. Take two 5 gallon containers, one for planting and one for reservoir. Get 1/2 deli container for wicking basket. Drill holes in the deli container using the 1/4 drill bit and attach the 3 1/2" hole saw to the drill. Drill a hole in the bottom of the container, drilling in a counter-clockwise direction. Again reattach the 1/4 drill bit and drill holes in the bottom of the planting container to allow for drainage. Keep the wicking basket in the middle of the reservoir container and plant the planting container in the reservoir container aligning the wicking basket with the hole in the middle so that a little space will be left between the wicking basket and the planting container. You can see the reservoir container where the planting container is holding the container up to the light. This is the hole where you will water the plant from.

 

Raised beds seem to work better for some things than others.
Squash did great in a raised bed. The raised bed keeps the plants drier and less prone to disease. (we have heavy clay soil and high humidity that hinder squash.
Herbs like the raised bed too.

I had problems with tomatoes. They get an earlier start in spring, but the bed gets too hot and too dried out for them in summer.

Cold frames over the beds can give many of us winter lettuce and radishes. In colder climates at least you can get an early start on spring planting.

My biggest mistake: filling raised bed with wood mulch that had not fully composted.
The chemical reaction involved in turning mulch into compost robbed my plants of nitrogen.
With that out of the way, the veggies were healthier this past summer.