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Post by hefferman1 on May 4, 2013 17:37:30 GMT -5
The area where we have grown our garden for the last 20+ years has been dug up. My sister is having septic trouble and is putting her new system in the area we have used as a garden. Most of the land I have is still in wooded, or is being logged. (It will be nice to have an acre and a half garden next year.)
I am looking at using pots to grow our garden this year.
I have Potato baskets, made for growing them. I bought three of them today, and will buy another 7-9 pots for potatoes. I would also like to put in about 10-12 pots like this for sweet potatoes.
I will have pots for tomatoes, and for green beans. We will use heirloom seeds, or plants for these.
I have never done cucumbers, water melons, and or cantaloupes in pots like this. Does anyone know how that will work out? Is there anything special I need to do?
Does anyone else have experience on doing this? What other plants can we grow, or you have grown?
Will this work out well with corn?
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Post by southwind on May 4, 2013 21:24:39 GMT -5
Interesting, I am doing some container gardening this year too. I have purchased several dwarf fruit trees that I will be transplanting into 55gal barrels I will cut in half. I plan on using one of those 250 gal water container for my berries, and have started setting up an aquaponics system for my vegies. I'll be growing my tomatoes in large pots too. I believe cukes can be trained to climb, so they should not present any problems and will do better off the ground anyway. Here is a youtube vid of a couple who are planning on using the technique in the book Lasagna Gardening for growing watermelons in a container. I believe an earthbox would work well too. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKMVOGOIi14
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Post by hefferman1 on May 5, 2013 12:58:50 GMT -5
Interesting, I am doing some container gardening this year too. I have purchased several dwarf fruit trees that I will be transplanting into 55gal barrels I will cut in half. I plan on using one of those 250 gal water container for my berries, and have started setting up an aquaponics system for my vegies. I'll be growing my tomatoes in large pots too. I believe cukes can be trained to climb, so they should not present any problems and will do better off the ground anyway. Here is a youtube vid of a couple who are planning on using the technique in the book Lasagna Gardening for growing watermelons in a container. I believe an earthbox would work well too. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKMVOGOIi14Thanks. I did some aquaponics when younger, but we did not grow food. I could set up a system like that, but I am looking to do this outdoors, as the room to do it in doors is not there. I will try and build a couple of green houses this year. It should allow me to grow something early, and others later in the year. The Amish and Mennonite in this area use Green Houses and make money selling plants.
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Post by southwind on May 5, 2013 14:56:05 GMT -5
I'm doing everything outdoors. I will build a cover for the stock tank to winter it, and probably throw a heater in it too for the fish.
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Post by safetalker on May 5, 2013 16:54:12 GMT -5
With a septic in the ground perhaps a safer approach would be to raise everything above ground. If you have the room you can build a stand for the pots to sit on. Then before planting place a screen (window screen under a piece of 1/4" grate) in the bottom od the pot supported by a 1/4" piece of metal to allow water to drain. These pots should have about 5 1/2 diameter holes. Then compost and plant as in the ground. The higher the pots the less bending and stooping. If you use stepped racks you can get more product and less foot squares on land. You can also put in overhead racks to hang pots from for items like tomatoes and sucinni squash.
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Post by avordvet on May 6, 2013 4:34:44 GMT -5
Big thing with containers is proper watering, preparation of the pots will be everything.
Don't crowd the pots with plants/seeds as they are all competing for very limited resources (nutrients and water). Set 'em up in the biggest pots you can, with the best soil you can, add in a water retention gel, remember the pots get hot due to the exposed exterior surface area, and will dry quickly, especially as the plants get larger.
For cucumbers or other vine plants add a trellis or some wire screening around the pot for support, again don't get crazy with the number of plants in each pot, too many can kill the whole batch or restrict the amount you get off each plant.
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Post by hefferman1 on May 6, 2013 9:40:09 GMT -5
Big thing with containers is proper watering, preparation of the pots will be everything. Don't crowd the pots with plants/seeds as they are all competing for very limited resources (nutrients and water). Set 'em up in the biggest pots you can, with the best soil you can, add in a water retention gel, remember the pots get hot due to the exposed exterior surface area, and will dry quickly, especially as the plants get larger. For cucumbers or other vine plants add a trellis or some wire screening around the pot for support, again don't get crazy with the number of plants in each pot, too many can kill the whole batch or restrict the amount you get off each plant. I am looking at 5 gallon buckets. I will cut three areas out of one bucket to form large slits in it. I will then put it inside another bucket and grow the potatoes, and sweet potatoes that way. The other plants will just be in a pots. We should be able to supplement our harvest with purchase of items from farms near us. By next year, I hope to have a couple of green houses set up, and a new area for the garden ready.
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