What Can I Grow In a Container?

[Flowers]

Okay, it's time to start planning my spring garden! I've put together a list of plants I want to grow, and there's a whole lot more here than I can fit in my little bit of space, so I was hoping to extend some of it by planting some of these in containers and set them on a big wire shelf thing I have in my yard near my garden.

I know that many veggies can be grown in containers, but I'm wondering which of these plants are best suited to container life, and how big of a container I would need. I would also prefer not to have to go find a ginormous barrel to grow one tiny little plant or something, I'd rather use the garden for that if I'm going to do that at all. I can guess that tomatoes and peppers would be good for this, because you always see these plants in containers anyways.

I'm a beginner gardener, so any tips or tricks for my spring garden would be much appreciated. As always, thank you all a ton!

2015 planting list: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, celery, sweet corn, cucumbers, green onions, melons (any kinds really), sugar snap peas, sweet bell peppers, pumpkins, spinach, summer squash, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, winter squash, basil, german chamomile, cilantro.

[JC's Garden]

I've done well with green onions, sugar snap peas, sweet bell peppers, spinach, basil and cilantro.

[rainbowgardener]

RE: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, celery, sweet corn, cucumbers, green onions, melons (any kinds really), sugar snap peas, sweet bell peppers, pumpkins, spinach, summer squash, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, winter squash, basil, german chamomile, cilantro.

You can grow pretty much anything in a container if you are determined enough, but you are right, some things lend themselves better. Peppers do fine in containers. To me, tomatoes not so much, unless you have a dwarf variety. Full sized tomato plants are BIG. They need a big container. We usually say at least 5 gallons, but really I think more like 10. And still they demand pretty constant care that way. I tried a container tomato one time and it was always wilting from not enough water. Because of that, it didn't produce well.

Corn likewise are big plants and don't do well jammed together too much. All the cucurbits -squash, pumpkins, winter squash, melons, cucumbers are large spreading vines that take up a lot of room AND benefit from being able to root in to the ground other places along the stem. Pumpkins I really think you need acreage to grow.

All the rest of it should be good in containers. But it still sounds like a lot of stuff and a lot of space - I hope you have a big garden!!!

[hendi_alex]

I agree with rainbow's post. Tomatoes, no, unless wishing to use large containers. I solely grow bell peppers in 3 gallon nursery pots. Also grow all of my basil in 3 gallon pots, but 1 gallon will do. Most herbs would do well in 1 gallon pots. Strawberry plants do well in pots, but IMO do better in rectangular planters, maybe 30 inches long with about three plants. Any salad greens will do well in planters, there again, larger rectangular planters will probably give greater service and satisfaction. Here in hot S.C., all of my planter veggies get moved into a morning sun only location after about mid June. About 60% of my garden is grown in raised beds which are not in contact with the native soil. In essence, they are large planters with each planting area being about 3.5 feet square and about 7 inches deep. Those areas grow wonderful, green beans, cucumbers, kale, radishes, Swiss chard, cilantro, parsley, garlic, flowers, lettuce, spinach, okra,.......... Like rainbow said, about anything can be grown in containers, as long as basic conditions are met.

[imafan26]

Herbs do well in containers peppers, cilantro, basil, mint (must be in containers, and green onions).
You can grow almost anything in containers even tomatoes, but they do require a big pot. Tomatoes do need a lot of water so I do grow them in 20 inch pots. They just take up too much space in the garden. I have also grown them well in 18 gallon rubbermaid totes that were made into self watering pots. It solved the need for water issue. I had a 5 gallon reservoir and fruiting tomatoes can drink up to 4 gallons a day.

http://www.postoilsolutions.org/documents/Earthbox.pdf

Except for the herbs, I would rather uses larger pots as they do not dry as fast and I can get more in them.
Corn takes up a lot of space in the ground and the container. Squash can be trellised or allowed to sprawl outside of the garden. Zucchini takes up a big space in the garden I plant that in the ground outside the garden bed.
Broccoli is a slow grower and needs wide spacing 24 inches so I put that in the garden but I plant smaller things between them like beets,, spinach, and lettuce that will be harvested before the broccoli shades the space.

Nearly all of the vining crops will take a lot of space if you don't trellis them. Of all the vining crops, the one that is easiest to trellis in the garden are cucumbers as the vines grow tall but are not as rampant and the fruit is not as heavy as the melons and squash. These other things I like to plant near the fence and have them crawl on that or you would need to consider a very strong trellis. I still could only get one or two vines on that.

I have grown cucumber, tomato, peas, beans, jicama, and ginger in pots. I also grow taro and long ago I did grow sweet potatoes in pots. My pots are 18 gallon pots and tree pots that are big and deep. The ginger can be grown in 5 gallon buckets. Peppers in 7 gallon pots (tabasco peppers live more than one year). The 18 gallon containers are usually used for tomatoes and I have a trellis of CRW just for them. I have 3 pots on a 10 foot CRW tellis 7 ft high.
I have planted up to 9 beans or snow peas in one of the 18 gallon pots, and 3 jicama. I use a tree pot for the ginger, they need to be in nematode free soil, so I use new potting soil every year. Taro are also in pots they need a five gallon bucket each, and they are usually planted singly or the corms will be smaller. I have been able to grow cucumber and beans on a tomato trellis (the commercial kind, they really aren't very useful for tomatoes), bush beans do not require a trellis.
I can only grow the heavy squash (long squash, winter melon, chayote) on a heavily reinforced fence or trellis.

I have an overhead trellis that looks like a tent frame. The posts are fence posts and the roof is made from conduit tubing (because it could be bent into shape, and CRW. The sides are conduit and galvanized 1/2 pipe. It can hold a couple of upo squash vines. Upo squash is the most productive for me and will produce 20 or more fruit. I have a squash now that is sprawling in my community garden that is climbing my fence and the chayote on the side fence.

When the trellis is not in use I can plant corn or other things that need the sun. When the vine covers the trellis I can plant shade tolerant plants under it.

[Flowers]

Thanks for the replies! No I don't have a whole lot of space, just one small little section of my yard about 3x5 feet or so, and a raised bed at my step mother's house about 6x4 feet. I know I won't be able to get everything on my list, I just wanted to see what would be good for containers and what wouldn't so I can start putting some things that need to be in the garden into my plans and leave things like peppers and maybe the peas out so I can try them in containers.

[MrBote]

Here's a portion of my container garden. Half of it is out of the photo. If I were limited to that small of a space, I would use a vertical garden based on the rain gutter type system perhaps, set up on a stair type bench or fence.

Here is two 18-20 gallon containers and a 5 gal bucket. They are holding 5 cabbage and two broccoli. I have to refill the reservoirs every two days. The bucket has about 30 purple carrots growing in it.


The other replies are pretty much spot on. Tomatoes are ambitious unless you limit their production and prune heavily, at least with the indeterminate types. Greens grow well and those such as kale, or swiss chard offer most bang for the buck, production wise. I find spinach to be a little slow producing for equal amount of space. For the cabbage, I chose an early flat Dutch variety because they make more compact plants compared to some other types.

Check out grow bags perhaps. They allow for larger plants in somewhat smaller containers. They can be set into a kiddie pool and watered from the bottom up and the pool acts as a reservoir.

[albopepper]

I had good success in my 1st year with corn.

I fit 11 corn stalks per 30 gallon SIP tote:




I'm gonna do it again this year!

[rainbowgardener]

Oh man! Way cool, that is so tempting to try! But I would have to have so much security around it, to keep the corn from being eaten by birds, raccoons, deer, etc. When I used to have much more garden space and grew corn in the ground, I gave up on it because of that. Did you not have trouble with critters getting yours?

[albopepper]

Actually, it was surprisingly painless. I hate living in an urban / suburban area. But the critter reduction is a hidden benefit. I do have birds and such, but they all left it alone.

Corn is such a heavy feeder though. This year I'll use some teas or something to supplement the plants mid season.

[Flowers]

That's amazing! I've never seen corn in containers before, thanks for sharing. Did the corn grow any smaller than normal because of this or was it full size?

[applestar]

What variety corn was that? Looks great!

...also, did you use an automatic system to replenish the water reservoir?
(Maybe we need you to start a thread and explain it all! )

[albopepper]

I did 2 types from Botanical Interest:

Buttergold (se)


Argent (se)


The plants pretty much were full size. So were the ears, although a few had incomplete pollination. But it was totally worth it!

I think I had Phosphorus deficiency as time went on. So I plan on boosting the levels for this year.

The totes are a pretty simple design. I don't have them tied together or automated in any way. Watering them was very easy though and hardly a chore.

This is my basic schematic:


This is such a great way to container garden!

[hendi_alex]

What material is used to hold the soil above the air gap?

[MrBote]

Here are some 18 gallon containers with tomatoes for an idea how much room one indeterminate variety can take up, and these are probably just past the halfway mark of their season. They usually end up being 8 ft or more. I think if I could grow only one thing, it would be either one of these tomatoes, or a box full of pole beans.

[MrBote]

For a 3' x 5' space, a salad table is a good use of space. You can grow a collection of different greens in it, depending on how deep you build the soil portion of it. I have grown a lot of things in this one planter. Just about every ingredient for a good salad. Lettuce, cherry tomato, cucumber,along with some herbs. It's nice to be able to garden standing up and it's easy to adapt a trellis to.

[catgrass]

I grow lots of things in containers-BIG containers. Most the size of 1/2 whiskey barrell (although, they are livestock feed tubs), Anything bigger than 10 gallons. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cabbage, spinach, lettuce, onions, garlic-really just about anything. They will definitely need more watering though

[tomc]

I had not seen corn do well (until this thread) in pots. Its lovely to be wrong.

[Gilcano]

I had good success in my 1st year with corn.

I fit 11 corn stalks per 30 gallon SIP tote:




I'm gonna do it again this year!

This is wonderful, very nice. Did you started the corn from seeds?

[albopepper]

This is wonderful, very nice. Did you started the corn from seeds?

Yep, I started them from seeds once the weather started to warm up. It was end of May in Zone 6.

[MrBote]

I have about 20 of these purple carrots growing in a 5 gallon bucket. They were an experiment to see if I could, before dedicating a larger, or specialized container for them. They're too good to cut, or cook.