ahl389
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Location: NY/NJ Zone 7a

My little container garden!

I'm leaving for 2-3 weeks to housesit for my mom, and entrusting the boyfriend with my little plants!

Pumpkins, sunflowers, moonflowers/morning glories, pumpkin, gourd, and celosia. The celosia are a little on their way out, I pruned them back a bit the other day to get rid of the really dead blooms and they look happier now.

I'm very excited to come back in a couple weeks and see what I'll find! Hopefully boyfriend keeps everybody alive. Can't wait for vines to be all over my fence to block the ugly view. I started everything very late this year, but that's okay. I just like watching them all grow!

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applestar
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Wow poor boyfriend will need to water these probably morning and afternoon. The containers are -- really -- too small. I would say all of them would be happier in containers at least FOUR TIMES as big.

The pumpkins might be OK now but as soon as they start to vine they will need more. The morning glories and sunflowers already look like the container is way too shallow. Celosia may be able to handle it a bit longer just because they are drought tolerant, but you said you cut them back (So they are actually bigger plants than they look)? They will keep going through the summer with sufficient room to grow.

If they start getting in trouble, one possible solution for him is to fill a larger container with good, moistened potting mix and put the current containers on top without saucer/catch trays so they can root down through the drainage holes into additional soil. The upper containers will need to be supported somehow so they don't topple off due to wind, bumping into, etc. The roots alone won't be enough to secure them in place.

2-3 weeks is a long time to be away during the height of growing season. They are going to be so big by the time you come home. :D

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GardeningCook
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Sorry to be another "Debbie Downer" here, but your pumpkins, gourds, & sunflowers most likely will not produce fruit or flowers this late in the season. They're tiny seedlings at this point & should have been planted months ago. While you could possibly get away with a late planting of summer squash from seed right now, pumpkins & gourds & their ilk in your neck of the woods have already fruited & will be reaching maturity in just a few weeks. Ditto even late-planted sunflowers.

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applestar
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GardeningCook, in my experience, what is most likely scenario to happen assuming watering and feeding are not neglected is that they WILL bloom but will be significantly to severely stunted. Number of fruits will be limited to one or two.

In containers, they will have the added heat to help them speed up development ... And they have a built in drive to produce fruit and mature seeds even at the cost of the plants themselves -- they may look utterly miserable and scraggly, but they will produce *something* or die -- literally -- trying.

(Yeeessss -- been there, done that :oops: :wink: )

HoneyBerry
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Very cute. I agree that your pots might be too small for the plants that you have in them. There was a post on July 13 2015 about a book on urban gardening that you might be interested in. The post title is "You Grow Girl" -Gayla Trail, which is the name of the book.

ahl389
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Joined: Thu Jul 16, 2015 2:15 pm
Location: NY/NJ Zone 7a

Hi everyone! The pumpkins are sugar pie - the seed packet said 90 days to maturity which is a good while before my estimated first frost. They are in a 25 gallon (the big one, not the little one, which is a 5 gallon. I figured the one in the five gallon might not do anything, but why not try, I've seen it done before!) The gourds are in a 7 gallon, and will probably be cut too short but I figured, let's see what happens! I just want the pumpkins and gourds for decoration anyway, no big deal if nothin happens.

The celosia have already been going about 10 weeks in those containers. The plants weren't much bigger, but some of the earliest bloomers were dead so I cut em to get some new growth.

At any rate - it's an experiment. We'll see what happens!

HoneyBerry
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Sounds like you have planned it very well. It is a very cute garden. I love your garden. I think you did a very nice job.

Sometimes even though I try hard, there are failures with gardening. I've learned to accept that some of my plants might fail. If that happens, just learn from it and move on.

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GardeningCook
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There are always failures with gardening (& cooking). Even with the experts. It's part of the experience & how we all learn. :)

ahl389
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Joined: Thu Jul 16, 2015 2:15 pm
Location: NY/NJ Zone 7a

Thanks!

I'm curious to see what happens. Really, I'll be happy just to have some vines to cover the ugly ugly ugly fence and view of the yard!



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