Going the container way saves space, helps control pests, and overcomes soil concerns, allowing you to have access to fresh vegetables grown in your own backyard. However, it is critical to select a seed or plant that has been particularly bred for use in a small container.
Seed producers are releasing vegetable seeds particularly developed for container gardens in response to the growing popularity of container gardening. “Today’s container gardeners have access to even more plants that are compact in size, yield more, taste better, and have unusual colours and shapes,” stated John Marchese, Seminis® Home Garden seed’s sales manager. Seminis’ Home Garden seed line includes cutting-edge vegetable hybrids like the Early Girl tomato hybrid, which has been distributed to seed stores for more than 50 years.
“Just because they’re growing the plant in a smaller place doesn’t imply the fruit has to be little as well,” Marchese explained. “For instance, container gardeners wishing for a compact plant that yields large, excellent tomatoes can consider Debut, a new hybrid tomato type.”
Container gardeners don’t have to lose flavour in exchange for a more easily grown plant. “Husky Red is a flavorful tomato hybrid with a medium size. We’ve also created Husky Cherry Red, a cherry tomato hybrid with the potential to produce a large number of sweet, tasty fruits “Marchese added.
Patio, a tiny hybrid tomato type that produces a 4 ounce tomato, and Yaqui, a saladette tomato variety that yields large-sized fruit, are two other compact hybrid tomato kinds.
Here are some general suggestions for cultivating vegetable container gardens from the University of Illinois Extension, regardless of the sort of vegetable you plant:
Choosing the Right Container
A container garden for terrestrial plants can be made out of anything that holds soil and has drainage holes on the bottom.
The containers must provide enough area for roots and soil medium for the plant to thrive, allowing for robust plant development.
The soil
Never use garden soil alone to fill pots, no matter how nice it appears or how well things grow in it in the garden. Because container soils do not include any soil, they are sometimes known as soilless or artificial media. When using these mixes, they should be slightly watered before planting. Fill a tub halfway with the media, add water, and fluff it softly to dampen it.
When filling containers with media, do not overfill them. Between the top of the dirt and the rim of the container, leave about a one-inch gap.
Container soils must be adequately aerated and well drained while still retaining sufficient moisture for plant growth.
Fertilizer is a type of fertiliser.
To maintain plants growing properly and looking appealing throughout the season, a regular fertiliser regimen is required. The type of fertiliser analysis you choose will be determined by the plants you’re growing. Plants developed for their foliage would benefit from high nitrogen sources, whilst flowering and vegetable crops would benefit from lower nitrogen and greater phosphorus sources.
Plant Selection for Your Container Garden
Successful combos are made up of plants that flourish in similar soil, irrigation, and light conditions. Size, texture, proportion, colour, environment, and lighting all play a part when combining plants.
How to Look After Your Vegetable Plants
- Containers have the benefit of being transportable. You can move your containers to maintain the optimal settings for best performance as the seasons, temperature, and light conditions change.
- Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and eggplant, for example, require full sun to produce fruit.
- When contrasted to root crops like turnips, beets, radishes, carrots, and onions, leafy crops like lettuce, cabbage, collards, mustard greens, spinach, and parsley may survive more shady conditions.
- When it comes to watering, there are no hard and fast laws. That is why you must keep an eye on your containers on a regular basis and be aware of the needs of the plants you choose to put in them.
- Feeling the earth is the easiest way to know if a plant needs water. Water the first inch or so of soil if it is dry. Each time, use enough water such that water begins to drop out of the drainage holes.