23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

We're looking into getting some 5 gallon containers from a local restaurant that serves pickles (fingers crossed) and possibly using these smaller ones as the reservoir if they fit inside.

After all of the research I've done and the help from y'all, it's no wonder that my first attempt at container gardening last year, which consisted of 3 tiny plastic planters on the deck here at work, with no reservoir, not even a dish underneath them to keep excess water from running away, failed so miserably. I think I had 1 pea and 1 cherry tomato over the whole summer. It's an entirely different art from gardening in the ground.

Marc

Use the 5 gallon for the reservoir and the small bucket for the plant. Then you will only have to water every 2 or 3 days.

Better yet, go to a big box store and get some 10-20 gallon containers for $5 each. Or get them at yard sales, if recycling is a requirement.

5 gallons is still too small for efficient water usage and for healthy-sized plants. A tomato plant, for example, needs bigger than that.

As someone mentioned on another thread, a good method is to let the hose run for an hour or so, then dig down and see if you find a dry layer of soil below the top, damp layer (and then a deeper damp layer below that). Keep the hose running until the dry layer disappears.

That's your length of time. Where I live it is 1.5-2 hours for vegies, 3 hours for stuff I water less often such as shrubs.

For frequency, do as Dave says and see when the soil gets dry a couple inches down. For me, that's 2-3 weeks for vegies, 4-5 weeks for shrubs.

Of course, the dry layer thing might not work if you live in a desert, but anywhere else it should :).

I can only get to my garden on the weekends so that's the only time I run the soaker hoses. I usually do it for about 2 hours per hose. I've never noticed a problem with dried out plants doing it this way.

Most of my plants are under a thick landscaping fabric so that probably helps conserve moisture too.

It looks like you are heading for a June harvest or late May with the broccoli. You probably could have set out plants at the end of March if the weather has warmed some. Broccoli and cabbage are tender to heavy frost and freezing until the roots get established. You can tell when roots are established because the plants are growing after transplant.

I grow fast-maturing broc and cabbage in spring, and it's ready in June from early April transplanting.

I often have seedlings waiting to go into the ground until another crop is harvested. Tomatoes will hold in containers for quite a long time.

In my garden, the first big turnover of space comes in late June, when early garlic and cabbage are harvested. I don't plant anything where tomatoes will be planted in May.

I generally have good luck just watering from the top. Just make sure they have good drainage and get good airflow or you risk drowning them or developing mold.

I don't start big batches, so it's not bad for me to have the starting pots in large dishes of any sort to catch the overflowed water. I pick my pots out of the dish after they have drained and then dump the overflow into a container to save for the next watering. I think if I had a larger number of plants, I would set them on some sort of mesh screen which would sit over my drain pan--then I wouldn't have to worry about moving the pots to dump the excess water. And, they would get some extra airflow around the pots from below.

Probably due to my own technique, I've not had luck with bottom watering. But, I figure the way I do it works for most seeds and rain falls from above in nature so I go with it.

I agree that it sounds like you're underwatering - I don't believe that the soil for seedlings should ever get "really dry".

I water seed flats with the "gentle rain" setting on a multi-setting water nozzle on a hose, and water them until the water runs through and out. And I never let them get bone dry.

I did the same thing with tomato cages last year and my cucs. I planted burpless and pickling cucs. I did not notice a bit less yield than when I left them on the ground. The plants seemed healthier and I did not have any insect issues (which have been a problem in the past). The vines will climb up and back down the cage then across the ground if you don't keep an eye on them, so I doubt they were any shorter.

My concern is the height of the cage limiting the growth and also the shape of the cage not supporting or promoting proper vine growth.

I'll just see how it does since I'm probably not going to change it now.

The seedling cucumbers in the single pack I bought had 3 tiny stalks all next to each other. Am I supposed to let those all grow or do I pick the healthiest one and allow that one to grow by itself?

I once had a mole run in the fall that went down to the garden. In the spring after I planted sweet corn, They tunneled right down the row and ate the grains. I had to "intercept" the tunnel with field corn sown across the tunnel.

>I am working a temporary job promoting Bayer Advanced chemicals at Lowe's. The Scott's rep, my competitor, said they eat other things. Oh, how I'd love to prove her wrong!!

I know that Scott's was recruiting Master Gardener's to push their products. Does GA allow MG's to recommend products by name?

Some of these comments made me giggle.

I had the same problem trying to figure out what I wanted to grow, where I wanted to grow it, why I wanted to grow it, and then ran into the problem of what was actually available (I prefer start seedlings over seeds) at the store. I planned to put in artichokes and ended up with pattypan and acorn squash instead. I started with a 6x4, added three 2x2 pallets (6" deep) for greens and my daughter to plant bush beans and mini sunflowers, and just added a 4x4 bed. Not to mention a few 7-gallon pots, 5 gallon pots, and anything else of size that can hold dirt and a plant. I'd give parts of my anatomy for a big yard with better soil (I'm urban farming it) with just a little more sun each day than I get now and revel in the production. And keep planting more and more. My dream is a potage garden some day...where I can grow food for use now, grow food for preserving, and grow food for giving to friends because nothing beats fresh grown veggies!

This post was edited by THatstat on Thu, Apr 18, 13 at 11:05

You have gotten a lot of good advice, but i'll add a couple of more things...
1) Give your plants plenty of space. I have several 4x8 raised beds and the first year I put 4 tomato plants and some other plants in each one. Wayyy too crowded. It just looks so empty when you plant those teeny tiny plants! lol but trust me, they will take over. I now put two tomato plants in each box, on opposite ends, and they still end up covering the whole box by the end of the season.
2) 10 tomato plants is a LOT of tomatoes. I planted 7 plants last year, a variety of tomatoes, and nursed them through the worst drought in the history of my area. Then they all got blight, got infested with pill bugs (which apparantly isn't possible but I will tell you for sure it is), and lost most of my tomatoes from August on. I still ended up canning 112 jars of salsa and we ate fresh tomatoes every day.

Laying out a garden isn't as some people make it sound. I've been gardening for year and still spend hours trying to get it right.
But basicaly you need to make a plan with indications of north , west, east, and south.
Put the tall plants on the north end and work tward the south with the shorter items.
But the tricky part comes when you start putting in summer crops after the spring crops are over.

All of the above! Plus, there are so many variables that you will learn by doing, reading and observing!
Like maybe I should have my tomatoes in a bed next to the house on the south side to get a few more degrees of heat (I'd have to build a new bed, so not this year!) or I can have a few more beds for winter in this area, and still have some lettuce and shade lovers in this bed!
Check out your neighbors' set ups! I get whip lash driving places and checking out the gardens! We often have to stop and admire a random garden at my insistence! ;)
I still have troubles with summer/winter gardens cause we have a very long growing season, lasting into Nov/Dec sometimes! This is why I have a couple of dedicated beds right near the deck (less mud!) for fall/winter stuff. I do tone it down in the winter to a couple of beds and work on amending the spring/summer beds during the winter (we don't freeze much, just some frost)
Keep reading and learning! And Happy Gardening! Nancy

Yes, as Deborah says, don't plant in FL until summer heat is done. Same here in Socal.

I tend to believe companion planting advice tends to be more anecdote than science, but overall I believe in polycultures over monocultures.

They say alliums are helpful for brassicas. I tend to plant green onions (allium fistulosum) as a cut & come again crop along with other things. They do well as a cool-season crop.

Lettuces get along with lots of crops, and as they do well in partly shady conditions and cooler weather, they might do well in the understory with the brussel sprouts.

In terms of companion planting, I like to think along the lines of niches both in space and in time.

So, in terms of space we can look at tall plants vs, short plants, shallow roots vs. deep roots, etc.

Opportunities in time would be something like sowing very short season crops (such as a baby greens mix) alongside a long-season crop, such as brusell sprouts (120 days). The greens mix will grow quickly and you can start harvesting after a few weeks, gradually thinning the greens as the brussel sprouts need more space.

If I had an available bin I would probably put bagged manure in it. However it keeps well in the bag. There is a series of small pin prick wholes on the side of the bag. You can add a little moisture with a water spray from time to time. The plastic keeps the moisture in. I stack the bags becaue it is easy to store that way. The end product is far from dry and dusty. It is moist with virtually no odor. I would characterize it as mighty fine compost.

Zeuspaul

Send that bagged compost to lab to examine the soil foodweb(microorganisms,etc), I bet fresh compost would have ten fold the life then the bagged crap...

I did see a bird picking at it, also have seen grasshoppers in my yard. If its slugs or snail what can i use to stop them? Thanks. Here is another photo.
Terry

Last pic really looks like slugs. This time of year they are very small and difficult to see unless you go out at night with a flashlight.

There are any number of slug and snail pesticide baits on the market, some organic, some not but most are jusy iron phosphate. Sluggo is one brand name.

Plus there are all sorts of tips and tricks for controls ranging from beer and/or board traps to copper wire/tape to crushed egg shells on the soil surface to the good old flashlight and a salt shaker to sprinkle them with (works well for containers or small beds).

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Slug Control discussions

i can't see the original photos :( wish i could because i just got my hands on some wooden pallets and would appreciate seeing what others are doing with theirs. so far, mine are holding up planted containers. would appreciate advice on stacking, filling, etc. thanks

This post was edited by letsharmonize on Thu, Apr 25, 13 at 16:00

Real quick just wanted to advise~ please don't ever bring pallets that could be treated into the home or around pets. Hopefully mentioning this might help someone who stumbles upon this thread.

I would personally be quite cautious in buying a property nearby long-time commercial crop growing. My concern would be primarily contaminant plume in the groundwater from many years of fertilizer and herbicide usage, or possibly surface run-off, although nowadays it would be a rare operation that is so sloppy as to allow expensive fertilizers to flow away.

It is what went on 40-50-60 years ago that would especially concern me, before stricter regulations on what compounds could be used and when growers were much less careful. I would certainly consider it worthwhile to pay for a comprehensive water test before signing a purchase contract. If there is no well on the property I'd get a sample from the nearest existing well.

Good job doing your research early.. I wish I asked your question when I bought my house...

To evaluate your new home site, you should bring a compass with you to visit the site. Also bear in mind the sun does not shine the same way through four season. However, if they're slow slope, then maybe direction does not matter so much and you hit gold for gardening.

My gardening hills are steep and facing south west, and south. A path next to the house gets mostly shade. Once I figured what to plant in all day sun, and what grows in the shade, then all sites are good. It only took me 10 years...