I have very similar questions about pot size, etc. I am reading articles by the dozens--but they all are wildly different! Best of luck. :)

Hi NoRoom2Grow,
I think the limiting condition would be how much sun and room you have in the front of the house. Peppers and Tom.s need at least 6 hours of sun for good production. For the shaded areas of the house I would use the window style planters for salads and leafy greens. As a general rule, I space out my nightshade plants about 11/2-2 feet per container. If I had more space I would probably give them more room.

Hope that helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: my rooftop garden

If you can get enough sun for peppers and tomatoes....

3-5 gallon containers, good for peppers and small tomatoes, one plant per. The storage tubs would be great for two large tomato plants each. Windows box planters would be good for lettuces and other leafy vegetables such as kale.

We have a big pot that we like to plant a salsa garden in. Tomato, pepper, with some herbs mixed in. Ours is not as big as your 37 gallon container, and yet we have good results.

I'd use a quality growing mix & make sure I was diligent with watering.

I recently built a homemade sub-irrigated container from a 20 gallon tote. I planted 2 tomato plants in there. I'll let you know this summer how it turned out :-)

I would limit each container to a single variety. For example, two indeterminate tomato plants (or four pepper plants) per 37 gallon container. Their growth habits are very different. By mid-summer a rampant tomato plant would overwhelm it's smaller neighbor.

Thanks everyone!

I just noticed my seed starting kits are starting to sprout and some peat pods have 2 or 3 stems coming up.

I guess I need to remove them from the greenhouse, pull out the weaker seedlings and transplant since the other cells havent sprouted yet.. (am I correct doing this?)

They are starting to hit the plastic top, so I need to do this soon..

fortyonenorth, How would you space the Tomato plants?

It would be nice to fit 4 pepper plants in.. 2 Jalapeno and 2 Cayenne or Bell Peppers.. Similar question. Spacing and Row?

No Room to grow. No, you shouldn't have to transplant or remove the seedlings right away because the others aren't up yet. That's normal. If by a greenhouse you mean a dome and tray, remove the dome. The others will come up without it. Just keep them moist. The purpose of the dome is to maintain humidity for the initial soaking of the seed. Usually when a sprout or two come up, the others are not far behind. I would just snip off the obviously weak ones, but make sure there is a good difference. If not wait a bit longer to snip to make sure you have the strongest seedlings. Sometimes a seed will take a bit longer to germinate, but will be a more robust plant. It's hard to tell when you just look at a pair of seedlings and think the bigger one is the best. If you see a smaller one overtaking an earlier one, it may be the strongest one.

NR2G,
I think that you could get 6 peppers in one of those tubs without over crowding. Based on the dimensions that you provided, you could plant 2 rows (10" apart) of 3 plants each (also 10" apart). This would leave 5" on either side of the 20" dimension and 6" on either side of the 32" dimension. That will provide the equivalent growing space of about a 5 gal bucket per plant (a little more really, but you get the picture). That's plenty of space.

If you want tomatoes in there, 2 indeterminates would be appropriate if you were planning to cage them and let them grow unpruned, however, if you plan on suckering to maintain a double vine let's say, you could certainly get away with 3. Place each plant in the center of the 20" dimension - spaced 10" apart along the 32" dimension - leaving 6" on the outside (same as the peppers, only 1 row not 2). To set up the double vine system, place your (6) stakes at the locations where the peppers were recommended to be planted, which turns out to be 5" north and south of each tomato. Let the first strong sucker grow, prune all the rest. Train the original vine up one stake, and the sucker up the other, pruning additional suckers as you go. Depending on how tall you want to go, the stakes may need to be punched through the bottom of the container - into the ground - or provided with some additional support. To "punch" them through the bottom, drill the holes and set the stakes prior to filling the tubs. This method will certainly be more labor intensive, with all the pruning required, but it will give you an oportunity to grow 3 varieties in that limited space.

PJ

What (veggie) would you plant in these?

{{gwi:24448}}

Those containers might work for 3 or four small herb plants with shallow roots, like maybe thyme, oregano and chives. In cooler weather you could grow greens. The containers are probably better suited to annual flowers than most vegetables.

Yeah, those containers are shallower then I expected. Tomatoes have deep roots. You can plant lots of lettuces in those. Peppers may be ok.

I'm with Ohiofem and Capoman.
Best to plant herbs or lettuce in those shallow containers.
I use the same size for arugula, mache, and mixed salads.

The pics above are of the windowbox style plants and not the 37 Gallon mentioned. I do plan on putting 6 pepper plants in one of the big ones and 2 Beefsteak in the other.

Shows you the importance of scale. Those actually look like large shallow tubs, not window planters.

NoRoom,

In addition to greens, I planted strawberries in similar containers this year, and so far they are doing pretty well.

I would put more soil in the window boxes and plant either lettuce, herbs or strawberries. As far as I know veggies need as much sun as possible.

If I were to plant 6 Peppers in 1 32gal container as mentioned above, and 2 Tomatoes in the other, could I fit some herbs in there as well? How much space do herbs need?

What would you guys do? I want to repel some insects with the herbs also.

Correction *37 gallons