I would like to talk to some others on here about how they grow in containers. What mix? What fertilizer?

I have to thank Tapla for making Container Gardening easier for me.

1. Tapla made it clear how much more reliable synthetics are for container culture.

2. Made it clear how important the basic macro and micronutrients are. Making me relieze how useless those low nutritional additives(amino acids or hormones ect.)really are.

3.Gave me a different outlook on container gardening.

I am making this post to show others just how much Tapla has changed my container gardening experience and overall knowledge of plants.

Here is a cayenne plant in a small #2 pot. Grown with synthetics.

I posted this in another forum on here, but I think it may get more attention here in the Container Gardening Forum.

So back to the orginal questions-What fertilizer? What grow medium(like 5-1-1 or gritty bark coco ect)?

How have you have made container gardening easier and more productive over the years?

Thanks.

Just take a look around, search 5-1-1, you will find it. Making sure your mix has a high air porosity mix is key.

Thanks for the reply, and very nice garden indeed.

I have about 80 five gallon pots and 26 assorted larger pots and my wife has countless pots with ornamentals. We buy one ton of mixed soil from our local nursery and mix this with half a ton of washed sand. The mixed soil which is sold by the nursery as topsoil contains one quarter loam, one quarter sandy loam, one quarter mushroom compost and one quarter composted mulch. We mix this by shovelling to form a cone and turning it twice more. At the time of potting my wife adds some slow release fertilizer for the ornamentals and for the vegetables I add some sheep manure or garden compost at about one to ten. After every crop I add some more sheep manure or our garden compost.

As an alternative to the sand portion we prefer fine scoria (lateritic gravel) when it is available. During the growth period of the vegetables I add a little NPK 21:5:8 granular fertilizer which we get from farm suppliers (very much cheaper this way). Alternatively I use 1:10 diluted urine in the mid stages of plant growth.

The key thing with soil mixes in pots of over 5 gallon size is to have at least a quarter of coarse sand or grit.

Hey nice mix. Sounds like you have a lot of plants!

Thanks for the detailed reply.

By the way this was also the first time I tried starting my plants from seed.

Even though I used pro mix bx with a very little forest compost, a higher porosity mix like the 5-1-1 would have gave me even better results.