Container Gardening

One of the biggest advantages to container gardening is the level of absolute control you have over your soil conditions.

If you are planting in the ground, you are working on a grand scale that leaves you only a few options: accept the starting conditions you have been given and amend them through soil additives, or remove huge amounts of dirt and soil and haul in lots 0f new dirt and soil.

If you are growing vegetables in containers, on the other hand, you have complete control over what you put into the pot.  As opposed to planting vegetables that work in your garden conditions, you can create soil that is ideal for your container vegetables.

The first step is to decide what you want to plant and find the ideal conditions for growing it.  The main category you need to consider when growing vegetables in containers is the pH level of the soil.

Most vegetables like a slightly acidic soil: fortunately, most good soilless potting mixes are already slightly acidic because the peat moss which serves as a base to most of them is acidic.  If you are making your own potting mix, make sure to test the pH before planting in it.  If you balance your ingredients well, you should be fine.

Here is a basic summary of pH levels required for different vegetables.

After the soil is set up with a basic pH level, you will need to add fertilizer.  In-ground gardens can get some nutrients from the soil as-is: when growing vegetables in containers you need to be sure you are providing everything the plant needs to eat.

The easiest way to do this is to buy a complete commercial fertilizer with the correct proportions for the plants you want (10-15-10 will work fairly well for most vegetables, though you can fine-tune for flowering or leafy vegetables if you like).

If you prefer, you can use organic fertilizers, or otherwise fine-tune by adding nutrients in individual portions.

Here are a few tips to remember when working with your container vegetable garden:

1. Too much fertilizer can burn the plants.  You want to be certain to fertilize on a regular, steady schedule, following the directions on the fertilizer container.
2. If you get too much water, it can wash nutrients out of the soil.
3. Your plants are completely dependent on you for their nutrition.  If you don’t feed them, they can’t feed you.

Edited and transferred from my blog.

If you’ve spent much time in garden stores or hardware stores, you’ve probably seen a lot of bags of dirt for sale. They’re labeled differently depending on the purpose you want to put them to: topsoil, garden soil, potting soil, and potting mix are the most common. So, what are they? What kind of soil should you buy? What are the differences?

Well, first off, you have plain old “Soil”, also called “Garden Soil” in some places. “Soil” means that they guarantee that the bag contains dirt. Of some sort. Frequently, it’s mixed with some clay or sand or other non-organics. It is not ideal for gardens of any sort. Don’t buy it, unless you just need to level holes in your yard or the like.

Topsoil is supposed to be taken from the top layer of soil, hence the name. That top layer of soil is the richest. It contains decomposing material, and gets stirred up more than anything else. Genuine topsoil contains organics, and can be mixed into a garden bed to add volume. The difficulty is finding good topsoil. Many brands contain more clay than anything else, and it’s very hard to get good statistics on topsoils. Your best bet is to check the color. Rich-looking brown topsoils are likely to be more organic than pale or yellowish topsoils.

Potting Soil is a little better than topsoil. It is lighter and doesn’t pack as much in the bag, keeping it looser. When you first plant in potting soil, it breathes better than topsoil, but that doesn’t last very long. The main feature of potting soil is that it contains something called perlite. What is perlite? It’s a volcanic glass that helps soil hold water better. When I’m starting seedlings for transplant outdoors, I use potting soil.

For container gardening, though, you want potting mix. Potting mix isn’t really soil at all. Potting mix is made up of a combination of organic matter specifically designed to nourish plants. They don’t pack down as much as soil does, and they wick water without becoming oversaturated, so your plants maintain a good water balance. Soil can smother your plant roots, keeping oxygen away and leading to rot. Potting mix will provide a proper balance.

Be careful of what you’re buying! Some manufactures will label their products as potting mix when they are not. Check the label to see what the main components of the mix are. A good potting mix will contain mainly peat moss, coconut fiber (coir), or bark fines, and will include perlite and vermiculite for drainage. If the mix contains soil, rock, or any “byproducts”, avoid it.

One additional tip: potting mix is almost always sold by volume (eg, 2 cubic feet). Potting soil is sold by pound. If you use that as a guide, it will generally steer you clear.

If you don’t want to spend the money for potting mix, you can make your own: there are some great guides out there on the internet.

As a note: there is a growing trend in parts of the world away from using peat moss as a planting medium.  In parts of Europe, they are experiencing a peat shortage due to overfarming of their bogs.  If you want to use a zero-impact substitute for peat moss, you can use coconut coir to make your own. Coconut coir is a byproduct of the cococut industry.  Canadian sphagnum peat moss is still abundant.

Good luck!