Container Gardening

[weimarner]

I have live in Chicago area and have been trying grow vegetables and herbs in containers. What is the best soil to use in containers?

Anyone had luck growing these beautiful melons in containers?

[lovetogarden]

I use potting soil with compost mixed in. You also can place your container up
agains a fence if you do not have a trellis.

[weimarner]

Thanks for information. I have a pretty big balcony so they will have room to sprawl. I will remember to plant them early this season:-)

I have a balcony on the 4th floor and this year I will try to grow some of the interesting tomato variety, lettuce, peppers, melons. Hopefully, they won't all be eaten by aphids like last year.

[bluelacedredhead]

There are commercial container mixes on the market now that would be suitable for growing veggies on a balcony. Miracle Gro has one called "Moisture Control" and yours is the type of specialized gardening that is was formulated for.
I just ran across a suggestion on a seed site for a veggie that does well in a container...that being small white round eggplant.
And another thing that Martha Stewart used a few years back as part of an ornamental theme was sweet potato slips..
My ex fatherinlaw was raised on a market garden farm and in his 80's, still gardened in pots on his apartment balcony. He used the big black pots that sapling trees come from a nursery in, and with the help or garden twine and 2x2 lumber, had some of the most beautiful vegetable crops I've ever seen.

[Pickled_Melon]

if you are just starting your container garden you may have a hard time of it for a few years. this is because mellons and squashes require a certain amount of conditioning of the soil before their species are really able to thrive in whatever dirt you plan to use.

a good mix of bagged dirts works fairly well: you have to build a soil for container gardening to work well. a ratio of 12:7:1 composted manuer topsoil to sand to either 10-10-10 or 15-30-15 makes for a good "well draining" soil rich enough for most plants to provide one fruit per pot the first year; three to five the second season; and more than you can eat the third. "pot" size should start at the 13" diameter size and can be 18liter bins or 40 gallon bins. the ratio i used was with 40lb bags of dirts and a 10lb bag of fertilizer. if you're just doing a few pots then the same ratio should work for "shovel fulls" of dirt and handfuls of fertilizer.

i live in zone 8/9 and container garden. the second week of february i planted my seed for this year. the ponca butternut, greek sweet red and thai long muskmellon squashes are already producing flowers. and some have pollenated. i have been using a hand pollenation method to vibrate the stem with my finger. the thai muskmellon only produced one plant in the time that the others produced a full bucket of sprouts. but today the other muskmellon seeds have sprouted at about 40% germination rate.

[SelfSufficientOne]

I have lots of things in containers this year and I use a variety of soils, pretty much whatever is handy. I usually mix some compost in and I don't worry about watering just have resigned myself to the fact that I will have to water at least a couple times a day. I got a lot of my container varieties from Pinetree this year since they have a separate section for them. I have eggplant, okra, tomatoes, peppers, corn etc. I even have bananas and pineapples in containers, lol.

[mrtomatoexpres]

i have 2 gardens. 1 its all in containers. i use bushells for the tomatoes peppers eggplants and other veggies and herbs. my other garden is half soil were the tomatoes go. in what i think is the best. i have 6 earthboxes go to earthbox.com you can bring them indoors for growing in the winter. i also use containers that trees and shrubs come in. i use longisland ultralite topsoil and there regular compost. youshould try instead of peatmoss coirbricks its made of coconut fiber. use organic fertilizer. i use earthjuice earthjuice.com do not use miraclegrow its made by monsanto never use anything made by monsanto there is a organic way to fix the problem.

[mrtomatoexpres]

forgot to tell you get the topsoil and compost at homedepot

[weimarner]

Thank you for all the advice. In the past, I didn't mix in compost. I will give that a try this year. Looking forward to a better year of produce:-)

[Pickled_Melon]

becareful of which compost product you choose. 'kow' can choke your roots and lead to root rot which will prevent transpiration and nutrient mobilisation through the plant.

when your pots are made check them for drainage by soaking them with a hose. if the water stands for more than a few minutes you'll need to dump the pot and add more sand and crushed shell or mica. most plants don't do well in very dark dirt that doesn't drain well.

[carolg]

Not pleased with previous soils at Home Depot, but now I found EKO potting soil and I love it. Not sure if Depot has it, but nursery does. It's great.
carolg