Container Gardening For Vegetables

Container Gardening For Vegetables

CONTAINER GARDENING FOR VEGETABLES 

Vegetable production is not only applicable in the countryside or in the  gardens but can be grown now within the heart of the city or just in your home even with only a limited space. 

If your home has an area with ample sunlight – a requirement for growing vegetables, you can grow them successfully. What are the locations that can be used for container gardening ? You can use your patio, balcony, terrace, rooftop, deck, window sill, pathways, etc. 

Be aware of the sunlight requirement for each kind of crop. For leafy vegetables, the required sunlight should be about four hours  the whole day, for fruit vegetables, at least 7-8 hours sunlight is needed daily, and root vegetables requires around 6 hours of sunlight a day. 

And besides of producing your own vegetables in a safer way, the attack of common pests and diseases can be greatly minimized. You can also improve the soil conditions  by adding some soil amendments; like manure, compost, and other essential food nutrients needed by the plants. 

Everything in your home that are considered as garbage can be utilized to the maximum by making them into compost. Even your household waste water can be used to irrigate your plants. 

In other words, container gardening is considered to be the practice that makes use of useless things. 

What Containers Are Ideal For Container Gardening? 

Growing vegetables can be executed in any type of containers such as;   cans, plastics, pails, split vehicle tires, cement bags, feed bags, bottle water plastics, gallon cans, cylinder blocks, milk container, bamboo cuts or any containers that have been thrown away. Even coco shells, banana bracts, leaves of coconut is ideal as potting materials especially for short season vegetables, like,  pechay, lettuce, mustard, etc. 

Good growing containers should possess the three important characteristics as suggested by Relf (1996); 

They must be large enough to support fully grown plants.  They must have adequate drainage.  They must not have held products that are toxic to plants and persons. 

Containers that drain poorly can affect the success of a container garden. It is therefore vital to have your containers above ground or any support that would raise the containers such as; slats, hollow blocks or anything to provide space below them to allow excess water to drain freely. 

For bigger plants, you should use big containers and for small containers use small plants. 

Small containers (1-2 gallons) are suited for lettuce, spinach, mustard, pepper, radish, green onions, carrots, beans, and dwarf tomatoes. Medium size containers (3-10 gallons) are best for eggplants while for larger ones (bigger than 10 gallons) are good for cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes. 

 For most plants, containers should be at least 15 cm deep minimum especially for shot season vegetables. 

Recommended Container size and type/crop 

5 gal. window box – Bush beans, Lima beans

1 plant/5gal.pot, 3plants/15 gal. pot –Cabbage, Chinese cabbage

5 gal. window box at least 30 cm deep – carrot

1 plant/gal. pot – cucumber

5 gal. pot – Eggplant, tomato, okra

5 gal. window pot – Lettuce

1 plant/2gal. pot; 5 plants/15 gal. pot – Onion

5 gal. window box – Pepper, spinach

Plants grown in containers will depend on the kind of soil mixture to provide a maximum growth development. It is a must that you should provide the best soil media composition to give the possible return of your toil. Failure to give the plants with the necessary food nutrients in their growing period would results to  poor growth, lanky, and stunted plants that will results to your failure. 

The ideal soil mixture for container-grown vegetables crops are as follows: 

It should be light in weight and porous.  It should easily drain excess water.  It should have high water holding capacity.  It should be free from soil borne disease, nematodes and insect pests.  It should supply the right and balance amount of nutrients for the plants. 

The best mixture of soil media should compose the following; synthetic mix of horticultural-grade vermiculite, peat moss, limestone, superphosphate and complete fertilizer. 

Compost can also serve as an excellent growing medium. 

In your  country where the above media are not available, you can make your own potting media by mixing 1 part loam soil or compost manure,  1 part fine river sand, and coconut coir dust. 

If your country is producing rice you can replace coconut coir dust with the rice hull charcoal (carbonized). But this should be thoroughly sterilized to kill some deadly microbes that are detrimental to the plants. 

Sawdust is another medium that could be used in preparing your growing medium in the absence of coco coir dust and should also be sterilized. 

Sowing Seed and Transplanting 

Before going into the sowing procedure, give your utmost attention to the selection of seed you’ll use as planting materials. Good quality seeds should be your first concern. 

Good quality seeds possesses the following characteristics:  

damage free   free from other mixture with other varieties free from seed borne diseases  and with good vigor and germinating capacity. 

To get a quality and reliable seeds, you should buy from certified seed producers or seed suppliers. 

All vegetables that undergoes transplanting are excellent for container gardening. Transplants can be purchased from local nurseries or other successful gardeners in your locality. 

Before transplanting, fill plastic or germinating tray with the growing media preparation using the following ratio: 60% rice hull charcoal(carbonized), 30 % coconut coir dust, 10% chicken manure (60-30-10 ratio). 

In the absence of the above materials in your country, you can use the old soil media preparation – 1 part sand, 1 part compost, and 1 part garden soil (1-1-1 ratio). Make sure to sterilize them before the seed are sown. This is to kill some microorganisms that may cause damage to the seedlings. 

You can also purchase a prepared growell medium sold in local agriculture stores in your respective country. Inquire from your agriculture experts available in your area. 

Once the growing media is ready, fill the holes of the germinating or potting containers. Press  the soil medium lightly with your fingers in every hole filled with the medium. Then follows the sowing of seeds. 

In sowing seeds some techniques should be followed to insure germination: 

I Watermelon (Seeded) (Citrulis lunatus).  Soak seed 30 min.- 1hour in top water. Incubate by using moist cotton cloth. Spread the seeds and cover. Place in an improvised cartoon for 24-36 hours. After this period, sow the seeds at I seed per hill. Seed must be level in the soil guided by a finger or stick at 1 cm deep. For the seedless type the procedure is the same as the seeded but the tip near the embryo should be cut with the use of a nail cutter before inserting to the soil. Cutting the end portion of the seed hastens germination.

l  Bitter Gourd/Ampalaya  (Momordica charantia). Soak seeds for 30 min.-1 hour. Cut the tip near the embryo and sow  with the seed deep of ¾ of the soil at 1 seed per hole. 

l  Upo (  Lagenaria siceraria   ) and Patola ( Luffa cylindrica ). Cut the tip covering only near the embryo and sow seed at 1 seed per hole. 

l  Squash (Cucurbita spp). Soak seeds 30 min.-1 hour. Then pinch the tip near the embryo and sow seed at 1 seed per hole. 

l  Pepper (Capsicum annum L.), Eggplant (Solanum melongena), and Tomato (Lycopersicum  esculentum). Sow the seed directly to the germinating tray at 1-2 seeds per hole. 

l  Pechai /Pechay (Brassica pechai), Lettuce (Lactuca sativa), Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis ), and Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. Italica ). Sow seed directly to the germinating at 1-2 seeds per hole. 

l  Cucumber (Cucumis sativus), Honey Dew / Muskmelon (Cucumis melo). Sow the seed directly to the germinating tray at 1 seed per hole. 

l  Carrot (Daucus carota) and Raddish (Rafanus sativus).  Directly sow the seed to the field at 2-3 seeds per hill. 

l  Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis ) and Beans (Phaseolus limensis ). Sow the seed directly to the field at 1 seed per hill. 

l  Corn (zea mays). Sow the seed directly to the field at 1 seed per hill. 

l  Papaya (Carica papaya). Soak the seeds for 30 min.-1 hour then sow to the germinating tray at 1 seed per hole. 

l  Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus  ). Directly sow the seed in the field at 1-2 seeds per hill. 

Container size for specific crops. 

Medium – Beans, lettuce, carrots, cabbage, broccoli  Large – Cuccumber, eggplant, tomato, pepper, okra, squash, papaya  Small – Onions, parsley, radish 

Light Requirements 

Sun – Beans, cucumber, eggplant, tomato, pepper, carrots, okra, squash, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, broccoli papaya  Partial shade – Lettuce, onions, parsley, radish 

 Fertilizer Requirements 

To get the right amount of fertilizer for your vegetables, you should analyze your soil media mixture. And if you can do it, organic or inorganic fertilizer should be used. 

Fertilizer combination of organic and inorganic would be much better with the correct proportion depending on the plant requirement. 

When using inorganic fertilizer you should prepare a base nutrient

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