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Container Gardening

Vegetable Container Gardening Ideas

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Along with hydroponics, container gardening is also a great way to grow your plants indoors. Whether building a small herb or vegetable garden in your kitchen or growing colorful flowers to brighten a room, using containers is easy, fun and versatile. There are also a huge variety of pots to choose from, such as clay, stone, terra cotta and glazed pottery.

To begin your garden, first think of what you wish to plant. Almost anything can be grown indoors, and you can enjoy plants that would otherwise not survive outdoors, depending on your climate. If you wish to create a space for vegetables and herbs, look for a south or west-facing window that receives lots of sun.

Container Types For Your Indoor Plants

Next, what type of containers will you use? You can use almost anything, however, all pots need good drainage. Smaller vegetables such as lettuce and herbs will make do in six-eight inch diameter containers. Larger containers, at least twenty inches in diameter, will be needed for larger plants, such as full-size tomatoes and cucumbers. The larger the pot, the more vigorous your plants will be.

As for the type of container to use, the preference is mainly based on your taste. Stone pots look very natural, but are heavy and prone to chipping. Terra cotta is a great all-purpose material, but is fragile and will crack in colder climes if left outdoors. Whatever you decide, make sure there are a few holes in the bottom, and a couple on the sides, to help with drainage. If you wish to use a decorative pot with no drainage holes, consider placing a well-drained pot inside.

Soils for Your Container Plants

Regular soil, or a “medium” in gardening lingo, does not work well in containers. This is because regular outdoor soil is too heavy and designed for a large area. Drainage, nutrients and aeration are not as much an issue in the wide outdoors. Soil from outdoors may also contain weed seeds, insects and harmful fungus. As you know from learning about hydroponic gardening, plants do not actually need soil to grow – they need water, nutrients and air. With this in mind, a light, fluffy, well-ventilated medium works best.

A potting soil mix is light and fluffy, allowing air to reach the roots. They will often contain peat moss, organic compost, perlite and composted cow manure. The non-soil material contains compounds that help retain moisture and nutrients, so the medium will help soak up excess water and keep the potting medium from drying out.

You can use regular soil, though, especially if your potted plants will be kept outdoors. In this case, mix the soil with sand and organic compost to help lighten and aerate the mixture. Keep in mind that insects and disease may be a problem, so keep them separate from plants kept strictly indoors.

Ideas For Your Vegetable Container Garden

Vegetables and herbs are an obviously popular choice for container gardens. First, designate a sunny spot in your room, preferably near the kitchen, if possible. A balcony is also a great choice. Vegetables need lots of sun, water and nutrients. Add organic compost or a slow-release fertilizer at least every growing season.

For smaller plants in the kitchen, herbs are a great choice. Feel free to plant compact herbs in one large pot or box, such as chives, savory, thyme and sage. They don’t take much time to sprout, and you can easily pick leaves to use as ingredients for your salads and meals. Mint is a tasty and fragrant choice, but it likes large, one-foot containers.

For vegetables, tomatoes are an easy and tasty choice for beginners. Garden centers often sell tomatoes already in containers for indoor and balcony use. An excellent idea is to tie tomato and cucumber plants to stakes or even surround them in a garden cage. The plant will grow neatly upwards, with veggies growing in a compact, vertical fashion. Lettuce, spinach, radish and beets can be grown in smaller containers. Try peppers, beans, cabbage and carrots in medium-size containers – 10-14 inch wide and deep. If you have the room, you can even grow pumpkins, watermelons and potatoes in large, 5 to 10 gallon containers. Check your local garden center for varieties of plants bred for compact, indoor growing.

The fun of gardening vegetables indoors is the wide variety of choices you can grow, and the year-round supply of many types of herbs. Enjoy your indoor garden, and eat well!

Biodegradable Coir Planting Pots

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Horticultural technology is growing back to natural sources. One of the most valuable new developments in recent years is a series of planting containers made of coir, or coconut fiber. Coir pots are 100% biodegradable when placed in environments hospitable to natural breakdown. Until such time, the pots retain their shape for three to five years, making them natural choices for outdoor container gardens year after year.

Coir: A Natural Resource
Coir is fiber from a coconut husk. Prior to its use for garden pots, coir was primarily used to make rope and weave mats. The word coir is Malayalam, from the word kayaru, which means “to be twisted.” Coir is made from a renewable resource, and coir pots use little energy to produce. Their biodegradable nature makes them ideal for production large and small scale, as use of coir will reduce plastic thrown into landfills.

Coir Pots Promote Plant Growth
Plants growing in traditional plastic pots tend to develop tightly massed root systems that do not take full advantage of the growing area. When growing in coir pots, plants grow throughout the entire pot, and grow into the pot wall. Once the roots reach the outer edge of the wall, they stop growing out and continue to grow inside the pot. Because coir is biodegradable, commercial growers can use the pots to grow plants that can be planted directly into the ground, skipping the transplanting step, which often leads to transplant shock. Plants planted directly into the ground in coir pots will settle in and take off more quickly.

Coir Container Gardens
Coir pots are also perfect for patio container gardens. The pots hold their shape for 3-5 years. As natural substances, their appearance changes over time, lending character to outdoor container gardens. Once the pots have reached the end of their useful life, they can be tossed into the compost pile and eventually returned to the garden as fertilizer.

Hairy Pot Plant Company
Coir pots are great for the home gardener that does not have to worry about large scale disease and destruction from plant pots. The Hairy Pot Plant Company in the UK has also developed a way to use coir pots effectively in large-scale greenhouse production. They steam the pots on arrival to their facility in order to kill any bacteria or insects that may have arrived with the pots. Once steamed, the pots are ready to go. They cite advantages of using the coir pots, including providing economic resources coir pot producers, who often dwell in economically poor countries.

Hairy Pot Plant Company produces plants that can be planted directly into the ground in their coir pots. They also sell a wide variety of coir products for the home gardener, including seed-starter pots. Start your seedlings in coir pots, and you will gain valuable growing time, as they will not have to recover from transplant shock.

Coir is clearly the way to go for plant production in environmentally friendly ways.

Charming and Creative Container Choices

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By: Charlene Rennick

What kind of container will best suit your newly rooted plants at a minimum cost to your hydroponic budget for their next step of growth?

If you are still smiling from the money you saved by cloning your plants instead of buying several flats to spread that ground cover from one side of the garden down the entire length of the house, you don’t have to stop.  Take a look around at what you have at your fingertips.  Various items you have lying around yours or your friends’ garage can become inexpensive, charming pots and reservoirs for your seedlings to flourish into a lush and mature plant.

Aquariums that are collecting dust and haven’t seen a fish since your youngest child was 10, wallpaper trays, a sink you replaced but haven’t managed to get to the recycling depot yet, any wide-mouth basin, plastic plumbing pipe or water flow tubes can be useful.   A utility knife can make drainage holes where necessary and some non-toxic silicone can seal any cracks.  A wide flat drill bit can be used make a smooth, round hole for your plant inside a piece of plastic pipe.  As long as it is clean, water-tight and can hold growing media, it can be used to house a hydroponically grown plant.

In a hydroponic system, the nutrient solution is absorbed from the bottom to the top of plant through the opening of capillaries in the roots.  If you are just starting a hydroponic garden and want to experiment without investing a lot of money, try a simple, hand-stirred, self-watering system. There are two ways of designing this.

You can eliminate the need for a growing medium if your plant is light-weight and not top heavy.  Need something to suspend the roots of the plant in the nutrient solution?  You can recycle those plastic rings from six packs of aluminium cans.  This option does not require a growing medium.

If your plant needs the support of a growing medium, (still have those aquarium rocks?), an inner container and an outer one is required.  The inner container holds the plant supported by a growing medium.  It needs a drainage hole and an opening by which the roots can absorb the water.  The nutrient-rich water is contained in the outer tray (you can have several plants in one bigger tray) and the potted plant is placed inside it.  The water flow is controlled by the plant’s roots.  To avoid bacteria growth and water stagnation, you will need to circulate oxygen through the water in the outer tray.  To save on the cost of a pump (is there one from that old aquarium?), you can hand-stir the water daily or blow bubbles through a tube or clean piece of siphon hose to aerate the solution.

Designing your garden should be fun and give you a sense of accomplishment.  You can spend more money when you are ready and know the ropes!