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Growing Vegetables in Containers
On this page find descriptions and demonstrations showing exactly how to plant vegetable transplants into containers, including:
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- Why container-grown vegetables are as nutritious and flavorful as soil-grown plants.
- How to choose the right soil medium for growing vegetables in containers.
- Selecting vegetable varieties suited best to growing in pots, containers, or planters.
- A step-by step demonstration of how to plant a cherry tomato vine in a container.
About Vegetables in Containers
Planting edible vegetables in containers offers some key advantages over open vegetable gardens and allows small-space gardeners to enjoy growing tomatoes, leafy greens, and other fruit, berries and produce. There’s nothing quite like the flavor of freshly picked tomatoes, greens, fruit, and berries. All these — and more — grow well in containers.
Growing nutritious vegetables in containers requires about the same easy skills as those used for growing houseplants. Here are some of the pluses:
You can provide the ideal soil mix for the vegetables and better manage root competition than those that grow their vegetables in garden soil. That soil also warms more quickly in containers, so even outdoor plantings will get off to a good start as soon as temperatures warm. You’ll also manage much more easily proper exposure to sun and shade: Pots move in and out of the sun with ease.
Even with that better ability to control conditions, though, your range of plants is a bit smaller. Certain varieties adapt better than others to being in a pot.
Of those that love contained surroundings, shallow-rooted plants, are a good candidate for grouping. Pairs, triplets and more can fill the same vessel, especially if you thin. Thinning is the right way to avoid crowding and weak harvests.
Other good container vegetables are compact or baby-sized varieties of carrots. Try tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and onions. Go even wider, by finding cultivars especially created for container cultivation. They’ll provide yields similar in volume, if not in fruit size, to those from open gardens.
Step-By-Step Instructions:
To plant a single plant in a pot, choose a container at least 12 inches (30 cm) deep to allow adequate room for root development.
You’ll need larger containers with more space to grow multiple plantings of different vegetables in the same container.
Sticking to the shallow depth accommodates a wide assortment of container choices, from hanging baskets trailing with tomatoes to long, narrow planters.
Vegetable plants, especially tomatoes, beans, and squash, grow and mature to large sizes. They always require support to accommodate their growth and keep their fruit within easy reach.
With potted vegetables, it’s often best to select dwarf varieties of your favorites—they require less room as they mature.
Follow these simple steps to prepare and plant a cherry tomato vine into a decorative container and install a support frame for it to climb:
Planting Cherry Tomatoes in a Container:
How to Plant a Container with Tomatoes
Along with your cherry tomato seedling or nursery start, gather your materials—here a container, potting soil, and a pair of arched bamboo supports—to brace the maturing plant.
It may look strange and small as a seedling, but when it matures this tomato plant will grow higher than its support, yielding many tasty, fragrant cherry tomatoes.
Place wire screen, rocks, or broken pottery over the container’s drain holes. Add 2 inches (50 mm) of coarse drainage medium such as pea gravel over the container’s drain hole.
Fill the rest of the container with potting mix until nearly full, then compact the soil.
With a trowel or your hands, open space in the soil at the center of the container for your seedling.
Because tomatoes are planted deeply in the soil, make a hole that is deep and wide enough to accommodate the root ball with the seedling’s roots plus its first two pairs of true leaves.
Invert and tap to ease the seedling out of its existing container.
Set the plant into the hole, burying it to cover its rootball, lower stem, and bottom leaves.
The buried leaves will sprout roots at each leaf axil, adding to the plant’s vigor.
Lightly compact the soil around the tomato plant’s stem, adding more soil as necessary.
Once the planting is finished but before the plant’s roots expand, install a wire tomato cage, stake, or sturdy support frame for it to climb.
Cherry tomato plants may reach 4 ft. (120 cm) or taller.
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