How to Plant Potted Vegetables

Tomato plants will grow best in a 5-gallon pot.

Growing vegetables in pots is an alternative to traditional in-ground gardening. Containers allow gardeners to grow vegetables on balconies, decks or on raised platforms. Dwarf varieties of vegetable plants do exceptionally well in pots, but almost any vegetable plant will grow in a pot. Choose pots made of metal, wood or plastic for a container vegetable garden. If the pot does not have holes, you will need to drill holes in the bottom of the pot to allow for proper drainage.

Things You'll Need

• Pot, with drainage holes
• Landscape fabric
• Marker or white chalk
• Sharp scissors
• Sphagnum peat moss
• Pasteurized soil
• Perlite
• Composted cow manure
• Large bucket or tarp
• Small garden shovel
• Garden hose
• Wooden stick or dowel
• Mulch

Instructions

1. Place the pot on top of a piece of landscape fabric. Use a marker or piece of chalk to trace the bottom of the pot on the fabric. Cut along the line with a pair of sharp scissors. Lay the landscape fabric at the bottom of the pot. The landscape fabric will keep the soil inside the pot.

2. Mix together equal amounts of sphagnum peat moss, pasteurized soil, perlite and composted cow manure in a bucket, or on a tarp. Pour the soil mixture into the pot stopping three-quarters of the way to the top.

3. Dig a hole with a small garden shovel the size of the plant's roots. Loosen the plant's roots with your fingers and place into the hole. Backfill the hole with displaced soil.

4. Water the vegetable plant with 1 inch of water from a garden hose or watering can. Potted vegetable garden will need more water than in-ground gardens. To check for moisture, push a wooden stick into the soil once or twice per day. If the soil does not stick onto the stick, you will need to add water to the pot.

5. Add a 1-inch layer of mulch to the top of the container. Mulch will keep the top of the soil from drying out in the sun.

6. Place the pot in an area that receives at least eight hours of sunlight per day.

Tips & Warnings

• If you start from seeds rather than plants, follow the depth and spacing directions on the seed packet.

• Plant tomato plants deeper than other vegetable plants. Bury one-third of the plant -- including the roots -- in the hole.

• Add a 10-10-10 water-soluble fertilizer -- at the rate of 1 1/2 tbsp. per gallon of soil -- once the vegetable plant begins to produce fruit.

• Do not plant the vegetable plant in a container which is too small to hold the plant at maturity. The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension website offers a guide for minimum pot size for many common vegetables.

• Never use soil from the garden to fill your pots.

• According to the University of Maryland, melons, corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes are tricky to grow in containers.

References

• Arizona Cooperative Extension; Vegetable Garden - Container Garden; Karen Demboski, et al.
• Ohio State University Extension: Container Vegetable Garden
• University of Maryland; Planting and Caring for Your Container Vegetables; Jan. 9,2011