A Guide to Container Vegetable Gardening

Start seeds in small pots and transplant into your containers.

If you do not have the space for a conventional vegetable garden, fear not; most common varieties will happily grow in containers wherever you find space for them. Even apartment dwellers can grow vegetables at home in containers on balconies. Container gardening gives you the opportunity to grow as much or as little as your space allows.

Container Garden Locations

Position your containers depending on the sunlight needs of the individual plants. Root vegetables and leafy greens enjoy partial shade, but tomatoes and other plants grown for their fruit need full sun. A windowsill is a good place for a small herb garden, particularly if you have a kitchen window. If growing vegetables indoors, purchase a full-spectrum fluorescent light for use above your containers. Your plants will thank you with bigger yields and tastier fruits.

Container Sizes

Choose your containers based on the vegetables you plan to grow. Tomatoes need at least a 2-gallon pot for every plant, although three plants can share a 5-gallon container. Eggplants require a 5-gallon pot to themselves to prevent crowding. Traditional orange clay pots may not be right for every vegetable, so don't feel like they are the only option. Radishes, beets and green onions grow well in wide, shallow containers. Carrots, on the other hand, need a lot of depth but very little width. A half-gallon milk carton suits two carrots nicely.

Starting Seedlings

Start your seeds separately before transplanting them to your containers. You can purchase seedlings from local nurseries or start your own in peat. Many specialty potting mixes for container gardening contain no soil, but are instead a mix of peat moss, perlite and vermiculite. These mixes contain no weed seeds or diseases that could harm your delicate seedlings. Look for them at your local nursery. Place an inch of gravel in the bottom of your containers for drainage and fill the containers to within 3 inches from the top with your chosen potting mix.

Common Problems

Watch your plants closely to catch problems before they become serious. Leggy plants that grow too tall to support the vegetables they produce result from too little sunlight or too much nitrogen in the fertilizer. If your plants wilt, even though they are receiving regular watering, the problem most likely can be traced to insufficient drainage. Solve this by increasing the size of the drainage hole in the bottom of the container.

Plants yellowing from the bottom leaves and working up probably suffer from lack of nitrogen. Give them a little more fertilizer mixed in their water and they should recover quickly.

References

• The University of Maryland Cooperative Extension; Healthy Harvests For Small Spaces; Jon Traunfeld; April 2006
• The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension: Vegetable Garden: Container Gardens
• Texas A&M University Agricultural Extension; Vegetable Gardening in Containers; Joseph Masabni; March 2009
• Cornell University Cooperative Extension; Growing Vegetables, Herbs and Annual Flowers in Containers; Eric deLong; March 2004