What can I grow in a container?

[haptalaon]

Following on from the discussion of regenerative agriculture and farming, my area is post-industrial and I'm not sure id want to eat anything out of the soil here.

But i could knock up some large crates and pots. What grows well without contact with the actual soil? I tried carrots once and they were the length of my waist to foot and the width of my finger.

 

[Toddy]

Well, really what would you like to eat ?

Spuds grow really well in containers, but so do salads and strawberries.

You can grow a lot of brassicas that way too....look up square foot gardening for ideas as well.

 

[TeeDee]

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[Glow_worm]

Search the internet for 'upside down tomatoes/cucumbers'!

 

[Woody girl]

I do little salad tomatoes in hanging baskets, carrots, parsnips and beetroot in large pots. Lettuce are able to grow anywhere as are spring onions. I did a kimchi garden in pots last year, growing all my ingredients in large pots , I use raised beds or pots for everything I grow. Even my sprouts and cavali Nero are in raised beds, even tried sweet potato this year, but didn't realy get any usable roots. They are not as easy to grow as they say!
Just experiment. You can get seeds especially for container growing. Tho I tend to use what seeds I can get.

 

[Pattree]

All three of my daughters each live on new or newish estates. One lived on what had been the main site extraction route. It was full of rubble under four inches of topsoil. Very compact and very high pH. It took a Kango to get any sort of drainage.
The three of them have a raised bed collective. Beds are two sleepers long and two sleepers deep. Early, Nantes type carrots are ok. Most roots difficult. Legumes and brassicas do well - but not sprouts so well. Home grown spuds are great but hard to justify when space is at a premium given the farm gate price.
Cucumbers and tomatoes usually do well. Have you tried growing spuds in several layers of plastic manhole liner?

You build them up as the plant grows and pump in liquid fertiliser (hen muck tea works).
Yes, yes it’s plastic but it isn’t single use.
Me? No way! I’ve been a horticulturalist but I’m not a gardener!

 

[Toddy]

One of my great Uncles died at Ypres in WW1.
He is immortalised in the family as saying to a young niece that he was an agriculturalist not a horticulturalist because he liked to eat what he grew

 

[bobnewboy]

We grow tomatoes, spuds, chillies, cucumbers, mint, rosemary, thyme, strawberries, aubergines, sunflowers, liquorice and cucamelos in buckets varying from 14L builders buckets (cheapest) up to 70L mixing buckets. All have done well, but generally better in our greenhouse for the more tender plants. Spuds will grow in pretty much anything to be honest - we grow them in old compost bags when we’ve used all of our buckets.

 

[TeeDee]

We grow tomatoes, spuds, chillies, cucumbers, mint, rosemary, thyme, strawberries, aubergines, sunflowers, liquorice and cucamelos in buckets varying from 14L builders buckets (cheapest) up to 70L mixing buckets. All have done well, but generally better in our greenhouse for the more tender plants. Spuds will grow in pretty much anything to be honest - we grow them in old compost bags when we’ve used all of our buckets.

I didnt know Liquorice was possible in the UK. Does it yield usable amounts? difficult to grow?

 

[Woody girl]

I didnt know Liquorice was possible in the UK. Does it yield usable amounts? difficult to grow?

Liquorice was grown in I believe Yorkshire? (Think pontifract cakes) May be wrong but definitely Liquorice farms were a thing once. I think it's mostly imported nowadays.....the way of all things British.

 

[bobnewboy]

I didnt know Liquorice was possible in the UK. Does it yield usable amounts? difficult to grow?

Not difficult at all. It’s very commonly grown in Yorkshire I believe. I got hold of some seed pods and started a few in soil in the greenhouse , planting them out when they were about 6” high. I have three plants in a 70L tub and they are about 4 years old now. The roots are about as thick as my thumb, so they are ready to harvest, but I haven’t yet. The plants come up strongly each spring, a little later than most at the end of April/ start of May.

 

[GreyCat]

Builders buckets are a great plant pot, cheap and you have a handle to make it easier to move the pot around when full. Currently have all my fruit trees in builders buckets sheltering in my greenhouse (I lifted them from where I put them in as bare roots 2 years ago at the new place as they were not thriving- soil just too wet- I will replant in Spring in a drier location).

I have been using that coir compost which comes in compressed bricks and you re-hydrate it, it's peat-free, made from otherwise waste material and I like the consistency- grew tomatoes in it successfully the year before last.

You can also get little patio growhouses, they can work well if you don't put too much in them.

GC

 

[British Red]

Not difficult at all. It’s very commonly grown in Yorkshire I believe. I got hold of some seed pods and started a few in soil in the greenhouse , planting them out when they were about 6” high. I have three plants in a 70L tub and they are about 4 years old now. The roots are about as thick as my thumb, so they are ready to harvest, but I haven’t yet. The plants come up strongly each spring, a little later than most at the end of April/ start of May.

I have to try this - any seed suppliers that you suggest?

 

[slowworm]

I tried carrots once and they were the length of my waist to foot and the width of my finger.

If you want to grow carrots then choose a variety that produces a shorter carrot. I don't think the very short ones are worth growing but there's plenty of stumpy ones. They do well for us in pots, the carrot fly seem to leave them alone as well.

One thing I have found is the modern peat free composts don't seem to hang on to the nutrients for long so pots need more feeding.

 

[British Red]

One thing I have found is the modern peat free composts don't seem to hang on to the nutrients for long so pots need more feeding.

They don't hang on to moisture either

 

[bobnewboy]

They don't hang on to moisture either

Yep, I’m not a fan of peat-free composts. That’s the only drawback of growing in buckets too - you need to keep a close eye on watering levels. I always drill plenty of drainage holes in the bottom anyway, but they can dry out quickly in a hot greenhouse.

 

[bobnewboy]

I have to try this - any seed suppliers that you suggest?

Hmm. I got my seeds from a seed-swap that was organised in an adjoining village. I might have a few pods left, but I’ll have a look in the greenhouse tomorrow and let you know.

 

[Toddy]

Peat's being vilified because the ptb are desperate to count it towards their carbon neutral/sink thing.

Peat grows easily pretty much anywhere damp (ahem, British Isles !) and it can, and is, commercially grown for horticulture, fuel and whisky making, but it's got so much opprobium slated agin it these days that folks feel guilty buying bales of it.

Much better to preserve and restore the peat bogs but commercially produce too. It can be treated like any other crop.

 

[HillBill]

Following on from the discussion of regenerative agriculture and farming, my area is post-industrial and I'm not sure id want to eat anything out of the soil here.

But i could knock up some large crates and pots. What grows well without contact with the actual soil? I tried carrots once and they were the length of my waist to foot and the width of my finger.

Most things can be grown in containers. Its all i have. I've got fig trees, apple trees, Blueberries, Bay, Currants, Sweet Chestnut ( though they are only 2 year old saplings which will be planted out somewhere in a year or two) Chives, Garlic, Rosemary, Thyme. All of those are outdoors year round except the garlic which i put in mid october and will be harvested by early summer, then planted again in the autumn.. In the house on the window sills right now i have basil, thai basil, coriander and parsley. I'll be planting chillis and onion seeds indoors on new years day too ( under grow lights in heated propagators initially). Come early spring, i'll be sowing tomatoes, potatoes and lots of salad crops, Such as spring onions, radish, beetroot, little gem lettuce. Everything is container/planter/small raised beds grown. I only have a double driveway, and we dont put the car on it. It helps that it's south facing too. I do have some rhubarb behind our house that i planted on unused land thats not mine, i have my compost bins there too. Its enclosed by dense trees and only accessible from my garden. its the only thing i have 'in the ground' But rhubarb thrive on neglect, so get a good crop every year.

 

[HillBill]

Liquorice was grown in I believe Yorkshire? (Think pontifract cakes) May be wrong but definitely Liquorice farms were a thing once. I think it's mostly imported nowadays.....the way of all things British.

I'm a Yorkshireman and didn't know that. My Grandad, also a Yorkshireman used to call it Spanish (liquorice sweets anyway) when i was a kid... always assumed it was from Spain