In general, any variety with 'early' in
the name or description will be a good choice for containers as these
are often smaller sized fruit or roots and therefore plants.
Also in general, herbs are your
'gateway' drug to container gardening. Almost all the herbs you want
to grow are easily grown in our climate. Basil, thyme, oregano and
all of those are very easy in containers. Basil is a summer annual
while cilantro is a winter annual. Most of the other herbs are
perennial and will provide you with delicious flavor all year round.
Almost all the herbs are in the mint family are very, very easy to
grow, almost thriving on neglect. If you are new to veggies, start
with herbs. If you are new to container gardening, start with herbs.
They are insect and disease free.
Try to plant flowers among your
veggies, make them look good! There is no reason to have your veggie
containers look like utilitarian gardens when you can have
nasturtiums hanging over the rim, or alyssum or lobelia. Add
marigolds in summer, calendula in winter or any plant you think will
increase color and appearance. The bonus is the flowers will help
deter pests and will attract pollinators. It's a twofer!
Artichoke – one of any variety
in a 15 gallon container – you won't get more than four or so
chokes per year except in perfect conditions. Green Globe, Violetto
are two varieties to try.
Asparagus – a perennial is not
a good candidate for container culture. Asparagus roots are planted
in late Fall early Winter here and will not produce a harvest for two
years. In most container culture, it is simply not feasible.
Beans – you can get one meal
of beans out of a 6x6” container of bush beans. They have shallow
roots, so six inches deep will suffice, but 8-10 would be better.
Beans can have a bush or climbing habit. Bush beans are usually more
easily managed in a container, but pole beans need a large container
(more depth too simply to balance with the weight of the top growth
combined with poles). All beans can be planted among other plants in
a container as they supply nitrogen. Do not plant with tomatoes.
Some bush beans: Royalty Purple Pod (can be planted earliest
because, unlike most beans, will germinate and thrive in cold soil),
Blue Lake or Kentucky Wonder are the standards; I love Romano beans
and for a yellow bean, Roc d'Or. Pole beans: All the above (except
Roc d'Or) have a pole habit counterpart, in addition, Scarlet Runner
is a wonderful container climber with some of the showiest flowers in
the veggie world. Drying beans are not your best choice for
container production unless you have some large containers to hold
enough plants to make it worth your money.
Beets – only in a container at
least 12” deep and more would be better. Don't expect a huge crop
– put in a beet seed about two inches equidistant from one another
and the container edge and you should do OK. Remember, when thinning
beets, the tops are marvelous in salads. For a red beet, Early
Blood Red or Detroit Dark Red are both good; for a real taste treat,
Golden and Chioggia beets are super. Cylindra, in a deeper container
can be planted closer together because their roots are more carrot
shaped.
Broccoli – of all the cabbage
family plants, broccoli is one of the most productive in containers –
and it's pretty too! One plant per 16” of diameter in an 18”
container. If you can find Nutribud, it is THE premier broccoli
variety for containers, beyond that DeCicco and Calabrese are good
second choices.
Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage and
Caulifower – much less performing in containers. Brussels
Sprouts are long, slow crop, demanding of nutrition and if they don't
get it their way, extremely susceptible to aphid infestations which
are murder to deal with when harvesting. Early Jersey Wakefield is a
good cabbage – any of the smaller 'early' cabbages are good choices
– any cabbage that takes longer than 80-90 days is going to be a
hassle and somewhat less than ideal. If it's described as 'late,'
forget it. Cauliflower is, as Mark Twain once opined, “...is just
cabbage that went to college,” and has the same hassles in
containers. Early Snowball is your best choice if you wish to ignore
me.
Carrots – need a helluva root
run so the best way to plant carrots is in with another plant needing
a deep root run – like tomatoes. The only container carrot to defy
that rule is those little ones like Paris Market that are all of two
bites long. In with tomatoes, and 18 to 24” minimum depth, you can
try any of the ordinary ones like Scarlet Nantes or St. Valery.
Chard – is not grown by the
Swiss and didn't originate there, so I'm moving to call it simply
'chard.' This is an easy to grow plant, if given a bit of room (18”
minimum) and you'll get a long harvest over the cool season. Most
chards will hang on for two years if you're lucky. Five Color
Silverbeet (silverbeet is the Australian name for chard) is a
delightful mix of five different plant colors, Red Rhubarb, as the
name suggests, is a lovely red ribbed variety. They are all good and
will all give you a good harvest.
Collards – are acceptable as
container plants. Vates and Georgia Southern are fine choices –
they need a minimum 18x18” container per plant.
Corn – oh, for show, I guess
you could plant one or two, but corn does not really lend itself well
to container gardens – you really need a minimum of 20 plants or so
to effect a good stand to pollinate – with poor pollination will
result in ears that are not well-filled. If you want the show, plant
a few Bloody Butcher plants in a 10 or 15 gallon container and
fertilize heavily. They will get to 14' tall and people will be
wowing all over them.
Cucumbers – another difficult
one in a container, but... the little Persian cucumbers are smaller
plants and good choices for your container garden. Most of the
others, if you can put a large trellis for them, you can grow most of
them – leave Lemon Cucumbers out – their plants are just too
aggressive! Cucumbers need consistent moisture.
Eggplant – any variety of
eggplant does well in containers, the plants are fine in anything
more than five gallons, although the smaller varieties will be more
productive. Casper and Pingtung Long are really good choices.
Kale – is a good choice for
winter containers. One plant per five gallon (about 18”) in a
drift of 3 to 5, depending on your kale consumption or tolerance,
will be a good supply for one or two folks. Lacinato is the one
chefs rave about, but all of them are good choices for us. It really
prefers cool temperatures.
Leeks – are a challenge
because they take so long – like garlic. You can plant them in
with other plants as a companion to repel insects (like garlic) but
don't plan on a helluva harvest. Blue Solaise is one of the smaller
ones – but it still takes 100 to 120 days.
Lettuce - and all salad greens
are some of the best container garden plants going. They are shallow
rooted, play well in close quarters and are quickly grown without
much fuss. Choose your lettuces according to the season – there
are lettuces that are heat tolerant (All Year Round) and lettuces
that love cold weather (almost everything else). There are
butterhead lettuces (that are way too expensive at the market) and
looseleaf lettuces of many different colors. All of them fun and
easy. I can't make it through the lettuce selection of many seed
catalogs without ordering way too many packages of lettuce seed! All
of the salad greens, endive, escarole, and spinach are just as easy
and fun.
Melons – a lot like cucumbers
only worse, in terms of space. I don't know that one can get a
decent harvest of melons of any kind – the vines are long and need
to be trellised and need space. Look for any melon that is listed as
'space saving' or 'compact.' And good luck.
Okra – need a large container
– a well grown okra plant will get six feet tall and is a gorgeous
addition to any garden. You'll need a 10 gallon container for each
plant, well-grown, will net you a bunch of pods. Red Burgundy and
Clemson Spineless are a little smaller and better for containers.
Onions – for storage are not
going to be a good and productive container plant. Grow scallions or
Long Red of Florence or Red Torpedo (Tropea) and eat them fresh.
Peas – are a great container
plant. Like beans, peas can be climbing or bush. Choose according
to your needs. Remember the bush varieties will produce more of a
crop all at once while the climbing will produce more peas over a
longer period. Some of the varieties we've enjoyed include Amish
Snap (climbing), Blue Podded (climbing) is a gorgeous SOUP pea...
leave the peas to dry and use them in soup, and Dwarf Gray Sugar
(bush) are all ones to try.
Peppers – are a wonderful
container plant just like eggplants and they are very ornamental, if
you leave the peppers to mature (all green peppers are just unripe
peppers that would have changed to a color if they had been allowed
to ripen). If you like 'em sweet, Jimmy Nardellos, Marconi and Sweet
Chocolate; for the hotheads, Jalapenos, Habaneros and Joe's Long
Cayenne are some ideas, but really, any one you want to grow will be
happy in an 18”/five gallon or so container.
Radishes – are one of the
easiest root crops to grow – give them 18” or so depth and you'll
be able to eat fresh radishes in about a month. French Breakfast,
Watermelon and all others are easy as you can get in growing a
vegetable. If you like radishes.
Squash – needs a big
container. Summer squashes, the zucchinis, crooknecks, all the
squashes with soft skins that eaten fresh, are large plants, but if
you have the space and give them a 10 or 15 gallon container, you'll
do fine. They will probably get powdery mildew, so plan on a short
season or start another plant every other month as long as the
weather is warm. Once the mature plant has mildew, yank it and start
over. For summer squash, I like Lebonese (light green) better than
the dark ones, but the dark ones are more productive. WINTER
squashes are a whole 'nuther critter, being the hard skin squashes
(pumpkins are a winter squash) and take a long time. They are
probably among the largest plants in the garden, so, you need a lot
of space and perhaps a sturdy trellis. Personally? I'd pass.
Tomatoes – like the other
members of that family, are container garden stars as long as you
stay out of the really big heirlooms. You will have a lot of luck
with all of the saladettes (the smaller two to three inch tomatoes)
and cherry types. In my book the paste tomatoes – especially the
determinate types – are your container gardens top performers.
Burbank's Slicer, Rutgers, Siletz, and Taxi (a yellow) are all
determinate and will not get over four feet hall. Almost all cherry
tomatoes will be larger plants as will most of the saladette types.
In the latter camp, Juane Flamme, Shady Lady, Black from Tula,
Cherokee Purple and a million others will do just fine.
Watermelon – find small
fruited ones and good luck. These can be grown more easily than
winter squash, but they still take a lot of room. A trellis is
highly recommended. Small Shining Light, Stone Mountain, Petite
Yellow and Golden Midget are candidates for your experiment.
david
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