I have all my spring seeds listed in a Word document along with when to plant them and their maturity time to EAT THEM.
Plants are growing fine. I wrote the article below two days ago because I had been researching containers to see what to do for spring. Thought some of this might help someone:
ALL PLANT CONTAINERS ARE NOT EQUAL
When I first planted two cherry and one Roma tomato, I got two smaller and one larger clay pot that are like most pots – larger at the top and slim down from there to a small bottom – really dumb on my part to buy them. That was the end of my stupidity about plant containers.
They can mostly throw away all containers/pots that are larger at the top and smaller than a regular size saucer at the bottom. The roots of the plant will get root bound and stop growing and so does the plant. Dumb way to make a pot. I didn’t buy any more like those first three and it’s a good thing they were really cheap.
The only good container/pot is a square one or round one that is the same size on the top as the bottom. There are a zillion for sale of the slim down kind but not that many that are square or round and the same size on the bottom. In fact, I’ve never seen a good looking one that is round and the same size on the bottom.
You can spend yourself silly buying containers and not have enough money left to buy what you need to grow plants. For me, the ones on the deck need to look nice as that is the only place I have to sit outside and I don’t want to sit outside in the middle of crappy containers. What I now have are nice looking plastic containers that I managed to find at really good lower prices. The last five I bought are square - 15 inches across at the top and the bottom. I need as much space across the top as possible for more plants to be in that container, plus room for the roots. I can’t find any more of that kind – I paid $8+ dollars for each of those and 5 was all they had and now they are $15 and more each, and I have looked at Sears, Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, and Amazon for more of them at that lower price. I have other plastic nice looking containers on the deck and these last five will be all that goes on the deck.
I have a bunch of the fabric grow bags with plants sitting in the dirt garden in the net room. I’m going to get black plastic round nursery pots 16 inches across the top and bottom, if I can find them, 15 inches if not, in which to put the rest of the plants this spring. I don’t have to fill the entire container unless that plant is the type with a long root system or it’s a root veggie. That is the type plastic pot a plant is in when you buy it at Lowes or Walmart or wherever. Those are cheap and many people just throw those away and put their plant in a nicer container once they get it home. I’ll get 20 of these cheap, large nursery containers and it won’t break the bank.
You also have to size the container to the plant. The small pots I got for the first three tomatoes were too small. Those pots would be okay for herbs and that’s what will go in them. I don’t remember exactly, but I think they might have been something like $3 each. Hopefully, when I buy herbs at Lowes in the spring, they will be in a decent pot to keep them in. If not, I’ll get those small cheap ones.
Maybe none of you need containers/pots. If you do, consider what I’ve gone through to get the right containers. I really think the 14-15-16 inch across cheap nursery pots are the ideal if you don’t have need for nice looking containers. Herbs, of course, can be in smaller ones.
I also have three Ouachita Blackberry plants that will be shipped Dec. 3. These are two year old plants and the info. said I could get blackberries this coming year,2014.
I just check my rain gauge and had 1 3/4ins of rain. I was at Lowes by 8:30 then on to HEB. Temp dropped 21* in three hours from 71 at 5-5:30 to 50 at 8, when the winds kicked in. It was a miserable, cold, wet trip into town. Was not raining at home when I left, drove through rain almost all the way, then none at Lowes or HEB. But now I have the hardware for my current project in the shop, also a $5 gallon of paint, and we will have baked taters for supper with really fresh wheat rolls from the bakery. It was worth the trip.
One of my wife’s Christmas presents came today, now I will wrap the first present before even putting up the fake tree.
Puppy is growing, working on house training, now she has discovered her barker. I tell her if she barks at everyone, she will have no friends. :)
I save all my nursery pots. When were getting blueberry plants and blackberry plants etc I collected quite a few and continue to use them. I do like the straight pots, because they can be set closer together.
However, I also have a bunch of those round self watering containers that I use on the patio, because they have the water resevoir in the bottom.
My indoor herb plants I plant in 6” pots with the resevoir too.
I grow great tomatoes in about 16” across plastic pots...set in front of the brick on the south side of our house....just have to make a greenhouse around them after planting out to protect from wind/cool weather in May/June... I buy plants, seeding here in W. Oregon is sometimes futile...get really good yield IF they get watered appropriately.
If you can find a landscaper that is nearby or will bring them to you, they can be a great source for almost straight sided containers, they only taper just enough to be stackable. They are just trash to them that they have to pay to dump. I knew a landscaper that had the motherload of containers from small to massive in his back yard, must have been a thousand of them, all stacked upside down according to size. Just a thought for you.
A money saving tip:
One year, we got some decent hanging containers dirt cheap.
A local store was closing out their “summer/fall color,” and we bought impatiens at 90% off. The flowers were pretty much dead, but we didn’t care about that; the hanging baskets they were in were less than half what they wanted for the close-out empty ones!
As a bonus, we managed to save the flowers, and they rebloomed for us.
The first thing I thought of are the 5 gallon buckets you can buy for $5 apiece at Lowe's/Home Depot. I've used them in the past. You just need to drill drainage holes in the bottom.