To increase the harvest this year, I’m expanding the garden with grow bags and other containers on a patio. The problem is figuring out what size containers to use.
At the least, I’ll be growing a small variety of cabbage (Golden Acre) and iceberg lettuce. Have any of you grown cabbage or lettuce in containers? What size do you recommend? I did the google machine and it brings up charts with conflicting information. Looking for information based on actual experience.
Zone 6 in Pennsylvania if that matters.
Lettuce will pretty much grow in any well-drained container. It has a shallow root system, so think WIDE over DEEP for lettuces. Also, Iceburg is boring, cheap and abundant. Venture out with more colorful leaf lettuces and other salad greens. (Spinach, Arugula, etc.)
Unless you’re growing the smaller cabbages, ONE cabbage is going to need a 5-gallon pot.
Cabbage is so cheap to buy year-round, and takes up a lot of garden space so I generally grow two or three ‘fancy ones’ in with my flowers for show. (Of course I eat it, too!)
I don’t think you’ll get much bang for your buck growing cabbage in containers. I’d re-think that.
My suggestion for veggies in containers would be: Tomatoes, hot & sweet peppers, cucumbers (with a large tomato cage in there to climb), radishes and eggplant. I’d use 5 gallon pots for those choices. ONE tomato plant and two peppers for every 5-gallon container. Green Beans grow well in containers, too. Probably 4 plants in a 5-gallon bucket.
If you’re using your pots for succession planting, all the better! Lettuce and radishes, spinach, arugula in the spring. You can re-plant all of that again in the fall for more. Tomatoes and peppers will take the whole season to grow, but when your cukes poop out, you can replant that pot (with some freshened up soil) with maybe sugar snap peas (short ones like ‘Sugar Ann’) or more radishes and/or salad greens.
Herbs are VERY happy in pots, so basil, rosemary, thyme, fennel, dill, etc. whichever are your favorites to cook with.
Also, when you’re growing in pots, you’ll need to fertilize all the time. Plan on watering twice a day (morning and early evening) in the heat of summer. I would do two things for that. Use a time-release granular fertilizer in with your potting soil, top dress your pots with compost and every time you water, add a small scoop of Miracle Grow (or whatever water-soluable fertilizer you like) to your watering can.
I know growing in pots seems like extra work, but it’s worth it to do it right for great success.
Also - make sure those pots have good drainage! If you’re using 5 gallon buckets, drill holes about 2” up from the bottom of the pot, along the sides. If your pots already have drainage, elevate them on bricks so they can drain properly from the bottom...and your patio will be less likely to get stained from sitting water.
The cabbage still gets to an impressive size.
I did not container garden it though.