 So welcome everyone my name is Julie Garden Robinson and I am a food and nutrition Specialist here on campus at NDSU, and I'm really glad you're joining us today. We have an exciting group of Programs coming up, and we also have a number of archived webinars So if you missed any of the earlier ones you can go on our field to fork website and hear Tom Kelb talk about great seeds You can learn about high tunnel production a little bit about GMOs Next week I will be your speaker, and I'm going to tell you a little bit about the health benefits of gardening So it's kind of fun. I've learned a lot in the process of creating the presentation So I think you might enjoy it and it's going to make you want to do even more gardening The one after that is really designed for a lot of our cottage food producers So Cliff Hall who's a professor in food science here on campus is going to be talking about developing and selling Food products that are both safe as well as being tasty. I also want to let you know about another Opportunity for education. This one carries a small price tag of just $25. It's a full-day workshop and It's in combination with the North Dakota Farmers Union and will be held in Jamestown, North Dakota You can find the registration online and it should be a really fun day because we're going to learn all about Food safety all the way from field to fork Go to the next slide. All right, I think many of you are discovering how all the controls work on our zoom format We're still learning it But please as I said keep yourself in the mute So find your little microphone and if it doesn't have a red line on it, please click on that and Then we won't have any disruptions We'll use the chat box as much as you want So if you have questions go ahead and type your question in the box I'll keep my eye on it and Yolanda will check that out as well And at the end of our presentation We'll also go ahead and you know if you want to say your question out loud. That's totally fine So I'm going to click a couple of mutes here. There we go. I Do have one request if you're participating today Please take a couple of minutes to complete the survey. This all was made possible by a grant through the USDA Agriculture marketing service and it's about specialty crops. So it'll take you out just a couple of minutes and I also have I Also have a bunch of prizes. So I'm going to collect your names in case we want to You know, you want to earn a prize. So please go ahead and do that And now I am happy to introduce Yolanda Schmidt. I'd like to tell you a little bit about Yolanda She moved back to the rugby area in 2012 to serve as the NDSU extension service Pierce County agent where she provides assistance Information and educational programming in the area of agriculture horticulture and also natural resources She attended NDSU With a degree in animal science and she's currently working on her master's in extension education with an emphasis in horticulture Her professional background also includes six years in the dairy industry as a herdswoman for both an 800 and 2000 cow dairy and before moving back to North Dakota. She spent three years teaching Again, if you see that your microphone is not muted, I'm gonna ask you to keep that muted Just to prevent feedback So let me go back to Yolanda Um She spent three years teaching animal science at Lake area Technical Institute in Watertown, South Dakota And she's also spent a lot of time as a seasonal greenhouse person during transplanting and selling She's also she's always enjoyed gardening But this process of working in the seasonal greenhouse has really piqued her interest In her spare time as you might guess she likes to garden both vegetables and flowers and someday She hopes to build her own personal greenhouse. So with that, I'm turning it over to you and I'm gonna Mike I'm going to mute myself. So thanks a lot for joining us today Yolanda Thank you, Julie. It's a pleasure to be here and I appreciate the opportunity to present today Before I start I do want to draw everyone's attention to a few publications or supplemental publications that we've Uploaded to the field to fork website I won't necessarily be talking about everything that's in them. So there might be some extra little things that you'll find beneficial so the first is gardening with children and then the second is the art and science of container gardening and The third one is growing flowers for containers and gardens and I'll Probably reference each of them during the presentation as well, but just wanted to let you know that those are available on the website also so with that I guess we will talk about gardening in small spaces and Gardening is probably one of the most popular activities or hobbies for people around the world Mainly because it's something that everyone can do people of different sizes varying levels of experience with growing things people with disabilities Even children children and elderly people can garden and It's fun lots of people enjoy it because it's fun But there are some studies that show that people's involvement in gardening also helps to promote healthy habits and According to the University of Kentucky It's actually estimated that a 150 pound person who works in the garden can burn approximately 350 calories an hour just gardening so of course it would depend on how strenuous your gardening activities are but that's pretty impressive because if you're like me and Traditional exercise isn't something that you maybe enjoy doing but you enjoy gardening That's a fun way to get those those that exercise in and it can actually depending on how strenuous your gardening routine is It can actually be equivalent to some low-impact aerobics or playing softball or even walking at a brisk pace So just a little interesting tidbit that I like to throw out there So as we go to the next slide, there's several different methods or ways of growing in small spaces Raised bed square foot and container and today I'm going to be focusing only on container gardening. I believe Todd Weinemann will be talking about square foot gardening in a later session so with container gardening one of the important things is container selection and There's tons of possibilities Excuse me the more creative You want to be the better You can use anything from wood to clay plastic metal You can even use baskets that are lined with plastic, but be sure to have drainage holes punched in the plastic Almost anything that you can put soil in you could use as a container the key is drainage holes though there has to be drainage holes in whatever container that we're using and Also another key with container gardening is that we want to start with a clean container It's a good practice even if you're refilling pots To make sure and clean those out a good disinfectant solution would be one to nine mixture of one part bleach to nine parts water and Then you would clean those pots first with water and soap and then rinse them and then put them in your Sanitation solution for a minimum of 10 minutes make sure that they're clean that's going to help Decrease the chances of any disease harboring in those containers Another note of caution with containers is just to be aware that dark containers do absorb heat so if they're in a sunny location, they're going to be warmer and The reason that this is important is because it's that absorption of heat is also going to warm the soil up in the container now for some Plants like peppers or egg plants that are from that originate from hotter regions than our their temperature loving That might be okay, but for some plants we could see a little bit of root damage if the soil gets too hot So some other things with container selection. We definitely want them to be big enough So that they provide adequate space for rooting and also big enough to support the mature plants They shouldn't be topsy-turvy or shouldn't tip over when they're full And then of course adequate drainage definitely want to have holes in the bottom and some ways that we can help with drainage Especially with our large planters is to consider placing them on a platform with wheels or casters so that we can move it around and then also if it happens to be on a wood surface or even on on a cement patio Having it raised up will prevent rot on your wood surfaces and then also staining under the planter and helps with water drainage another benefit of having a platform or cart With wheels is that we can move the container around in order to take advantage of sunlight or To protect the plant from bad weather So we could move it into a more sheltered spot in the high sunlight of the day Or if it's going to be a really windy or stormy day We can move it into the garage or some other sheltered place and then if we're getting creative with our container selection We want to make sure that whatever container. We're using to grow especially edible Plants is that it's never held any type of product that would be toxic to the plants or people that would be consuming the fruits from those plants Soil is another very important Component of container gardening. It's probably as important as the container selection itself One common mistake that gardeners will will make is that they'll try to use soil from the garden and There's a couple. There's a few reasons why this isn't a good idea It depends on the makeup of that garden soil Depending on how much clay content is in that soil it there's the possibility that it can hold Too much moisture when it's wet or that it won't allow adequate drainage Sometimes we we have problems with crusting in garden soil and That's usually not a good thing either. It'll pull away from the Sides of the pot when it gets dry if we're starting things from seed that crusting will inhibit the Germination and sprouting of our seeds and then the other thing with garden soil is that it can harbor plant disease pathogens And so whatever those are they Your new plants that you're putting into that that container can be infected if it's a a root rot or Blight of some kind The container medium also needs to be light and porous this helps with drainage and Then something else that we don't necessarily think about is that roots actually need air as well as they need water in order to be healthy and Soil mixes will vary in their makeup, but good mixes are going to provide Essential plant nutrients. They're going to hold adequate moisture But at the same time they're going to allow excess moisture to drain out and then I did talk about Garden soil harboring plant disease pathogens the the neat thing about soil mixes or potting mixes is that most of those are all of those are pasteurized which means that any of the plant pathogens that might have been in there are Killed and also the pasteurization process can kill a lot of weed seeds that might be present as well Commercial mixes often contain a combination of vermiculite Perlite sand sphagnum peat moss, maybe some fir bark or redwood sawdust Perlite is those little white dots that you see In your potting mix It's lightweight and it it helps to aerate the the soil mix to give the the roots The air that they need and then also it helps with drainage One note of caution with vermiculite Is that you should look for? Asbestos free on the packaging Because sometimes some of the vermiculite can contain some asbestos depending on where they're sourced where it's sourced from Next I just wanted to share a couple of soil mix recipes and you may know of others or have heard of others and I just Picked two of my favorite ones The first one is dr. Dave franzin's mix. He is actually our extension soil specialist at NDSU and His soil mix of preference or choice is to use 1 3rd high clay soil 1 3rd children's play sand and 1 3rd sphagnum peat moss You're probably asking yourself. Well a high clay soil kids play sand She just told us not to use garden soil If you're using the high clay soil There are ways that you can Sterilize it using your oven But it's gonna make a smell So and you're gonna need depending on how big your container is you'll probably have to do several batches So that would be my recommendation there is to make sure that if you're using Those types of things that you do try to sterilize it the next Recipe is just one part peat moss one part potting soil and then one part clean course builder's sand or Pair light and then you can also add a Slow-release Complete fertilizer to both lit both mixes if you'd like container grown plants are often They often take on a different character than in grown or in ground grown plants do They have Different water and fertilizer Requirements or I shouldn't say different Just because of the medium that they're growing in there. They're going to be quicker to dry out We'll probably have to water Daily and maybe even more often depending on what type of container you have or how big it is You could be looking at watering two to three times a day. I I forgot to mention I think with the Container selection if you're using clay pots Clay pots do tend to absorb water So they can steal water away from your newly transplanted plants. So that's one thing to Keep in mind and then there will be more evaporation as well When watering you want to make sure that you water until water comes out of the drainage holes And this is really important Because we don't want standing water or soggy soil because that encourages root rot a good rule of thumb in Determining if your soil is at the right moisture level is that it should feel like a rung out sponge That that type of moisture level Another way to help prevent containers from drying out Is to group the containers to take advantage of leaf canopy, which will help shade Some of the pot or the soil area mulch can also be used in containers and then we can Use or take advantage of windbreaks. Maybe put our containers along a fence Along the house along the garage those types of things Hot dry windy days Usually are going to require more watering For our container grown plants And you want to make sure that you're feeling the soil to determine It's if it's damp enough or if it's too dried out Fertilizing there's not really any hard and fast rules For container gardens, it's going to mostly depend on What type of soil mix you've placed in the container and if you've added any fertilizer to the mix? if you are using a Potting mix like miracle grow that maybe already has a fertilizer in it that will generally last 8 to 10 weeks But again, whether or not you need to add fertilizer is definitely going to depend on the type of plants That you're growing You'll want to you know kind of take a gauge to see how they're looking. Are they are they growing well? If they're not growing well, or if they're looking a little funny, we might need to add some fertilizer Pale plants are usually hungry Meaning they need a little fertilizer If they're browning on the leaf edges, maybe we've got too much fertilizer in there Types of fertilizer that we use Liquid will be applied more often Those are like your miracle grow or equivalents And usually they're applied roughly every 10 days to two weeks And then we also have granular fertilizers, which are more of a a time-released Pellet or bead which will apply less often An example of that might be osmocote and Then we do want to Match our fertilizer with the type of plants grown and when I say match our fertilizer What I'm referring to is actually the the numbers on the fertilizer bag or container Those numbers, there's three numbers separated by dashes. They refer to the percent comp composition of nitrogen phosphorus and potassium and it's always in that order NPK nitrogen phosphorus and potassium and When we have plants that are growing more fruit or if it's a tomato or Plants of that nature annual flowers because we're growing them for the flower not for the foliage We would tend to use a fertilizer with a little lower Nitrogen level or less nitrogen if we're growing leafy plants Cabbage lettuces those types of things we're growing them specifically for their leaves Then we might use a little higher nitrogen formulation Typically just to give a little crash course on the the nutrients typically nitrogen promotes Full-edge growth also tends to make plants grow faster But if we use too much nitrogen, we can burn the roots and we can even prevent flowering and slow release is best A lot of times I'll get calls in my office During the summer about tomato plants that failed to flower and a lot of times What I find out is that they were most likely over fertilized So when that happens the plant puts more energy into producing foliage than it does to produce the flower or the fruit Phosphorus is Known to promote strong roots So it helps plants form new roots. It helps them develop seeds fruits and flowers and Then it also helps to Helps a plant with its disease resistance In a roundabout way Potassium is just generally for healthy growth Can promote some disease resistance and promote stem strength and growth as well Light is also important whether we're growing plants in a container or whether we're growing them in the ground Most most of our plants do require Parts on if not full sun and so I've just put a put a breakdown of some common vegetable plants and their light requirements as you can see the the larger The larger growing plants the heavier fruiting plants tend to require The most sunlight if we can give them six hours or more of sunlight a day They'll generally reward us with a good-sized crop and healthy plants Some of our root crops and some of our smaller Vegetables can get by with four to six hours of sunlight a day So they might do well in a in a shadier area, but just keep in mind that they do need some sunlight during the day Just like in the ground plant spacing is important and if you're like me You you may have a tendency to overcrowd your plants in in your containers Because they're just so much fun to grow and you just want to try everything and they're so little when we put them in and Sometimes we forget how big they're actually going to get So plant spacing guidelines are really important and you can usually find those on the seed packet or the plant label and So just remember that when we Get tempted to crowd our plants into a container We're going to be increasing their competition for light and nutrients And then we're also going to increase the likelihood of disease mostly leaf diseases because When they're crowded and the and the plants start touching each other There's less air circulation and so we can promote some disease that way and so on the right side of the screen I I just Put some common vegetables and kind of some guidelines for plants and and plant sizing Just for a visual plant selection We can grow just about any annual vegetable we want in a container We can also grow some tropical Fruits in containers. I Actually have grown miniature oranges and bananas and was successful in getting fruit from both of those They do take some time, but we can grow almost any annual vegetable in a container Some exceptions would be corn You can probably still grow corn in a container But you the the thing with corn is the the pollination factor. It likes to be grown in blocks Because so the pollination can can spread more effectively through the plants or the pollen. I'm sorry I'm vining crops like pumpkins and squash and melons They can be grown in containers. Actually, there's small fruited cultivars and bush varieties That can and do do well in containers, but the the regular full-size ones usually don't do as well in containers and then one other thing is that determinate tomato cultivars actually work the best in containers and What that means is if you're growing a determinate tomato variety It it's only programmed to grow to a certain size and then it will stop if you're growing an indeterminate tomato variety That will continue to grow and grow and grow as long as the plants alive And that's where some people do the pinching To encourage bushiness and some people say that it makes them fruit more and and those types of things So determinate tomato cultivars do work best in in containers and you can find Whether your tomato variety is determinate or indeterminate just by looking on the seed packet or on the plant label If you're buying greenhouse grown plants So I've covered some of these already But some advantages of container gardening is that we can grow Plants where in-ground gardening isn't possible or even practical we can grow plants on patios and balconies and decks and porches and even rooftops The one thing that we do want to Be cognizant of is that just because we might be able to put a container somewhere doesn't always mean that it's a good idea especially if we're in an apartment setting and we're Growing plants on a balcony we can still do it But just be aware of how much that soil is truly going to weigh especially once it's wet so Instead of growing Ten containers you may only have three or four containers Container gardening They're very mobile we can move our containers from place to place To take advantage of changing weather such as in the spring or in the fall if frost is in the forecast we can move to a frost-free location or If we've got high Sun that day we can move it to a shadier location or high wind we can move to a more protected area We can also control our soil composition We can choose to buy or make a mix using the right ingredients to ensure optimal fertility water holding capacity and good drainage and Then we can also add some visual appeal to our outdoor spaces Some challenges of container gardening We do have an increased need for water and also nutrients So as we water more frequently we're going to have some nutrient leaching if we Have a lot of summer activities or go on vacations. We're going to need a babysitter for the plant sometimes Container gardening can be more expensive when you factor in the cost of containers if we're not using Creative containers if we're having to buy containers also our soil mix Components can add up and then frequent watering and fertilizing also adds to the expense a Container weight can also be seen as a challenge Large containers with five or more gallons of soil can be quite heavily heavy, especially when they're wet This can make them difficult to move and as I mentioned before can cause some problems if there are several on a balcony or a roof or a deck even and then container Gardening is usually only suitable for certain crops But like I mentioned before some bush varieties on our Large-fruited vining crops can and do well in container gardens and This is just I guess just a summary or What's to come I guess some other options for small space, but I won't be covering those today And so with that I guess that concludes my my talk for today So I'd open it up for questions Hi, Alana. This is Todd. Have you ever grown onions and container like that? I have not but I have grown them in a raised bed and actually we I started them from seed last year as part of a Youth pizza garden project and and it was kind of an experiment just to see what would happen and they actually did very well But I would like to try them in an actual pot I see that there is in the chat box What is the recommended NPK ratio for tomatoes and peppers? anytime we're in doubt a good General use fertilizer 10 10 10 should be sufficient I see one other in the chat box Do you wash clay pots in soap and water and what is your sanitation solution? Yes, you would wash clay pots. You would wash any of your pots Whatever whatever you're planning to use for your potting medium You would definitely want to wash that with soap and water rinse it and then use your sanitizing solution and the sanitizing solution That I'm most familiar with or use myself is one part bleach to nine part part nine parts water and Then you let that soak or sit for at least a minimum of 10 minutes One more question. Do you use water from the tap for your water? Well, that depends If you are living in the city you may not want to use tap water to water your plants because of the chlorine And possibly salts that might be in there I also know I live in the country and I have my water tested each year because I do have a well and my water is high in salts and High salt levels will kill plants too. So Dehumidifier water if you have a dehumidifier is a great Source to water your your container plants If you have the ability to catch rainwater That's also a really good source and then I would for sure Have your water tested to see What the salt level is in it? Good question Can the growing season be started earlier? If the soil heats up quicker move to a warmer place You might be able to start the growing season quicker as long as you have adequate light I Do start some plants in the house with grow lights, but you do want to time it So that you can move them outside about the time when you're going to expect your Last frost of the season is over I Have seen people that will buy greenhouse grown plants or or start their own and move them in and out of garages So that could work too Any other questions? Or if I've missed any Any other questions for Yolanda? This is Todd I don't have a question. I'm just going to add I've had a lot of success with growing Eggplant in containers even better yields than in the garden and I attribute it to the the container being warmer than the soil Something if you want to try just put one in the garden and put one on a container or a few and then Compare I think you'll see a noticeable difference, but but that's kind of the exception it seems Thank you for sharing that Todd I agree 100% eggplants and peppers tend to do better in containers and like Todd said, it's most likely from the heat So raise your hand if you are ready for gardening season. Can you find your little yes button? I'm really enthusiastic even though there is a snow plow right under my window right now I See as you're raising your hands, I see one more question in the chat box How does galvanized containers affect growth? I Would suspect that they will probably heat up faster so Depending on the on the plant and and where they're located If they're on a concrete pad, which might heat up more in a sunny location We might see the soil warming up too much. So that might be Something to keep an eye on That does remind me. I don't remember if I talked about during watering If we've got containers that are near a brick wall Or on a concrete patio Especially in the high heat of the day those containers will tend to heat up more and then also dry out more quickly So they might need more Frequent watering good questions. Thank you I'm not sure if I was successful in sharing my screen. Do you see the field of fork website? I do All right, everyone. This is what's on our website right now in case you haven't looked recently you can see this is what the archive webinars look like and You'll want to mention the handouts that we've put up So there's a gardening or growing flowers for containers that we put up the art and science of container gardening So certainly come back to our website. We continue to put more things up for you Any other questions as we wrap up today's session? Here's a comment from Annie and Burley We've used the self watering system which uses plastic tubs to have great success growing peppers. Thanks to Dave Francis Yes, that is he has shared that several times during spring fever And I believe during master gardener sessions and that has always been a hit I have not made one myself, but that is on my to-do list for this summer. So thank you, Annie Okay, so I'm not seeing any more questions I'll give you one more chance for questions, and I'm sure Yolanda would accept questions directly to her as well by email You want to type your email address in the in the box Yolanda? Oh Yes, there we go So if you have other questions, and then there's also Todd Wyman has been on today, and he's our Cass County horticulture agent I'm sure he would accept questions as well, and you can start preparing for his square foot gardening and raised beds Start thanking us some really hard questions for Todd on April 25th. I think we'll end today's session This is Julie garden Robinson. Please join me. I'll be your presenter next week, and we'll talk about the health benefits of gardening So thank you to everybody and have a good rest of your week Thank you, Julie