 Okay, let's get started and talk about container gardening. You know, with the use of containers, anybody, whether they have a backyard garden or not, can grow fresh produce all summer long. And here to share her expertise in this topic is Kala Edwards. Kala grew up in the nursery and greenhouse business and this instilled in her a love of gardening and later a degree in horticulture business at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Kala serves as the extension agent in agriculture and natural resources for McLean County. Kala, welcome to the forums. All right, Tom, thank you for asking me to talk at the Spring Fever Garden Forums. I hope that we have a educational talk tonight and I'm looking forward to talking about container gardening. You know, one thing when I talk about gardening, the couple limitations that I hear from people are, hey, they don't have a space either. They don't have a location because there's too many trees in the area. They don't have enough, they have a small yard so they just don't have a place to do a garden. Sometimes I hear from people they have really poor soil or they've had disease issues in soil and so they don't want to plant a garden. The other topic I hear is people say that they can't garden. I know my grandma, she's almost 90 years old, she's always had a garden. She loves growing vegetables but with both of her knees replaced she can't bend down and take care of pulling weeds. She can't take care of a garden like she'd like to. And so simply she has some physical limitations that keep her from being able to garden. And so this container gardening, gardening in small spaces, offers a lot of opportunity for people who don't have a place to garden because of their yard. Maybe you live in an apartment or maybe physically you just don't have that ability to garden anymore like you used to or like you want to. So the first thing that I think about when I think about container gardening is the container itself. Containers can really be anything but the specifications on size are important. For most of our vegetables you're going to need a container that's a minimum of 6 to 8 inches deep. 6 to 8 inches works really well for our leafy vegetables. So spinach, lettuce, kale, things like that grow well in a shallower container. But when you're talking about things like corn, spinach, corn squash, tomatoes or peppers, you're going to need a bigger container. So for a majority of our larger plants you're going to need a minimum of 2 gallons. When you get above your leafy vegetables, when you get to things like a cherry tomato, if you're looking at a patio cherry tomato they need about a 2 gallon size pot. And if you're looking at your standard size tomato or your standard size pepper, you're looking at something that's roughly 4 to 5 gallons at the minimum size. Now those are the minimums, a bigger container is always better than a small container. Like we see, you can see in this picture we have a variety of different types of containers. So your containers can be really anything that you want ultimately. It's size is going to be your limitation. Now when we think about those sizes, unless you go to say a nursery and you buy a 5 gallon pot, what exactly is the size you need? We're looking at your standard pot. If you want a minimum of 1 gallon, your pot needs to be at least 8 inches in diameter across the top. So for your smaller crops you need at least an 8 inch pot and then your depth. If you're looking at a 2 gallon pot or a 5 gallon pot, for 2 gallons your pot needs to be at least 10 inches across the top. For a 5 gallon container, it should be at least 14 inches across. Now those are guesstimates. If you have a shallow pot, you'll need wider. If you have a deeper pot, that will work and you can be a little narrower. Now one of the key things with our containers is they must have drainage holes. We don't like our feet wet, our vegetables or herbs or fruits don't like their feet wet either. So when we're talking about pots, we need to have drainage holes. Now in my top picture, you can see a couple of the pots have saucers underneath of them. And that is perfectly fine. But if we have a heavy rainstorm, just like any container you have outside, make sure you go out and dump that excess water out of those saucers so that your plants aren't drowning in water. But as we look in these pictures, you have some traditional containers in our top picture. When we look at the bottom, these people went with things that they had around their house. You can see some 5 gallon buckets. We have some old rubber made totes. Those all work well. So containers don't have to be something expensive or something that you have to go and buy. Now I really like the contrast in these two containers because on your left, you have someone who has taken a reusable grocery bag and they've put some holes in the bottom and they're growing lettuce out the top. That works great. It's kind of decorative. It makes your pot look cool and it's also reusing something that you already have. The people on the right have gone for a bigger container. They've bought some kiddie pools. You can see they've put holes in the bottom and it looks like they have some zucchini growing in these. They also have some tomatoes based on the steaks. They could also have cucumbers or pole beans, something like that. So your containers can really vary widely in what you're using. Now this next one, this is actually a container that I had made. Ironically, I loaned it to my dad for a talk on container gardening. Somehow, I never got it back. But in this particular container, I took an old Rubbermaid tote. As you can see, I cut the center out of the top. What you do is you put some supports in the bottom and you'll drill some holes in the top you cut out and you'll cut it down. You fill this up with soil. You have the white PVC pipe in the back. You can put water down that particular pipe. It goes into the reservoir below and it waters the soil and waters the plants from the bottom. This makes a very inexpensive self-watering pot. You can find the instructions for these fairly easily online. I've seen a wide variety of these options. But in the heat of the summer, these self-watering pots can cut down on the amount of water that you have to put on your plants. They can also cut down on the space they give you a really big container in order to plant your vegetables in. Now this particular container has lettuce planted in it in this picture. Once the lettuce crop was done, they then pulled the lettuce out and planted, I believe, a squash in it after the summer. So this size of pot you can do a variety of crops in. But self-watering containers work really well when you're in a hot climate, especially in our summer when we get into the 90s during the day. These can cut down on your watering and you don't have to give your plants as much care. Now I've seen these garden tower type of containers for a long time. A lot of people are very successful with them. This is a strawberry container. You can get them in a variety of sizes and these work really well if you are limited on space for your containers because you're growing vertically. Now this size obviously wouldn't work for a tomato. If you get one of the bigger versions of these, you can plant a tomato at the top along with different herbs, different leafy vegetables, and a variety of different things in the sides. So you can go as inexpensive or on this end, you can go as expensive as you want with your container gardens. Now as important as the container is, what is inside of the container is also extremely important. So we'll talk about our media. Now whatever media you use needs to be well drained. Like I mentioned, you have to have drainage in your pots. Your soils need to be able to drain as well so that our vegetables aren't staying too soggy. Especially early in the year when we have cooler temperatures, our plants are smaller, they're not growing as actively. Or if we have a really rainy spell, sometimes we get those really rainy weeks or months, so your soil needs to be well drained. Now, straight garden soil going out and digging some dirt out of your yard is a no-no. You're potentially bringing in diseases, you're potentially bringing in insects, weed seeds. If you had applied any chemicals to that area last year, you're potentially bringing in those chemicals to your vegetables. I see a lot of times where people have sprayed a garden and they have some residual and next year their vegetables aren't growing because they have that residual. Not to mention those other problems, straight garden soil in a pot has a tendency to turn into a rock. Our plant roots don't like to grow in that type of environment, so our plants are really going to struggle. I really recommend a soilless mix. Something with peat moss per light, vermiculite, something like that that's going to have good drainage, it's going to have decent water holding capacity, and it's also not going to, it's going to be a good environment for our plants to grow in. Now, you can make soil mixes, and in container groups that I've done in the past, I've had really good luck with an equal mix of peat moss or potting soil mixed with pasteurized soil, and then you can add vermiculite per light, really coarse grit or sand to that mixture and that provides the nutrition, that provides the drainage you need. Now, pasteurized soil is important because then you're avoiding getting those contaminants from your diseases, your insects, your weed seeds, and though this is a good mix for you depending on what your containers are and what you're trying to grow. Now, for really big containers, composted manure is an excellent fertilizer to add into that mix. It's going to provide some extra nutrients, it's going to give your plant something to grow with and grow into. Make sure your composted manure is fully composted. If it's not, sometimes you can get, your manure can be too hot as we call it and can burn your plants. And again, make sure you don't have any herbicide residue left over in those particular manures. Light is another key. Now, my parents move to a new location and they have a lot of shade trees in their yard. So light is going to be a problem with them when they're trying to grow these gardens. So your roots and your leafy crops, your cool season type crops can tolerate part shade conditions. They're going to be okay just getting four hours of sun a day, maybe six hours of sun max and maybe just morning sun from, say when the sun comes up till noon, they will tolerate that and they'll grow and they'll be okay. If you're getting into a fruiting variety, say a tomato, corn, squash, even some of your herbs, require full sunlight in order to grow, to produce and to be successful. So for those vegetables, we consider full sunlight a minimum of six hours of light a day. They prefer eight to ten and it's better if the light is also in the afternoon and not just morning sunlight. So light is going to be a problem. Now, when you are looking at where to put your containers, before you get your potting soil put in them, before you get your plants planted, make sure and keep, pay attention to where your light is. Because if you put potting soil in one of those big totes, you get it watered, you get a plant in there, that sucker is going to be heavy and it's going to be hard to move from where you put it. So before you put your container down and get everything situated, pay attention to where your light is going to be. So for me, if I'm planting container, I know I can put my container gardens right in front of my garage. They're going to get a lot of sunlight, it's going to be bright direct light, so my fruiting varieties will be happy there. My leafy vegetables I need to put next to my house because they will get the amount of light that they need. Now our miscellaneous, in the garden, our vegetables do okay without fertilizer. There's plenty of nutrients in the soil for them to take up. They can grow well, they don't need a whole lot of supplementation. But in a pot, even in those big, huge containers, you are going to have to fertilize those vegetables. When I plant my vegetables in pots, I typically put a slow release fertilizer in, like an osmocote specifically for vegetables. And that gives them a slow release, a little bit of nutrients every time I water. Now I do go through every couple of weeks and use a water soluble fertilizer on top of the osmocote. When you get to that really active growing season, say July and August, when our tomatoes are really starting to take off and produce, there's plenty more fertilizer than that osmocote will. So I would also add some fertilizer every other week or so. Now when you're fertilizing, especially in my area, we have a lot of dissolved salts and dissolved solids in my water. So once a week, I am going to water my containers really heavily. I'm going to water them until the water flows freely through and starts running out the bottom. And that's going to leach that excess fertilizer and excess salts out of our soil. Watering, in the heat of the summer, you're going to need to water at least once a day, if not twice, depending on the size of your container. If you get those bigger self-watering containers, once a day or every other day is probably all you're going to need. But when we get into that warm summer weather, you're really going to have to pay attention to your plants, the soil, and adjust your watering schedule based on what your plants need. Now one thing you can do, you can use mulch on the top of your pot. It can be leaf kippings, can be clippings of grass clippings. If you haven't applied any herbicide to your yard, can be straw. You can apply all of those to the top of your potting soil, and that's going to provide a mulch. Then you're not going to lose as much of your mulch air throughout the day. Now the question I get when I talk about container gardening is what can I grow? And you can grow about any herb, vegetable, and some of your fruits in a container. Your limitation is going to be your location, and the size of container you can grow. Now when you're looking at some of these, some of these different vegetables, lettuce, peppers, eggplant, none of those get incredibly big. But when you look at your tomatoes, you want to look for a bush type tomato, something that's determinate, that's only going to grow to a certain height. I'll show you some of those varieties here in a minute. Beans, cucumbers, broccoli, potatoes, you can grow squash, you can grow pumpkins in your containers. There's just a wide variety. You can grow about any vegetable in a container that you could grow on the ground. So these are a couple, these are some recommendations. I got these from Texas A&M. They recommend that broccoli be in a minimum of a two gallon pot. There are some different varieties listed for each one. Your carrots, your typical thumb is your pot needs to be at least two inches deeper than the carrot. So make a shorter size carrot and make sure your pot is deep enough to meet that. Green onions, any green onion, green beans, there's a variety, two gallons minimum. Or our lettuce, your tomatoes, all of these are very good varieties. Now, I will say this, keep an eye out for new varieties. Tomatoes, there's always new tomato varieties coming out that are designed, grown specifically to be in containers. This particular variety on this slide is one called Atlas. It's a variety that I've grown in my garden and it would do well in a container. Now this is a big container in part because this is a heavy plant. Those are very big tomatoes. So as much as it needs the root space, it also needs that weight on the pot to keep it from blowing over. So this is Atlas. I grew a pepper the last couple of years called confetti that would be beautiful on a pot. It's a variegated tomato, or it's a variegated pepper, I apologize. It produces two to four ounce fruits that are a variety of different colors. So it would be a great ornamental looking plant to have on a patio that also happens to be producing fruits and vegetables for you. Those are a variety. This year I'm going to trial a new pumpkin variety called Candy Corn. The bushes are only supposed to be 24 inches by 24 inches and they produce up to 12 different pumpkins. So there are a variety of different options of cultivars out there that you can use to grow in containers. Every year new ones come out. So there's a ton of options for you. All you have to do is do some digging, especially with your tomatoes, your cucumbers, your squash and potatoes. Look for a bush or a type variety. But otherwise have fun growing. Try different varieties. You can even grow corn in containers on your patio. And with that, if there are any questions, I am willing to answer some at this time. Okay, thank you, Kayla. Does anybody have any questions out there for her? Just put them right in the chat box. There's that purple tab on the lower right-hand corner. Click on that. And then we'll open up that box and then just type in your question. We did get someone who wanted to know what was the name of that pepper. And that was... Great. So our chat box is working. How about, Kayla, the principles that you talked about in containers, so they hold well pretty good for raised bed gardens? Yes, they do. Raised bed gardens, you might not need to fertilize quite as much, just because you have a larger soil area. But most of those principles do apply very well to your raised bed gardens. How about the way you use the soil year after year? Can you use the same soil every year, or do you have to recharge it with new soil in the pot? For me, that would be determined by a couple factors. If the plant had some disease or insect issues last year, I would definitely replace the soil and not reuse it, just because the disease could stay in the soil and you may have an issue the next year. I would be okay with reusing it for maybe one more year, but it would depend also on how much root mass is in that pot. If it's really dense, you probably need to replace it and not reuse it next year. Okay, how about, do you have a recommendation for vegetables that can tolerate some shade? Lettuce. Lettuce varieties would do well in shade. Your leaf crops, carrot, spinach, to an extent, beets, and radishes will do okay in partial shade. They do need at least four hours of sunlight a day. Would be my recommendation. Those root and leafy vegetables that you talked about. Good. Have you ever tried growing blueberries in a container? I have not. Well, I personally have not. I do know people that have. You are going to have to watch the acidity level of that soil because the water in North Dakota will naturally raise your pH level. So I would recommend using a, when you fertilize them, use a fertilizer that's going to be acidic in nature so that that soil stays to the pH that blueberries really need. It may be like a little bit heavier in peat moss and add some sulfur, perhaps. Kind of mantra at pH, right? And then I don't know how you overwinter that. It's kind of like a Mission Impossible episode, what I would say someday is having successful blueberries in North Dakota. Yeah. I've had success overwintering pots by burying them in the ground and covering them with mulch and leaf letter. That would be my recommendation to try and overwinter them. Or if you have a garage that stays, you know, between 25 and 30 degrees in the winter, if you can keep that temperature, they would overwinter okay in that type of condition. Okay. Kayla, is there a difference between potting mix and potting soil? It depends on what you're looking at. I have seen some things called potting soil that are a pasteurized garden dirt. Typically I think of potting. For me, a potting mix usually is your peat moss, your vermiculite, your perlite. But people also call that potting soil. I would read your label and read a bag and make sure you are getting a peat product and not a pasteurized soil product. I know our local garden center or local hardware store has sold some potting soil that's actually dirt, pasteurized soil. How about when you use a large container like a metal water or feed tub, do you need to amend those soils every year? Depends on what you had growing in them. I go back to my previous answer. If you had a disease issue, I wouldn't reuse the soil. I would say you could probably take part of your soil out and not replace the whole thing every year if you didn't have a disease issue. But if that's the case, I would definitely not plant, say you planted tomatoes in it last year. I wouldn't plant a tomato or a potato back in that container until I replace the soil. You just want to keep your disease issues at bay as much as possible. Okay. This gardener tried a tote self-watering planter last year, but the peppers and squash did not do well. They did not fertilize the plants. Could that have been the problem? I would guess that was the problem. Although I will say I know people who had issues with peppers and squash in container gardens last year where they just didn't do very well. But I would definitely fertilize because those plants are using a lot of nutrients and there's not a lot in that container. How could you tell if the plants hungry for fertilizer? A good way to do it is to look at the leaves. If the leaves are a paler green, if you're starting to see where the veins are a darker green and the rest of the leaf is lighter, those are all signs that you have a nutrient deficiency. And that's one way to look at it. Now I would rather not let my plants get to that point. So I prefer to fertilize on a regular schedule unless I start to see those signs. Kala, have you ever heard of a variety of corn that works well in containers? Yes, there is a patio corn that works well in containers. Actually my administrative assistant grew it in her patio a couple of years ago. It did produce ears. She said it wasn't as fruitful as she had hoped, but she also didn't have a good location light-wise for it to grow. It wasn't getting enough light. But there is a patio corn variety that you can grow. Did Burpee had a variety to come out a couple of years with? Yes, Burpee did. Called on-deck sweet corn. But maybe you can talk about what's be practical. I could see growing corn as an ornamental as an element to a garden. But when it doesn't make sense to go to the farmer's market and buy a... I mean, how much corn are you really going to get out of a container? I don't know. It really depends. I see both sides of it. So if you just want a few years of corn, go for it. Yeah, just the experience. Yes. It's fun to watch. Listen to the corn crack late night as it grows. Yes. In the summer heat. How about, can you put a cage in a container for trailing plants like Cukes and Squash to get them to grow vertical? Yes, you definitely can. Most of your tomato cages, I would say, in the size of pot you would need for those vegetables. A typical tomato cage would fit in the container. You will have to watch and make sure your container doesn't get too top heavy. We live in North Dakota and there's always wind. So top heavy is a concern. Another option would be to, if you have a fence, you could put those vining crops next to the fence and let them grow up your fence if that's a possibility. As long as your light is put in the next location. Sounds good. How about, do you ever add earthworms to your pots? I have not. I don't know if that would be a good idea or how, what to, I don't know that it would be a bad idea either. I personally have not added earthworms to my containers though. We tend to use them for fishing. Makes sense to me. How about you have any special tips about growing strawberries in containers? You know, strawberries will do really well in containers. The issue in North Dakota will be making sure that they overwinter well. Typically growing up, we looked at the roots start to be damaged when you get below 25, gets close to that 20 degrees mark. So you just have, you can grow them containers. They will do well in containers. Overwintering is going to be a concern and you may have to replace them periodically just to replenish the plants as they get older. Okay, this person has a strategy. It must be for a very deep container and they're a frugal gardener who doesn't want to spend all that money on potting mix. Can you put something like a filler, like let's say plastic bottles at the bottom of the container to fill it up, to take space, to take volume in the container? Yes, you can. As long as your containers are going to stay deep enough that, you know, at least a minimum of that eight inches. If you have a really, really big container, you definitely can put stuff in the bottom. Just recognize depending on what you put in the bottom, it might settle. So your soil level might drop throughout the year. But yes, you can do that in a really big container. But you know, the thing I always think about is for most containers, Red Cal, the lack of soil is an issue. So you'd only do that in a huge container, right? Putting in like wax or plastic bottles or Styrofoam peanuts, I sometimes hear. Yes, only in a huge, huge container. How about this person has issues with the wind damaging their container plants? What can we do about that? The wind. So to help with the wind in North Dakota, you may want to look at it. Yeah, North Dakota wind. Good luck. Something that I have, when my parents had a nursery and garden center, something they would do to protect their nursery stock, to keep it from blowing over to protect it from the wind. What Kansas has wind to is they would put, they built a side on the prevailing wind, so the south side, and they used a shade cloth that still lets wind through, but it reduces the force that the wind has. So that might be an option. As long as your plants are still getting enough sunlight, some type of barrier on the prevailing wind side would help keep your plants from being damaged. And like a shade cloth, something that has holes in it, that would be a possibility for that. Yeah, it kind of reminds me of a burlap that we do to protect evergreens in the winter from wind. Yes. A burlap shield on the side. Okay, that's interesting. How about, do you have any tips on where's a good place to buy quality soil? To buy what kind of soil? Good stuff, quality. Okay, your best bet is probably going to be your local greenhouse. I have found that my highest quality soil is going to come from my local greenhouse. For my pots, I typically use like a pro mix or a burlap alone. Those are both products that I have had really good success with. I haven't had disease or insect issues. I've used Miracle Grow. I've used other potting soils in the past and they work as well. But the two I listed first, those are my personal favorites. Okay, sounds good. How about when you use a plastic pot or container, especially plastic totes, do you have to worry about chemicals leaching out of the container into the plants? Like toxic chemicals? I don't believe so. I haven't read anything that says that's a concern. I've read quite a bit of information and publications on container gardening from across the country. I would look at the type of material that your pot is made out of, but most of your plastic containers, your totes, they're going to be safe to use and you shouldn't have issues with toxic chemicals. Now if you're getting a tote safe that's been used for another purpose, I would worry about residual left in those particular containers, but like a plastic tote that you purchase that's used for storage or your typical plastic pots, I don't have any concerns with chemical leaching out of those particular products. How about last question here about, can you talk about bringing a container garden inside in the fall? Like maybe even indoors in the like in a sunny area, the sunny living room or atrium? You can. Size is going to be a concern. I don't know that I would be able to move one of those really big, big containers inside, but if you have a location with adequate light or you have the ability to supplement with say a grow light or alternative light sources, you can definitely grow vegetables inside here around. The light will be probably your limiting factor. So then focus on those leafy crops or the roots or some maybe leafy herbs for the winter. Yes. Let us both do very well inside. Okay. We have one last question. He was reluctant Daniel. He wants to grow sweet potato. Can you grow sweet potato to extend the season? Grow it in a container and then maybe. Yes. You can grow potatoes in a container. You'll have to look at your varieties and make sure you get the right variety. I think I had a sweet potato variety on my handout potentially. It doesn't look like I do. But yes, you can grow sweet potatoes. You'll just need that big container. Kind of like a squash or your other potatoes. Right. And have very low expectations. That's what I always say first. Actually the leaves are very nutritious. You can eat the leaves if all else fails. That's what we do in Asia. Okay. And the brands as well. You suggested that was a Pro-Mix instead. Pro-Mix and Fertilome products. Fertilome. The ones that I've had. They're my personal favorites. Okay. Sounds good. Okay. I think that covered all the questions. Outstanding Cala. I really appreciate it. And we're going to take a five minute break everybody. And then we'll talk about grafting vegetables. So we'll see you then.