June 10

Creating the self-watering garden container, AKA Earthbox:

With a self-watering garden container you won’t have to water the plants as much. Just fill the reservoir with water and it will be wicked up through soil-filled pond filter to your plants’ roots. In theory, it should maintain the optimum moisture in the soil, save water, and make container gardening (indoors and out) really low-maintenance. I’ve also included some tips on how many plants you can grow in the same pot depending on their type! Enjoy

Which Crop to Grow

Most veg that grows in a backyard will do well as a container plants.  Carrots, Cucumber, Green beans, Lettuce, Parsley, Pepper, Radishes, Spinach & tomatoes are amongst the most popular

Fertilization

Conatiner plants need to be fertilized more then field-grown plants because they have less soil to provide the nutrients they need. A soluble fertilizer applied once a week is recommended while watering. I suggest using a 15-30-15 oe 20-20-20

Growing Tomatos

  1. Dont crowd the seedling, give them room to branch out.
  2. Provide lots of light. luckly for me I live in Malta, if you live in a location that lacks light you may consider having growing lights running at 14-18 hours at a time.
  3. put a fan on you seedlings, I thought that this whould not work but it did. To develop strong stems you’ll need to train them, provide a breeze for a couple of minutes a day
  4. Preheat the soil, more heat means that you’ll harvest sooner
  5. Once at 3 inch high. remove bottom leavs, so the plant will grow faster
  6. romove the suckers that develop at the joint of the plant – they just take the energy away
  7. Water them regularly when plants are developing. Also, feed the tomatos a lot more once they are blossoming

Pot Size

Top Diameter Inches Approx soil content
3 1 cup
4 2.5 cups
5 1 quart
6 2.5 quarts
7 3 quarts
8 1 gallon
9 1.5 gallons
10 2.25 gallons
12 3.5 gallons
1 6 gallons

Container Size for vegetables

Crop Min Size (gallons) Number of plants
beets 2 Thinnedto2-3inches apart
cabbage 1 1
cucumber 1 2
green beans 1 1
leaf lettuce 1 2-3
parsley half 4-6
pepper 2 1
radishes 2 2
spinach 1 Thinned to1-2 inches apart
tomatoes thinned to 3 inches apart
- cheery 1 1
- standard 3 1