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Are you container gardening?

Kevin B.

Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Vehicular limbo
Our soil sucks, so the past couple years we've been trying to do tomatos and squash and such in 5ga buckets. Not having much luck with it though, small fruits and small yeilds. I'm going to try some shade on the buckets this year, I think maybe the soil is overheating.

Any other container gardeners? Any success?
 
bryson

bryson

RME Resident Ninja
Supporting Member
Location
West Jordan
I haven't done any in the past, but my wife and I plan on doing some this year. I am planning on building raised beds with 2x8s and some plywood (possibly small enough to be portable, but probably not.) I'll likely have a couple 2'x4' or so beds.

Are you allowing for any drainage from your buckets? I wonder if your soil is staying too wet and causing issues that way?

This link has some useful/relevant information for this area: http://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/ I didn't do much searching on your particular issue, but I'm sure it is covered there somewhere... Lots of good info.
 
blznnp

blznnp

Well-Known Member
Location
Herriman
Are you just getting the soil in the bags from the store? We want to get some good soil an build a good size garden but I don't know who sells good garden soil. We had a good little garden at our house in WA an want another one.
 
Kevin B.

Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Vehicular limbo
blznnp said:
Are you just getting the soil in the bags from the store? We want to get some good soil an build a good size garden but I don't know who sells good garden soil. We had a good little garden at our house in WA an want another one.
Click to expand...

If you're doing a garden in the ground, I'd till it up good then take a sample to get analyzed and have them tell you what it needs. I'm using a mix of bagged compost, potting soil, and vermiculite in my containers.
 
MattL

MattL

Well-Known Member
Location
Erda
I too live in Magna. Its been years in the making but we finally have descent stuff. Every year at the end I put in 20-30 bags of leaves and every other year i have put in manure and rototill in the fall and spring before planting. Probably the most noticeable was when I had a load of composted soil mixture. Dont wait jump in and do it. Its a love hate thing but ill tel you what, there's nothing like garden fresh tomatoes for the toasted whole wheat, spinach, mayo, and pepper sandwich. We have had varying luck with produce. Tomatoes always do alright but its the other things that are unknowns.
Keep at it.

where are you getting your soil tested?
 
mesha

mesha

By endurance we conquer
Location
A.F.
We built some raised beds for our tomatoes and peppers last year. We bought our compost from the green waste facility. It s amazing soil and perfect for tomatoes. We had probably 64 million tomatoes and most went to waste. The soil was 20 bucks a yard and 15 a yard if you bought 5 or more. We bought 5. It is awesome soil.

I would recommend not having the top off the jeep while he dumps it in the trailer......that sucked.
 
Kevin B.

Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Vehicular limbo
mesha said:
We built some raised beds for our tomatoes and peppers last year. We bought our compost from the green waste facility. It s amazing soil and perfect for tomatoes. We had probably 64 million tomatoes and most went to waste. The soil was 20 bucks a yard and 15 a yard if you bought 5 or more. We bought 5. It is awesome soil.

I would recommend not having the top off the jeep while he dumps it in the trailer......that sucked.
Click to expand...

You used straight compost, Davy? No fertilizers or anything?

I've never had my own soil tested, Matt, I already know it sucks :). And I don't intend to be in this house long enough to build decent soil in the ground.
 
G

gary78bronco

Active Member
Location
elk ridge
Kevin B. said:
Our soil sucks, so the past couple years we've been trying to do tomatos and squash and such in 5ga buckets. Not having much luck with it though, small fruits and small yeilds. I'm going to try some shade on the buckets this year, I think maybe the soil is overheating.

Any other container gardeners? Any success?
Click to expand...

I don't think the root system is going to get big enough in a five gallon bucket to get all the water they need. Have you tried mulch or composting yourself for fertilizer? I always get some manure and till it in the garden and its good to go.
If you have real hard soil the root system can't spread out, try some utelite soil conditioner, it breaks up the clay and keeps it apart.

If anyone needs any manure I have steer or horse $10 a truck load.
 
blznnp

blznnp

Well-Known Member
Location
Herriman
Thanks for the info on places to get the soil from. I might just get the soil tested Kevin, but like you, I know this stuff is garbage. I was planning on taking some of it out and then making it fairly deep. Ours in WA was made out of 2x8's and then underneath it was about 10" of topsoil that we brought in, our ground was very rocky there as well. gary78bronco, is that utelite soil conditioner something you need to keep applying annually? My wife has heard that you can grow watermelon out here, have any of you tried this or know of any different?
 
mesha

mesha

By endurance we conquer
Location
A.F.
Kevin B. said:
You used straight compost, Davy? No fertilizers or anything?

I've never had my own soil tested, Matt, I already know it sucks :). And I don't intend to be in this house long enough to build decent soil in the ground.
Click to expand...
Straight compost from tw same place Spork is talking about. The stuff rocks. I have some extra if you want to try a bucket and see if you like it. It will do the trick. It needs nothing else.

P.s. I am a nerd so I can test your soil.
 
Herzog

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wyoming
For you guys doing some home gardening, we have an abundance of spinach, cucumber and tomato plants that are already sprouted & healthy but we are not going to have enough room for all of them. If anybody wants to pick some up, post up or PM me. :cool:
 
Amy

Amy

Limited Supply Of Sanity
Location
!
Herzog and I also have collard greens, watermelon(they are small watermelons), a few pumpkins, and some basil that need homes. They are all non GMO seeds we got from the local farmers market store too. :)

In a few weeks I will have red and yellow bell pepper starters, Anaheim chilies and Jalepeno starters.
I had to trash about 30 tomato starters yesterday and I felt like a mass murder. Lol
 
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