These are some notes that I made for myself when I first started my container garden on my balcony in the Midwest….
Material on this page is summarized from
The Bountiful Container by McGee & Stuckey
unless otherwise noted.
CUCUMBERS
Interesting Facts:
- There are bush and vine varieties of cucumber plants
- Training cucumbers on a trellis can mean straighter fruit
Advice on Planting and Growing:
Care
- Make sure that cucumber soil never dries out especially when plant begins producing fruit (or else bitter, hollow fruit will result)
- Fertilize once per week especially when plant is producing fruit
- Harvest cucumbers while they are smaller and tender. Plant will stop producing fruit if any one cucumber grows long enough to produce viable seeds. The goal of the plant is to reproduce, and if these seeds are made, the plant will stop making more fruit since it has achieved its goal of propagation.
- Cucumber plants produce male and female flowers; female flowers have a bulge between the base of the flower and the stem. Only female flowers directly result in fruit.
Common Diseases and Problems
- If cucumbers develop lopsidedly, it might be necessary to hand-pollinate. Use a soft paintbrush to gather pollen from a male flower and brush it into a female flower and so on. [Update: hand-pollination may also be necessary if the tiny baby cucumbers behind the female flowers shrivel and die before maturing. I have written a separate post about hand-pollinating cucumbers, complete with photos.]
- Cucumbers can get many different kinds of diseases, but most of them are soil-borne and therefore are largely avoided when using sterilized potting soil in containers
- Powdery mildew: occurs when weather is hot and humid. Patches of mildew appear on leaves. Treat by cutting off the most severely affected leaves, then spraying the rest of the plant with 1 tsp baking soda dissolved into 1 qt water. Repeat sprayings may be necessary to ensure the mildew does not spread.
TOMATOES
Interesting Facts:
- tomatoes belong to the nightshade family
- also in the nightshade family are potatoes, peppers, and eggplant
Types of Tomato Plants:
Determinate
- grow to a specific height and then stop growing.
- flowers and fruit grow at stem tips
- yield fruit in a certain span of time
Indeterminate
- tip ends continue to produce more stem and leaves rather than flowers
- flowers grow on short stems along branches
- fruit begins ripening starting near bottom of plant
- fruit yield is not confined to a certain span of time
- Note: the variety we’re growing this summer, Early Girl, is an indeterminate type
Advice on Planting and Growing:
Container
- tomatoes need a large amount of soil because they are heavy feeders with large root system
- size: at least 5-gallons for a large-tomato producing indeterminate plant
- deep planting encourages a large root system
- tomatoes, especially indeterminate types, need support, since they are a vining plant
- insert the support trellis or cage when the plant is first planted in the pot
Care
- tomatoes need a lot of water
- heavy watering washes away nutrients in soil; fertilize every two weeks
- prune indeterminate tomato plants
- suckers form at the connection between stem and branch or leaf
- pinch off suckers to prevent bushy foliage and few fruits
- pinch off growing tips from tops of plants when they reach the top of the support
- it may be necessary to tie main stems to supports to keep stems upright; use strips of old t-shirt or pantyhose to protect stems
- fruit on indeterminate vines begin to ripen from the bottom of the plant
- allow fruit to remain on the vine until completely ripe for full flavor
Common Diseases and Problems
- Blossom-end rot: flower end of the fruit turns dark and sunken. Prevent by consistent watering so that the soil does not dry out completely between waterings. Adding agricultural lime or crushed eggshells to the bottom of the planting hole for added calcium might help.
- Cracking: fruit splits. Prevent by consistent watering.
- Cutworms: brownish, caterpillar like worms eat around stem of plant at the base.
- Tomato hornworms: striped green body with sharp horn; eats holes in fruit.
PEPPERS
Interesting Facts:
- red peppers are not a separate variety, just green peppers left to mature naturally on the plant
- peppers belong to the nightshade family
- also in the nightshade family are potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and tobacco
- sweet peppers and hot peppers are the same species
Advice on Planting and Growing:
Care
- peppers like to be kept warm, but it is possible for peppers to get too warm.
- when temperatures are in the 90s, move plants that have fruit into shade
- Harvest by cutting fruit, leaving some stem, with scissors or clippers. “Early in the season, harvest green peppers when they reach a good size…The more you pick from the plants, the more production you will get. Then, later in the summer, let the peppers stay on the plant until they are fully ripe–that is, until they reach their mature color…”
- Nutrients for peppers
- phosphorus: add superphosphate, bonemeal, or bulb food to soil at planting time
- calcium: add dried crushed eggshellls to the bottom of the planting hole (prevents blossom end rot)
- magnesium: add Epsom salts to water and spray on plants when blossoms appear (promotes production of fruits from flowers)
- sulfur: add a matchbook stripped of its cover in the bottom of the planting hole, cover with ~1 inch more soil, then add plant. also found in Epsom salts (promotes plant protein, enriches nutritional content of fruit)
- Note: do not give plants extra nitrogen, which encourages foliage prodduction without fruit production.
Common Diseases and Problems
- Tomato or Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV): some varieties are bred to be TMV resistant; don’t let smokers handle plants
- Aphids: suck the juices out of plants. Spray hard with hose or rub them off with (gloved) hand; if this doesn’t work, use insecticidal soap. If infestation does not cease, remove and dispose of plant to prevent contamination of other plants.
- Flea beetles: tiny, black, jumping beetles that eat holes in leaves of plants. Raising containers several feet from the ground can prevent these beetles from leaping onto plants.
HERBS
Basil
- Basil is a Mediterranean plant and therefore likes hot temperatures. It is also good to let the soil go partially dry between waterings. Don’t over-water!
- Fertilize when first planted, then once in mid-summer with high-nitrogen plant food.
- Take plants inside (or cover) if temperature will drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Regular harvesting encourages new plant growth.
- Pinch off growing tips as branches develop to encourage new branches to grow, but this may encourage flowering rather than new foliage if there is too much pinching. Basil flowers are also edible but not as flavorful.
- To make plants continue producing leaves without flowering: “As soon as you see flower buds forming, cut the main stem all the way back to the point where just four leaves are left. Then give the plant a light dose of fish fertilizer, and it will quickly grow new leaves.”
Chives
- Smallest member of the onion (and garlic) family
- Edible part of chives are the grassy tops to the bulbs. Bulbs are left to grow and multiply; chives are perennials.
- Fertilize once per month if harvesting regularly.
- To harvest, just cut off a few stems at a time near the base.
- Chive flowers are also edible.
Oregano
- Needs well-drained soil; do not over-water. Also ensure that pot does not stand in a saucer of water, which will result in root-rot.
- Harvesting encourages regrowth and increased bushiness.
- Oregano flowers are also edible, they make a good garnish
- has a similar flavor to marjoram
Parsley
- Member of the Umbelliferae plant family, which also includes carrots and Queen Anne’s lace
- is a biennial: it takes two years for the plant to go through its entire life cycle. However, only foliage in the first year is tasty in cooking.
- Grows in full sun to partial shade; do not over-water.
- Cut oldest leaves first, leaving more central, younger leaves to grow.
REFERENCE BOOKS
Here’s a list of books that I heavily reference for garden information.
by Rose Marie Nichols McGee & Maggie Stuckey
c. 2002, Workman Publishing Company, ISBN 0-7611-1623-0
by the Editors of Mother Earth News
c. 1989, Mother Earth News Partners/Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-671-65788-7
I was searching for information about tomato cages and this search led me to your blog. I have a question about using tomato cages with planters. I have a porch and last summer I used a couple of boxes for my tomato plants. I actually bought some of those wire cages that look like funnels but my plants grew too big for those to support. My plants eventually were HUGE and I had to rig some hideous (but hilarious) tepee looking things out of wooden stakes. Well this year I’d like to plan ahead and build or get something in place before the plants get out of control! I noticed in the picture I found of you with your planters that you were using the wire cages. How did those work out for you? Did you have to do anything additional when you’re plants started to grow? Do you have any suggestions for what I can use for support with plants in a container? Most of what I am finding are supports that go in the ground. Any suggestions would be great! Also, in the pic I found of you with your planters I noticed you were wearing and Illini shirt…GO ILLINI!!! I grew up in Champaign and I love it there!! Hope to get back there sometime!
Hi Cori,
The wire cages worked out for the most part for me. I had to tie the cages to the porch railings (using fishline so it wouldn’t be obvious) when the plants got bigger (and the winds started blowing them around during storms). Since I had indeterminate tomato plants, I did a lot of pruning to keep the plants to a size that was manageable. It was sad to chop off healthy-looking growth, but it had to be done.
Something else to consider is if your containers are on the ground (mine aren’t, obviously, because they’re on a 4th story balcony), you can use a stake through the center hole of the pot right through into the ground, which will give the stake some more stability.
I guess I don’t have any other suggestions, but hopefully what I’ve said has been helpful… You might check out the Bountiful Container for more ideas, or ask at a local nursery if they have some experts available.
And P.S. — yes, I’m currently at UIUC — my husband and I just recently finished our doctorates here!
Nice info. The salad garden is a huge trend this season!
http://theuncouturegardener.blogspot.com/2011/02/salad-garden-is-in.html
When I grew tomatoes in the ground, I got square cages that were stackable. I think I got them from Gardeners Supply Company (gardeners.com). This way, my tomatoes were able to grow twice as tall– it was like tomato TREES in the garden– but it made harvesting the fruit off the top part of the plants difficult, because they were taller than I was.
I think if you wanted container tomatoes that tall, you would have to have very large, heavy containers, and put a lot of rocks (gravel) in the bottom for stability. And that might be too haevy for a balcony. It might work if you have containers outdoors, though, on the ground (I use containers in the yard as well as on my porch, because there’s lead in the soil where I live).
Hi Jodi,
Thanks for your input on different kinds of tomato cages. The square cages sound really neat– I love the idea of tomato trees! Yum!
For container gardening, according to the books, etc. I’ve read, smaller varieties of tomatoes are recommended– and also determinate varieties, since the plant/vine size is more manageable (I was stubborn and liked the idea of indeterminate types!). All of the tomatoes I’ve grown have been on the small side (in terms of their fruit), and so the plants never got much too big for their cages. I’m sure if they’d been in bigger pots, they might have, but since I was using 14″ pots, they were a bit restricted.
This year, I’m putting my tomatoes in the ground for the first time. I just purchased 54″ tomato cages to contain them, since my garden plot is still pretty small. It will be interesting to see how they work out!
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I have the most beautiful full egg plant plants, many flowers and then in the morning the flowers are on the ground. I thought they were both male/female flowers, my planting is in a towergarden which is water.