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Any pot growers?

U

UltraZelda64

Some time during the last growing season I decided that just about every pepper plant I grow from then on will be in containers, and that's still the plan. This decision was a result of the much better overall health of my potted pepper plants vs. those in the garden, as well as several other advantages. But I've seen some of the giant plants other people have grown with tons of peppers, and I'm wondering if there's something I'm doing wrong... or if it's my northern climate and short growing season. Or even if some of those giant loaded plants I'm seeing are actually second-year (or older) specimens. I'm lucky if any of my plants even reach 2 feet tall for the most part, let alone higher, and few of them produce more than 20 peppers (mostly orange habs, tabascos, hot lemons, ornamentals, etc.). Notable exceptions that reached or broke 2' in height: Tabasco, both in a garden and pot (two different years); Trinidad Scorpion in the garden; and Aji Hot Lemon in a pot. Yeah, even the plants in my garden were kind of small and didn't produce much.

The main things I can think of that might affect this, aside from climate and growing season length, are:

-Fertilizer: I dilute it quite a bit out of paranoia over burning, stunting or killing the plants. If I remember right, I used around 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 teaspoons of Miracle-Gro Tomato Plant Food (18-18-21) and 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of magnesium sulfate per 1.25 gallons of water. Fed about once a week, but not starting until early July (and only potted plants). The waiting until July was, again, due to fear of over-fertilization, since I knew the potting mix I used had some slow-release granular fertilizer mixed in. The garden peppers got much less plant food, primarily in the form of slow-release granular fertilizer.
-Early-Forming Buds: Many of my plants I didn't bother to pinch the early buds off of, and some of them actually started setting fruit at a very small size. This was mostly a problem with the garden plants, because there's no way I was going to get down to the ground to pinch tiny buds on tiny plants that are hard to reach (or even see) as it is. Yes, this is another one of the reasons I decided to grow in pots this year: easier access, examination and pepper picking. :)
-Pot Size: The pots are around 9" in diameter at the top, around 9" high (but not completely full of potting soil), and slightly tapering toward the bottom.

So... the question is, for all the container growers out there...what size of container yields you the biggest plants with the best pepper production? And how do you go about fertilizing your plants? How much is too much and how much is too little? I plan on getting containers that are at least 12" in diameter for this year and around the same in height, or maybe 14" in diameter/height. Maybe this will help my problem of top-heavy plants blowing over--that would be a nice side effect of the larger pots (aside from the potentially less-frequent watering).
 
I am also in Ohio. Last year was my first time growing peppers, and had 3 annuums in pots. Didn't get a lot of pods, but admittedly, got plenty for me, since I'm pretty much the only one here who eats them. That aside, I thought we had pretty good growing weather last season - plenty of sun, and for a bit longer than normal. The prior year, though? It just plain sucked IMO. The summer didn't really get even warm for more than a few weeks, we had a lot of grey, overcast, rainy days, and the cold damp even ruined a lot of my perennials.

One thing I did decide was that while the pots I had the jalapenos in were sufficient, the variety of cayenne I was growing definitely needed a larger pot. The jalapenos only got to about 18" tall, but the cayenne got 2' tall. I'll have to double-check the pot size, but I'm thinking it was a 10" ceramic pot, maybe 12". Giving the roots more room to grow will both give you a larger plant plus more yield. Most of the posts I've seen on this site from more experienced growers indicate they use 5-gallon pots for even their largest plants, so that seems like it would be a good plan for you.
 
I'll be trying my best not to grow in pots next year.
I do like having the option of moving them out of the temperature extremes but everything I have in the ground is doing strides better than the plants I have in pots.
25-30cm pots should be fine, however let the plant guide you on the size of the pot. If it's a big plant pot it up. I'm using 25cm pots(9.8") for all of mine and they do not seem to be too small, but I'm less than impressed with the growth I've got in pots.
 
geeme: I agree, the weather last year was damn nice here overall for pepper growing. The previous year, I admit, my main pepper garden was mostly shaded (the sunflowers I grew were in the sunnier part of the yard). So sun or clouds, it didn't really matter much. LOL. But the little guys still grew quite decently and produced a decent number of peppers. Not a ton, but a decent amount. I noticed last year that my garden-grown jalapeno varieties (my only C. annuum plants aside from Yummy Orange, which was in a pot but grew and produced similarly to the jalapenos) tended to produce fewer peppers than most other plants as well. I've also noticed the same when it comes to people recommending 5-gallon pots. The problem is... what exactly *is* a five-gallon bucket/pot?

No joke--read this thread: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg071634112151.html

And worse, most pots I see at stores are measured in inches (whether it's height or diameter at the top, I don't know for sure), not gallons or some other measure of volume.

The reason I started small to begin with is... well, potting mix is not cheap. I'd still like to minimize my soil mix requirements, which is why I'm thinking 12" pots for this year, with the possibility of 14". Not to mention bigger pots take up more space, and that's something I don't have an unlimited supply of.
 
Pretty much my standard size for any staying in pots for the season and overwintering is 5 gallon. There are excepions such as the dwarf types (2 ft) and those can go a long time in a 1 gallon till they get root bound. I got to say my best and most produce comes from the raised gardens but I use compost and shit in there giving it a better advantage over the pots which usually only get chem ferts. A 14 inch pot would give something like a white habanero a great home. Overwinter that same plant and you'll probally need a bigger pot in the spring. Overwintering plants gives you a jump start in zones where the seasons is short. And probally alot of those huge pepper plants you see are either overwintered or in a long growing zone.
 
robbyjoe01 said:
I got to say my best and most produce comes from the raised gardens but I use compost and shit in there giving it a better advantage over the pots which usually only get chem ferts.
Click to expand...

Robby, I just have to take a moment to express my appreciation. I've never once read any of your posts which use the word 'manure' in place of 'shit,' and it always makes me smile. No idea why. Maybe I'm a little juvenile.

Edit: 3/4 of the top search results for the word 'shit' are your posts. Keep on truckin', man. :D
 
Nick said:
Robby, I just have to take a moment to express my appreciation. I've never once read any of your posts which use the word 'manure' in place of 'shit,' and it always makes me smile. No idea why. Maybe I'm a little juvenile.
Click to expand...
LOL. That was a good laugh. :P
But really... it *is* shit, so that word is as appropriate as it gets. LMFAO. :rofl:
In other words... I honestly can't argue over his choice of vocabulary. It's pretty much correct and right to the point as far as I can tell.
 
For me, faster growing, bigger plants get potted up quicker and are the first to need bigger pots. Plants won't just grow bigger because they are in a bigger pot, they have to need/want the extra space. I like to pot up incrementally as needed, when plants start to get root-bound, and I like to use a lot of compost and aged manure as nutrients. Most of my final containers are 6 or 10 gallon, although I also use a few half barrels(20+ gallons) for my biggies.
For me chiles always grow much better in pots where I have more control over most variables and can relocate plants when poor weather develops. The containers also warm up much quicker than the ground which I see as an advantage, but in warmer climates it might be seen as a disadvantage
 
I grow in the ground, but this year I might very well have to put some in buckets. I have already started gathering 5gal buckets from a restaurant. I know not to give them "wet feet" and that you need "good drainage". What kind of hole setup should I use, size, amount, how far up the bucket???

Potawie, hat last part about heating up is what worries me. Texas weather is so sudden to change. I worry about a sudden rise or fall in temp during the spring shocking the plants. I don't have the pleasure of being home all day with my babies like AJ.....
 
Last year I did a little experimenting. I put Bhut's, Fatalli's, Cayennes, Jalapeno's in both pots and in the ground. They were also in the same location in the yard, had the same amount of sun on each plant.
The bhut's did good in both, though the one in the pot got bigger, the one in the ground produced pods longer . They both gave me about the same amount of pods though.
The cayennes did better in the ground. The potted got taller, but the one in the ground produced a lot more peppers, all the way into November.
The fatalli's in the pot had a ton of peppers, got huge and produced late in the year. I should have started them earlier. The one in the ground wasn't as big and didn't produce near as many peppers.
The jalapeno did about the same in both.
 
woody3says said:
I grow in the ground, but this year I might very well have to put some in buckets. I have already started gathering 5gal buckets from a restaurant. I know not to give them "wet feet" and that you need "good drainage". What kind of hole setup should I use, size, amount, how far up the bucket???

Potawie, hat last part about heating up is what worries me. Texas weather is so sudden to change. I worry about a sudden rise or fall in temp during the spring shocking the plants. I don't have the pleasure of being home all day with my babies like AJ.....
Click to expand...
I think it may help you to keep pots/plants close together so they shade each other. On the other hand, I like to space my pots out so full sun hits the whole plant and pot
 
If you are looking to compare pots to gardens you really need to fill your pots with the same soil you are planting into the ground. I roughly did this and most of my container chillies from my first year grew ok for a while and then faltered. In contrast the raised bed was mulched and they seemed to grow slightly better but still not great. I know that the pots were drying out quicker but I used really compact soil, and it was this which limited their growth before the pot size became an issue.

My main point is- use the right soil. and get the right environmental conditions, such as sun/shade, watering schedule, wind, heat, ferts. If all those are good then the containers will do as well as ground and raised beds. Think about the crazy container situation in hydroponic set ups. Everything else is optimised and the plants are happy to grow in a basket of rocks dangling in a puddle. I believe that containers are only important in how they impact the other factors.

Getting all that other stuff right is easier said than done. I certainly didn't get it right for my first season.
 
UltraZelda64 said:
geeme: I agree, the weather last year was damn nice here overall for pepper growing. The previous year, I admit, my main pepper garden was mostly shaded (the sunflowers I grew were in the sunnier part of the yard). So sun or clouds, it didn't really matter much. LOL. But the little guys still grew quite decently and produced a decent number of peppers. Not a ton, but a decent amount. I noticed last year that my garden-grown jalapeno varieties (my only C. annuum plants aside from Yummy Orange, which was in a pot but grew and produced similarly to the jalapenos) tended to produce fewer peppers than most other plants as well. I've also noticed the same when it comes to people recommending 5-gallon pots. The problem is... what exactly *is* a five-gallon bucket/pot?

No joke--read this thread: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg071634112151.html

And worse, most pots I see at stores are measured in inches (whether it's height or diameter at the top, I don't know for sure), not gallons or some other measure of volume.

The reason I started small to begin with is... well, potting mix is not cheap. I'd still like to minimize my soil mix requirements, which is why I'm thinking 12" pots for this year, with the possibility of 14". Not to mention bigger pots take up more space, and that's something I don't have an unlimited supply of.
Click to expand...

just for a reference...
http://www.ehow.com/how_5991406_calculate-gallons-round-tank.html
 
My plan..at least for now, is to try and pot up 1 of each variety and the rest go in the garden. this will allow me to isolate one of each and also compare/contrast which do better in pots and which do better in the garden. I am also hoping to overwinter a few of them although I have never done this so I will have a lot of growing pains I'm sure.
 
Greetings UltraZelda64,
Last year I decided to experiment with growing my peppers in containers(a total of 20).
I used both 5 and 3.5 gallon buckets along with 2 sizes of plastic flower pots,4 that were approximately 3 gallon and 2 other 6 gallon pots.

DSCF0099.jpg

I grew poblano,
DSCF0117.jpg

cayenne,
DSCF0116.jpg

red peter pepper,
DSCF0111.jpg

hot banana,
DSCF0114.jpg

chiltepin
DSCF0113.jpg


Observations:
I was very happy with the volume of my harvest, and consider the "trial run" a success.
The yield for each variety exceeded my expectations,and the plants remained healthier and producing throughout the entire season well beyond what I have realized in previous (non-container)years.
I attributed this result to more uniform watering and the lack of any weeds or pests.
However, I did observe a significant difference in the size of the poblano's (which I also think might have been crossed with a bell pepper).And the poblano grown in the 3.5 gal. container had fruit that was clearly smaller than the ones grown in the 6 gal. pot.
I had similar results with the banana peppers grown in the two different sized pots.
On the other hand, I saw little if any evidence of this in the other(less fleshy) varieties I grew,leading me to conclude that they might be less affected by the pot size.
Additionally,I examined the roots when I emptied the dirt out of the containers.
And while the roots had begun to "circle" inside the container,(more so in the 3.5 gal size) there was still plenty of room for root growth and it was not in what I would consider a highly restricted root bound state.

As a result of my observations,I've been collecting food grade containers/buckets since the end of the 2010 growing season,will be expanding my pepper garden to 50+ containers this year, and adding around 20 varieties.
I'm also incorporating self-watering/sub-irrigation in many of them this year, partly for the convenience, and also to try and determine other possible benefit's of the approach.
 
I've never grown in anything but pots. Since being a member of THP I've learned that the size of pot I tend to use is pretty small compared to most, but it hasn't stopped me from having bountiful harvests. I use bricks to weigh the pot down when they get overloaded with fruit cause wind does become an issue. My take is so long as your roots are healthy you'll get good results. Potting up helps with encouraging a healthy root system. Having a decent grow season helps alot too Im sure.
 
mmcdermott1 said:
Chili Monsta..very nice. What is that netting in the bottom pic and where did you get it?
Click to expand...

It's that netting stuff they use to make wedding veils. Its pretty affordable,I got mine at a local fabric shop.
Without the veil...the birds(Jay birds especially) pretty much eat all the ripening pods before I can get to them.
 
Capitone said:
I use bricks to weigh the pot down when they get overloaded with fruit cause wind does become an issue. My take is so long as your roots are healthy you'll get good results.
Click to expand...

Good point Capitone....we had a big storm late last season....and the wind dumped most of my plants.
The only thing that saved them is that I had most of them caged and staked, so not too much plant damage occurred.
I have since "acquired" several half sized concrete blocks to tie the buckets down this year.
 
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