I am undertaking an ambitious quest this year to grow a large variety of plants in containers. I made my first basement style grow area complete with LED lights and things are going well. I have grown peppers in the past and always use pots. I live in northern canada so a typical garden would have too short of a season. To try to keep cost down i have been searching eBay for deals on pots. I figure somewhere between 30-50 will be good but i am hung up on size. They all go by nursery trade size so i am thinking the 3 gallon will be sufficient but dont want the surprise of taking delivery of a pots that will be too small. I will have jalapeno, habanero, reapers and trinidad scorpions as well as several other varieties. What size pots would you guys recommend? Also, any Albertans with a good line on where to pick up a quantity of them for cheap would be appreciated as well. Thanks in advance
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container Container growing
- Thread starter reaper creeper
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The plastic grow bags suck...they only make one season...(barely). Maybe that's enough for some but I'll never use em again.
I've used the WallyWorld bags too. Good, but you end up having a hard time watering thoroughly due to water running off when your soil compacts. (Water runs off and out through bag before soil absorbs any..DAM! ) The solution would be to water from bottom..but I don't have any water pans to set the bags in... That said, I'm using pots only this year. What a vicious cycle.
I've used the WallyWorld bags too. Good, but you end up having a hard time watering thoroughly due to water running off when your soil compacts. (Water runs off and out through bag before soil absorbs any..DAM! ) The solution would be to water from bottom..but I don't have any water pans to set the bags in... That said, I'm using pots only this year. What a vicious cycle.
I tend to move my pots around a fair amount to chase the sun and put them in the garage overnight when it gets cool in the fall to extend my growing season so i think pots is the way to go.
i use the grow bags linked above. the hydrofarm ones.
the grow bags dont really last even a whole year. after august they start getting brittle and you have to move them by grabbing the bottoms and lifting, not grabbing the sides of the plastic and lifting. after about 4 months in the son the plastic gets brittle and will tear if you try to lift by grasping the sides/top.
i like these containers because i just dont have the patience to clean and store shit every season. i average like 30-40 bucks a year on grow bags.... but i was buying them online untill recently. at my hydrostore they cost like half as much? i still dont get that. shipping must have been more than i imagined for these grow bags.
anyway, it depends on how you want to grow shit. if you are going hydro with soilless mixes and automatic irrigation you can go as low as like a 3 gallon bag.
if you are going to hand water i would not go below a 5 gallon bag. even a 5 gallon bag can become a huge burden... you will have to water it every day as your plants mature.
if you are hand watering i highly reccomend you toss in a big fraction of peat or coir... but peat is better at holding water assuming the peat is surfactant treated. the big bails are usually not
the grow bags dont really last even a whole year. after august they start getting brittle and you have to move them by grabbing the bottoms and lifting, not grabbing the sides of the plastic and lifting. after about 4 months in the son the plastic gets brittle and will tear if you try to lift by grasping the sides/top.
i like these containers because i just dont have the patience to clean and store shit every season. i average like 30-40 bucks a year on grow bags.... but i was buying them online untill recently. at my hydrostore they cost like half as much? i still dont get that. shipping must have been more than i imagined for these grow bags.
anyway, it depends on how you want to grow shit. if you are going hydro with soilless mixes and automatic irrigation you can go as low as like a 3 gallon bag.
if you are going to hand water i would not go below a 5 gallon bag. even a 5 gallon bag can become a huge burden... you will have to water it every day as your plants mature.
if you are hand watering i highly reccomend you toss in a big fraction of peat or coir... but peat is better at holding water assuming the peat is surfactant treated. the big bails are usually not
queequeg152 said:
Once they get reasonably big, even the ~6 gal Wallybag plants require daily watering during hot weather.
(Here in Aridzona, that's ANY time between mid-May and mid-September!
)The 'up' side is that the root ball get lots of evaporative cooling. Compared to plastic potted plants, Wallyplants grow and produce much better!
Never had a big problem with water running off the top. The soils that seem to work best for me contain plenty of peat or coir.
Ya it did take me a while to reralize that, which is why i thought i'd come to the expertsmrgrowguy said:
I'm sure you already know, but since you want to avoid surprises, #3 pot does not = 3 gallons.
Again, not a statement of your knowledge, just a gentle reminder
The pots i used last year which seemed like a good size were about a foot tall and maybe ten inches in diameter. Like i said, i tend to move them a lot later in the year as my yard gets quite shaded and i like to keep getting peppers into the fall.i could not ever go back to fabric containers... they waist so much water its insane. it adds so much stupid consistancy to my irrigation cycles... hot and dry with a bit of wind? well they might wilt. cloudy and humid? then they will waste fertilizer. i hated that shit.Geonerd said:Once they get reasonably big, even the ~6 gal Wallybag plants require daily watering during hot weather.
(Here in Aridzona, that's ANY time between mid-May and mid-September!
The 'up' side is that the root ball get lots of evaporative cooling. Compared to plastic potted plants, Wallyplants grow and produce much better!
Never had a big problem with water running off the top. The soils that seem to work best for me contain plenty of peat or coir.
the advantages of fabric containers pretty much only add up for transplants imo. like for say growing out trees in a nursury.
after your plant is in the final container, black plastic is best imo.
on the other hand, if your medium is so heavy and dense that its actually starved for oxygen? then i could see fabric being usefull, but not for the soilless mixes i use.
they cost a shit load too.
If your pots are mostly on solid ground have you thought of putting them on a moving dolly? I have my onion boxes on one and its a breeze to move them around to where the sun is. Its square and open in the middle so it doesn't hold water or if you want it to you can put a tray down on top first. If you are using just a regular grass yard then you can disregard this comment 
I have used 5 gallon plastic buckets (Lowes, Home Depot), nylon shopping bags (Home Depot), Smart Pots BigBagBed Mini. All were OK, not great, but OK.
Of course, my main raised bed garden is where I get the largest and most productive plants, but this thread is about containers, so...
This year I am trying out 10 gallon root pouches. $4 each, and supposed to last more than five years.
Of course, my main raised bed garden is where I get the largest and most productive plants, but this thread is about containers, so...
This year I am trying out 10 gallon root pouches. $4 each, and supposed to last more than five years.
Well this weekend i hit the mother load. DollarTree comes thru again. I found pots of adequate size for $1.25 each(about 23 cents american ). So i bought 40 of them. Looking forward to getting some dirt in them and transplanting. Mainly because i planted my seeds too early and now they are outgrowing my indoor room. Rookie mistake. But i find them to be great company and they make less mess than the kids.
). So i bought 40 of them. Looking forward to getting some dirt in them and transplanting. Mainly because i planted my seeds too early and now they are outgrowing my indoor room. Rookie mistake. But i find them to be great company and they make less mess than the kids. 
queequeg152 said:
If your cloth bags are losing water, it's possible that you have let your plants dry out too much. Personally, I don't care for plastic, because plastic containers heat up to almost boiling heat, especially in a humid climate. (although maybe not in Canada) Since I like growing organically, I don't want my soil microbes nuked. The Phat Sacks work a charm. They've outproduced everything that I've used. (although cheap pots do work, I just tend to insulate them for the aforementioned reasons) And I've literally tried everything from nursery pots, right up to homemade containers of the 50+ gallon size. (including burlap and mesh, milk crates and some other odd stuff)
i dont let anything dryout at all. its all automated. unless something failed, its never drying out with plastic bags.solid7 said:
what happens though, is on a windy day lots of moisture is evaporated from the containers causing wilting. this was walmart bags from way back when.
volume increases with the cube of the radius though, while the surface area increases with the square. the larger your fabric pot, the less effect this evaporation will have on the overall moisture level.
I use craigslist, I always find free garden materials and pots in the free section. One time I ended up coming up on a nursery going out business and I got so many pots, I am still using them up till this day and that was 2 years ago.
alot of landscaping guys often have shit loads of containers too fwiw. might be able to score some from them. large one too perhaps... from trees and what have you.Botanydude88 said:
Where in Canada are you? I'm in Quesnel, BC which is fairly "northern", but not so much when you consider the Yukon.
I have 90 day growing season and have moved over to soiless mediums (coco coir) because I couldn't get the super hot peppers to produce. Even then I found pot size was an issue. 2 gallon pots seem to produce the best for me, but I am trying 3 gallon fabric pots this year. One plant is already in one, but that may be it. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket do to speak. That may change though...
Neil
I have 90 day growing season and have moved over to soiless mediums (coco coir) because I couldn't get the super hot peppers to produce. Even then I found pot size was an issue. 2 gallon pots seem to produce the best for me, but I am trying 3 gallon fabric pots this year. One plant is already in one, but that may be it. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket do to speak. That may change though...
Neil
queequeg152 said:
Understand. And while I understand the economics of smaller pots, and the fact that they are necessary for many, I'll say that if you can afford the cost of potting mix and have the real estate, big pots are king. I've found that 10 gallon size is ideal, but nothing less than 7 for me. Small works fine for others, I get it. Just relating my experience and preference...