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container Container size

AJ Drew

AJ Drew

I am not much of a container grower.  I start and grow fairly large indoors, but most everything that is not ornamental winds up going in the ground.  Noticed a lot of folk container grow mature plants.  Wondering what size container is big enough for that while expecting full size results.
 
I always used 5 gal buckets due to that's what I have around. Here in KS that is usually a struggle to keep them from drying out daily. If I had mulch or hay bales shielding them from the sun I might have better luck and if I extended my irrigation to water automatically that might not be such an issue. As far as the size of the plant vs my in ground one's I'd say it was close. If I had an option I'd maybe have something a bit wider and just a little deeper than a typical 5 gal bucket. Weight wise (depending on the soil mix I was using) they seemed to stand up OK and not get blown over too much.Once the plant had tons of pods a stake attached to the cages in the buckets were required. Wind in KS can be brutal. 
 
Imo. wind knocking over plants in "buckets" means one thing.Ttwo small of container. 
If your "plant" is in the ground the plant/tree/whatever breaks. 
 
If its getting knocked over in container there is not enough soil holding plant.
 
With proper care you can grow in just about anything, but rule of thumb here seems to 5 gallon as a safe minimum. Biggest is preferred.
 
I had a monster Fatalii in a 20 inch pot last year, I think the volume came out to be about 12 gallons or so.  In fact, I still have it.  It's short because when it was a seedling I chopped an inch off the top of it and stripped all but the first two sets of leaves off of it.  I got several pounds off of it last season.
 
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I grow on a balcony and have finally decided on these


They are 15-20 gallons. Haven't gotten an exact measurement. I plant one tall, one medium and one bushy in each. Has worked well.
 
Alynne, are those plastic or clay?  Virtually anything clay I leave outside winds up freezing, thawing, freezing and always cracks.  For semi permanent outside, have given half barrels a try but they don't last more than a few years.  Thinking more and more on plastic that looks like wood or clay for ornamental things.
 
I am doing a side-by-side bhut jolokia grow in C2000 and C6900 classic black plastic nursery pots. Interestingly, the pots smell quite sweet and fruity for some reason. Once the seedlings get up to size and hardened off, in to the pots they go. They are the equivalent of roughly 3.8 and 13.3 gallons (14.5 and 50.5 liters). Frustrating actually because my local hydro shop sells them as "5 gallon" and "15 gallon". At least now I have a bunch of extra potting mix to play around with!
 
This cheap lattice fence I threw together last year helped keep the black pots shaded to keep root temperatures lower. I wonder if shading the entire plants with shade cloth would work better than just shading the containers/soil?
 
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When I built the thing, the plants were much smaller ya see :rofl:  Everything grew very well until the broad mites came... *shudders*
 
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