raised-bed Potted failures - raised bed success - help!

B

BeanAnimal

Hi all - 
Western Pennsylvania
 
My peppers do fine in my raised beds - even with neglect. 
 
I have tried containers at some level or another for years with absolutely zero success. I would like to do both,

I have tried soil from my raised beds or various big box mixes, with either peat or bark.
 
I have tried various containers from 5-25 gallon pots to 5gal air pots. 
 
Watering, not watering, etc.

I want to try again this year and would like some help. Preferably the air pots or bags. 
 
I will have drip setup to water 1 or 2 times a day and will be using an injector to feed with each watering.  I have already talked to the folks at JR Peters and will be using a single injector to feed to feed the raised beds, pots and hanging annuals. I will add zones next year if this shows any promise.

So given the feeding will be many diff types of beds/containers
Per JR Peters:
 
 
[SIZE=14.6667px]I recommend feeding the 20-3-19 Petunia feed during the beginning of the season. Then in the heat of the summer alternate these 2 formula's every two weeks, the 10-30-20 will help your peppers flower & fruit.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]These formula's can be fed as a continuous liquid feed (CLF), which is a low amount of fertilizer with every watering. You will see a more uniform crop/growth by feeding this way. Here are the mixing rates for the formulas per 1 gallon of concentrated stock solution with injector set at 1:100[/SIZE]
  • [SIZE=14.6667px]20-3-19 Petunia Feed= 19 tablespoons per 1 gallon of water[/SIZE]
  • [SIZE=14.6667px]10-30-20 Blossom Booster= 38 tablespoons per 1 gallon of water[/SIZE]
Click to expand...
 
Input here?  Advice on how to make this all come together and not have another year of failed containers?

Growing medium?
 
Thanks!

 
 
Hey BA.  What happens to your plants in containers that aren't successful - what's different versus those in raised beds?
 
If you're getting success in raised beds but not in containers, it's likely that your growing media composition isn't suitable to containers, often from a drainage standpoint as it can't be as heavy as what will work in beds. Could be other or additional things, too.
 
Fertilizer needn't be as fancy as that.  Using a balanced fertilizer periodically throughout should do fine.
 
Again, without knowing what's happening with the plants it's hard to identify the problem(s).
 
In general, just extremely poor growth and little or no fruit. Failures have varied. One year the plants only get 12”-14” tall. Another, spindly and very little foliage, etc. Cherry tomatoes and bush cakes have done ok (not great) in same pots and medium. This is 5-6 years of varied methods and materials. Not once have I had anything close to a reasonable result outside of the raised beds, save a bell pepper plant or two.
 
I want to use the injector, simply for fun and because I do not have a lot of time or desire to fiddle with feeding the peppers, hanging baskets and other beds.
 
I have good results in containrs, my experience with contains you have to take care better of the plants it´s more fragile
Hi let's do an experiment 
1- let's check if the container have good drainage make good hols in the contains;
2-Let´s get 2 or 3 tipes of dert, compost, good tanned manure for exemple sheep (i have and a like ), a very litle chiken manure to for exemple.... try do not get a heavy mixturs, try to get a good PH.
For exemple if i  tried soil from my raised beds my plants in containers the plants were weak....
3- Location for contains to much sun is bad to little is bad to i don't kwon who is the weather there but maybe try to get the morning sun til 10...
4- Water put some wather wen the plant asks look at the soil and the plant first do not put lots of water.
 
Good Luck
 
BeanAnimal said:
Input here?  Advice on how to make this all come together and not have another year of failed containers?

Growing medium?
Click to expand...
 
CaneDog said:
If you're getting success in raised beds but not in containers, it's likely that your growing media composition isn't suitable to containers, often from a drainage standpoint as it can't be as heavy as what will work in beds. 
 
 
Again, without knowing what's happening with the plants it's hard to identify the problem(s).
Click to expand...
 
I'd start with the growing media too, BA. Are you using garden soil?
 
I have tried various bagged mixes from the garden center or big box store. Nothing exotic, I have also tried soils from my garden.
 
some of the mixes have peat moss, others look more like mulch, most have some perlite and time release fertilizer,  Brands like miracle grow for example.
 
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