Through the years I’ve grown or experimented with just about everything that’s legal to cultivate both outside and inside of the house. I found with indoor plants that over watering is often a definite concern and something you need to pay special care about while in sharp contrast, exactly the same container outside has problems with deficiency of water. My latest project is container gardening of herbs, miniature fruit trees, fruits and vegetables.
Container gardening is very distinct from traditional gardening in several ways. First of all, you can’t just plant and forget, you’ll need bigger containers since your plants grow. You will probably require a nice method of getting potting soil and containers and also a way to water your plants that doesn’t involve a hose unless your containers are outside in an area the hose can reach. The final major concern for that container garden is light.
I start nearly all of my seeds in small trays which have clear plastic covers so they really are protected and remain warm since warmth and water appear to be both the things that seeds require even before soil. The plastic containers which you buy fresh fruit in such as strawberries and blueberries make great mini-greenhouses to start out your seeds in given that they have air holes and drain holes in addition to a protective top. My seeds sprout much faster in these containers than they do any other way I have tried including what I wish to be their final container. Wanting to start the seeds inside their final container has met with very limited success.
Some plants don’t especially like to get transplanted to make up for this, I plant them in planting pellets to ensure that I would not disturb the plant but can still transplant it easily to a larger container once it’s gotten two sets of “real” leaves on it. It really is almost guaranteed that the seedling will die should you transplant it before it has those two sets of “real” leaves. I learned that hard way.
I wouldn’t recommend Terra cot-ta planters unless you have previous success with one of these. Considering that the planter along with the plant both should be watered it becomes difficult to monitor how much water both of them need. Your containers need to have one or more drain hole at the base which means your plants are not going to suffer from root rot brought on by being placed in too much water. I have discovered that my larger containers also need drain holes in the sides about 1/2 an inch from the bottom to help with drainage.
I would recommend a planting medium with at the very least a little fertilizer to help give your plants that extra boost specially when first planting the seeds. I have already been surprised about how much faster my seeds germinate once I combine the plastic containers with all the fertilizer mix planting medium. If you’d like to see a few of my results come visit me