Container Vegetable Garden Tips

By J Ruppel

Further reading:
Container Gardening When You Don't Have A Garden - You don't need a garden to enjoy gardening - containers are great for brightening up your patio, terrace or balcony.

Vegetable container gardening is an attractive way for many apartment and condo dwellers to have fresh vegetables in spite of the fact that they have no place to put a regular garden. It's also a good way for anyone to have fresh vegetables year round, even in the coldest or hottest climates.

However, like almost any type of gardening, there will be times when problems arise, and your vegetable garden will not be producing well. Here are a few tips to get your container garden back on track and producing fresh vegetables again. This is a list of some of the typical indoor container garden problems, the probable cause, and some suggested solutions to try.

Further reading:
My First Container Gardening Year - It can be scary to embark on a new gardening project for the first time. In this article, the author relates her experience of her first year's container...

Plants are tall and spindly with no production: This is usually due to insufficient light. Artificial lights need to be put closer to the plants, or you may need to keep them on longer.

Vegetables plants are stunted: Due to inadequate levels of phosphate in the fertilizer levels. Change the fertilizer. For warm weather crops this can also be due to the ambient temperature being too low.

Wilted vegetable plants: Usually related to watering. Either not enough water, or may be due to inadequate drainage. Check that the drainage holes are working in the container. Check that the container garden has sufficient water for the plant, or that you are watering regularly enough.

Further reading:
A Guide To Container Gardening - A complete guide to getting started in container gardening, from the containers themselves to soil, feeding and watering considerations

Burned plant leaves: Often due to high salt levels in the soil. Symptom is crusty white top of the soil in the container. Flush the soil out with water.

Plants yellowing, some leaves dropping: Too much moisture in the container. Reduce the frequency of watering, and check the drainage from the container. Also caused by inadequate fertilization.

Spots on the leaves: Typically some kind of plant disease. Apply an appropriate fungicide.

Hopefully these tips can help you keep your vegetable container garden up and producing for many months to come.

Also by J Ruppel:
Extend Your Tomato Season By Growing In Containers - Containers have the advantage that you can relocate them to take advantage of all the available sunny spots, which can extend the tomato growing season by a few weeks and give your fruits chance to ripen

You can find more tips like these at HowToGardenGuide.com J Ruppel writes a variety of gardening articles, including Composting Tips and other Container Gardening Tips.