5 Mistakes You Must NEVER Make When Container Gardening

In this video, I share 5 mistakes you must never make when container gardening. Container gardens are amazing because they are easy to start, affordable and can fit anywhere. But, a container garden is very different than raised bed gardens or earth gardens. This video explains the most common container garden mistakes to avoid and how to container garden the right way for incredible results!

How To Install Shade Cloth: https://youtu.be/SbWcCxV7OOE?si=yPJ1E2YUvRiVl-lQ
How To Make Container Garden Soil: https://youtu.be/t3kx5PhCJU8?si=1tb2SFG5FMZTojlh
Drip Irrigation Installation Guides: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1gY7BoYBGIHHHsx0JPcYgD4xXzA96usL&si=6klgfZwoBoNbGZuf

I use the following products* for gardening in containers and growing vegetables:
Grow Bags (Black): https://amzn.to/4a0MHa5
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Hard Nursery Containers (Featured Brand): https://amzn.to/3YLXGks
Hard Nursery Containers (Cheaper Option): https://amzn.to/4klWs7S
Weed Barrier: https://amzn.to/4mj7nkl
Shade Cloth: https://amzn.to/49bqveh
Espoma GardenTone Fertilizer [3-4-4] (4lb): https://amzn.to/4kpaRAk
Espoma PlantTone Fertilizer [5-3-3] (4lb): https://amzn.to/4kfCATO
Espoma PlantTone Fertilizer [5-3-3] (18lb): https://amzn.to/4keiskU
Espoma PlantTone Fertilizer [5-3-3] (36lb): https://amzn.to/4lgP9PW
Espoma PlantTone Fertilizer [5-3-3] (50lb): https://amzn.to/4lgPbr2
Espoma Bone Meal (10lb): https://amzn.to/4ieYapY
True Organic Blood Meal (3lbs): https://amzn.to/3DvlzVJ
Jack’s All Purpose [20-20-20] (1.5lb): https://amzn.to/4iRWtRc
Jack’s All Purpose [20-20-20] (25lb): https://amzn.to/3ZSJeGW
Alaska Fish Fertilizer (Gallon): https://amzn.to/4d9c1x7
Neptune’s Harvest Tomato & Veg [2-4-2] (Gal): https://amzn.to/4k0nIsS
Grower’s Honey [4-3-3]: https://amzn.to/4jErpDK
Farmer’s Secret Fruit & Bloom [2-15-15] (Gal): https://amzn.to/3EHYtvO
Crab & Lobster Shell Meal: https://amzn.to/4jNvA0t
Insect Netting: https://amzn.to/43mtizJ
Watering Wand: https://amzn.to/3OkgnG5
Pruning Snips: https://amzn.to/4eZxCrM
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0:00 Introduction
0:53 Mistake #1: Container Garden Size
4:36 Mistake #2: Grow Bags VS Nursery Pots
8:11 Mistake #3: Fertilizing A Container Garden
11:31 Mistake #4: Liquid Fertilizer
16:36 Mistake #5: Mulching A Container Garden
21:28 More Container Garden Tips
24:42 Adventures With Dale

If you have any questions about how to grow a container garden, want to learn more about growing fruit trees or the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!

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ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
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#gardening #garden #containergardening #containergarden #vegetablegarden

What’s growing on gardeners? Container gardens have become incredibly popular because they are cheap and easy to get started and you don’t need a big backyard to have one. In fact, you don’t even need a backyard at all. These container gardens can be grown practically anywhere. But container gardens differ a lot from raised bed gardens or an earthbed garden. And treating the systems as the same gets gardeners into a lot of trouble. And on today’s video, I’m going to share with you all five mistakes you must never make again when growing a container garden. These mistakes will break down the differences between a container garden and other types of gardens. So, if you avoid these pitfalls, you will be almost guaranteed to maximize your harvest. If you’re new to the channel, gardeners make when growing a container garden is they size their containers too small. I know it’s tempting to go with a smaller container because they’re cheaper, they’re easier to fill, and they are easier to handle and move around, but the general rule of thumb when container gardening is to go with the largest containers that you can possibly manage and handle. Do not size your containers based on what the plants look like right now. Size them based on what they will be in the middle of summer. For example, this little cucumber plant right here looks so small compared to this 20 gallon fabric grow bag right here. But in 6 to 8 weeks, this cucumber plant is going to be 6 or 7 ft tall, loaded with dozens of fruits. And this 20-gallon fabric grow bag is going to start looking pretty small pretty fast. Also consider that the seasons work against you when it comes to irrigation. Right now, we’re in the middle of spring and temperatures are mild and evaporation rates are slow. Plus, our plants are small and they don’t have that high of a water demand right now. So, if I were to thoroughly water these containers and we got no rain all week, I could probably get away with just watering them once or twice each week. But soon these plants are going to get gigantic and they are going to have a high watering demand and the summer is going to get very hot and evaporation is going to increase exponentially. And in the middle of June and July here when these tomato plants are 5 6 ft tall and it’s really hot out these grow bags dry out usually come noon and I have to water them every single day even at these large 20 gallon size. Do you want to have that amount of maintenance in your yard and garden? Also consider the very restrictive environment that is container gardening itself. When you are growing an earthbed garden or in very large raised beds with open bottoms, the roots can penetrate deeply into the soil and hunt out nutrients. They can’t do that in containers. The plants will quickly occupy all of the container space with their roots and they will be restricted to whatever nutrients you put in those containers. Even worse, if you get heavy rain or you accidentally over irrigate, you will flush the containers of the nutrients. So, the larger the container you have, the more nutrients you can store in a nutrient bank. So the less likely your plants are to develop nutrient deficiencies as the season progresses. So when it comes to growing annual vegetable garden style plants like tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, multiple heads of lettucees or brassacas, cucumbers, squash, melons, or what have you, I like to go as a minimum size 20gallon grow bags or containers. For fruit trees, I like going a minimum 15gallon size because you want to make sure that you’re accommodating enough uh size for what will be the mature root mass of the tree. If you can go larger, if you can go with a 20 gallon nursery container or a half wine barrel for your fruit trees, or you can go for 2530 gallon grow bags for your vegetables, well, that’s even better. I’ll link to some pots down in the video description, both fabric grow bags and hard nursery containers for you to flip through. So, while it is a little bit more money and work up front setting up the larger containers, in the long run, it is going to be so much easier on you because they are going to require a lot less maintenance, less active irrigation, and since you’ll be able to store more nutrients in the containers, the plants will perform better over the long term as well. Mistake number two I see many gardeners make when growing a container garden is using the wrong types of containers. I want to specifically highlight the differences between fabric grow bags and hard nursery containers. They are not the same thing and I often see gardeners using them interchangeably. But whether you use one or the other really depends on your environment, your climate and what type of plant you are growing. I live on the southeastern coast of North Carolina, just outside of the Wilmington area, and we have very humid subtropical summers where we have a lot of thunderstorms which can have heavy downpours. And for that reason, I find when growing an annual vegetable garden and you live in a place with humid, wet summers, the grow bags do much better. And that is because these fabric grow bags, well, they drain very well and they actually provide a lot of irration to the roots. So, since our summer problem is usually that we get too much rainfall, these wind up being absolutely excellent for growing our annual vegetables. But if you live in a place with dry summers, fabric grow bags may work against you very quickly because they wind up drying out so quickly because of that increased arration and drainage. So, if you live out west or you have very hot, dry summers in general, hard nursery containers are going to dry out much more slowly. Now, I know it’s very tempting to use fabric grow bags for everything because you can get six of them for the cost of one hard nursery container, but I’m telling you right now, with the amount of work and the cost of irrigation that you’re going to have running fabric grow bags in a very dry summer climate, well, the hard nursery containers are going to pay for themselves over time. you will save more time and money on irrigation because these hard nursery containers, they don’t dry out nearly as quickly. And keep in mind when drawing these comparisons, we want to make sure we are comparing hard nursery containers and fabric grow bags of the same size. But the biggest mistake of all that I see gardeners make is growing fruit trees or any perennial for that matter in fabric grow bags. Fabric grow bags are made for growing annuals in only. You should never grow perennials, especially fruit trees in fabric grow bags. And again, I know it’s very tempting to do so because you can get a giant bag for only a couple of dollars, but in the long run, it is going to bite you because those grow bags will not be removable. The soil that you have only lasts about 3 to 5 years because it’s things like Pete Moss, cocoa core, vermiculite, perlite, all of those things, well, they break down over time. They’re not going to hold up like a dirtbased soil is going to hold up. So eventually you’re going to have to root prune the plants and repot them with fresh mix. And when you do that, you are not going to be able to remove that fabric grow bag. The roots are going to have woven themselves into the fabric. And you’re going to have to manually cut off that grow bag and harm the tree in the process. Even worse, I’ve had roots punch through the fabric grow bags once the roots become hard and ligignified. I learned this the hard way. I lost two trees cutting corners trying to grow them in fabric grow bags many years ago and I never will again. Since then I have upgraded all of my trees to 15gallon hard plastic nursery containers. These are 10 to 20ear containers. They’ve been absolutely awesome and I don’t regret that change one bit and recommend you all do the same. Mistake number three I see so many gardeners make when growing a container garden is probably the most innocent and common of the mistakes and that is not fertilizing the containers often enough because you are growing inside a container all of the nutrients are restricted to that container. The roots of the plant cannot hunt around in any other soil to find nutrients. So for that reason, the containers deplete very quickly and you have to fertilize them constantly to keep nutrients available to the plants. I recommend you fertilize your container garden at a bare minimum once every 2 weeks, twice a month minimum. And that is under ideal perfect conditions. Well, what’s an ideal perfect condition? The ideal perfect condition is when you don’t get any rain and the containers never get flushed out and you also don’t accidentally over irrigate and wash nutrients out of your containers because you were a little bit careless and you gave them too much water. If you are in situations where you get some decent rain in the summer or you over irrigate every now and again and you flush out those nutrients, well, now I really recommend that you step up your fertilizing game to more like every 10 days or three times a month. Now, I know that sounds like a lot, but that is unfortunately the reality when it comes to growing a container garden. You simply have to fertilize a container garden more frequently than you have to a large raised bed garden or an earth bed garden because again those roots are restricted solely to the nutrients that are in those containers. For your convenience, I will place direct links to all of the fertilizer products that I’m featuring in this segment in case you are interested in using any of them. So now that we have discussed fertilizer frequency, how should we actually fertilize our container garden? Well, I’ll give you my routine which has provided nothing but incredible results over the years. And that routine consists of both a dry component and a liquid fertilizer component. And the key to our dry component, ingredient number one, is going to be an all-purpose organic fertilizer like this Espoma Plantone, but it doesn’t have to be this exact brand or product. This is a 533 NPK, which is great for all-purpose feeding, but anything around a 555, 444, 545, anything where all three numbers are represented and they aren’t separated by more than one or two numbers is going to be perfect for all-purpose fertilizing. Then the second component is an organic bone meal like you see right here. Bone meal is a concentrated source of phosphorus, calcium, and trace micronutrients. So all of the nutrients that are inside bones will be found in this product. So this is fantastic for strong root development, healthy blooming and fruing. So the rates that I use both of these fertilizers are as follows. 2 tablespoons of the granular organic and one tspoon of bone meal per container. Again, that is applied every other week, every 14 days, twice a month at a minimum. And if you’re having rainy wet weather, you may want to increase that to every 10 days or three times a month. So, now that I showed you my dry fertilizer component, let me show you the liquid fertilizer component and why this is so important when container gardening. And that brings me to mistake number four I see so many gardeners make when growing a container garden. And that is not using a liquid or water soluble fertilizer in their container garden. And in order to understand why, you have to understand how fertilizers work. Those granular organic fertilizers I showed you like that Espoma all-purpose granular organic and bone meal. Well, in that raw granular form, they are actually precursors to compost. They are pelleted raw materials that have to decompose in the soil and break down for those vitamins and minerals and macronutrients to become bioavailable to the plants. So the day you place those fertilizers, they don’t do anything. They have to break down over weeks, sometimes even a month or two. So they trickle feed the plants very slowly over a long period of time. And in order for that to happen, the soil microbiome has to decompose them. The natural bacteria and fungi that grow in soil, they will consume those granular organics and then they will break down and trickle feed the plants via the composting process. The issue that we run into in container gardens is because we are dealing with a limited amount of soil and organic matter. There is a limited soil microbiome in these containers. So your granular organics, while they will decompose and break down over time, they do so at a fraction of a rate that they do in a raised bed garden or in an earth garden. So if all you use are granular organics, they are not very effective in a container garden, especially if you get rainfall and they wash out somewhat regularly. So, in order to fix that problem, we also need to supplement our container gardens with a liquid or water- soluble fertilizer that has already been broken down and is immediately bioactive the moment that you place them around the roots of your plants. Something that has been processed and broken down either naturally or uh synthetically so your plants can uptake them. Now, there is more than one way to do this. I’m going to show you the way that I do things and then I will give you other options if you want to choose a different path. But it all starts with water- soluble fertilizers that have already been broken down and a watering can. This right here is a 2gallon watering can. All of these fertilizers get poured inside the 2gallon watering can, filled to the top with water, and then mixed around very well so they completely dissolve. And the core fertilizer I use is fish fertilizer. This is a 511 NPK, so it is not well balanced and it is high in nitrogen, but it is an absolutely excellent source of organic micronutrients. This is easily my favorite fertilizer in my entire garden. The results are just beautiful. Just because of the unbalanced NPK, I usually have to balance it back out with other products. So, the first thing I do is I add 2 to 3 tablespoons of fish fertilizer inside the 2gallon watering can. Then I fortify that with another water-soluble fertilizer. Now for this part, I typically use a synthesized crystallized water-soluble fertilizer because it is less money and I’m not concerned about being purely organic in containers because it’s a completely unnatural and inorganic means of growing. It’s as man-made as they come and the water soluble synthesized fertilizers perform extremely well for your plants and containers. For that, I like using this which is Jax 2020 2020. Uh this is actually J.R. Peters 2020 2020, but it’s basically the same product. It’s the parent company of JS. If you don’t want to buy a big bag of uh J 2020 2020, you can use something basic off the shelf like Miracle Grow tomato or if you don’t want to use this, you can use like the Miracle Grow organic product or any other kind of water- soluble fertilizer if you don’t want to use that brand. What brand you use is not important. The important part is that you use something to balance out the fish fertilizer. And these water-soluble fertilizers maximum strength application is one tablespoon per gallon. So for full strength, I would put in 2 tsps per gallon. Well, since I already add fish fertilizer, I only add 1 to 1/2 tspoon of the Jax 2020 2020. So again, what winds up going in this 2 gallon watering can is 2 to 3 tbsp of fish fertilizer and then 1 to 1/2 tbsp of Jax 2020 2020. That is, in my opinion, the most perfect mix, at least that I’ve seen results-wise. Now, if you don’t want to use products like this, you can go and you can get yourself a complete water soluble fertilizer that has everything mixed together. You can even source 100% organic ones. I’ll link to a bunch of different ones that you can pick from down in the video description if you want to use an all-in-one product or stay 100% certified organic. And mistake number five I see so many gardeners make when growing a container garden is not mulching their containers. No matter how you slice it, a container garden is going to dry out more quickly than a raised bed garden or an earthbed garden because there is the smallest amount of soil mass in the container garden. So, keeping them mulched, especially during the heat of the summer, becomes critically important. You will notice that all of these containers right here are unmulched, and there is a good reason for that. Today is May 10th. The days are still mild. The nights are downright cool most of the time, and we are in our dry season. The thunderstorms haven’t fired up yet. Mulch actually has a cooling effect to your garden. So, if you place mulch, it will actually reflect sunlight and it will keep the plants cooler. That is actually not what we want right in the beginning of the season. I actually want this dark soil to be exposed because it will heat up more quickly and actually warm up the roots faster because right now in the cool spring, it’s advantageous for the plants to be a little bit warmer and mulch can work against you in that very early period. However, in a matter of weeks, this is all going to change. It’s going to start getting a lot warmer during the day, a lot warmer at night. The thunderstorms are going to fire up and then mulch is going to be our best friend. So, I’m probably going to wind up having to mulch everything in about two to three weeks. Mulch is going to have many beneficial effects. Number one, it is going to lock in that moisture. So, you are going to have to irrigate less because the mulch will prevent evaporation. Number two, it will also prevent weed seed germination. So, if you mulch everything thickly, like 3 to 4 in in all the containers, you are going to have minimal weed pressure throughout the growing season. Third benefit, the mulch is also going to keep the plants cooler. In the beginning of spring, like I said, this kind of works against you, but when we’re in the late spring or early summer and it’s getting warm, that is very advantageous because your plants are going to be less stressed out. And less stress means better results. And number four, over the course of the season, the mulch is going to break down and feed your soil. Now, that’s a much bigger benefit when you’re growing things like fruit trees in an ingground garden because there’s a much more established microbiome and real soil, but you still will get some beneficial organic matter added into your containers throughout the season, which is good for the soil microbiome that is there, limited as it may be. But make no mistake, the biggest benefit that you get from mulching your container garden is the moisture preservation, the moisture retention. Come the middle of the summer, like I’ve discussed many times throughout this video, these containers are just going to dry out quickly on you. It’s going to get annoying come the middle of summer when it’s at max hotness and the plants are at their maximum size. You’ll probably have to water every day in many cases. Mulch will help lessen the frequency of irrigation and also the amount of water that you have to give them. They are a literal lifesaver to your plants. They can be the difference between you getting home from work and having plants that are wilted over or standing straight up and still being happy because they were well mulched and it helped preserve the moisture throughout the day when you weren’t home. So, now that begs the question, what is the best mulch to use in your container garden? Well, the short answer to that is anything natural. You can use a shredded hardwood bark mulch. You can use cyprress mulch, cedar mulch, redwood mulch, pine bark nuggets. You can use arborist wood chips, pine straw. You can use chopped up shredded leaves. It doesn’t really matter as long as it is a completely natural product. It’s more like what can’t you use? Don’t use things like dyed mulch because that’s groundup construction materials like pallets, plywood, and lumber that they then dye to make it look like a natural wood when it’s actually a wood product. Don’t use rubber mulch because that’s like old tires and things that you don’t want decomposing in your garden. And don’t use stone mulch because stone mulch does not decompose and add any organic matter to your soil. My favorite mulch to use is actually wheat straw that I have let decay for months. I don’t recommend you use fresh wheat straw because when these bales were fresh, all of that leftover wheat grass seed, well, it germinated and there was grass growing all over them. So, if you use fresh wheat straw in your garden, you’re going to drop those seeds and you’re going to have weed pressure. But if you let it sit for about 3 or 4 months like I did here, the weed seeds all germinate and then that wheat grass dies and then they start breaking down and growing mushrooms. And at that point, this makes some of the best mulch that money can buy. And it’s one of the cheapest mulches that you can source. But even if you mulch everything really well, there is still probably going to be a point in the summer where it gets so hot and dry that your containers still threaten to dry out. So, for that reason, I recommend you do things like add drip irrigation to your containers. I have drippers installed in all of these containers. It is an absolute lifesaver to automate the process. Not only do they use a lot less water and irrigate more deeply than traditional overhead watering methods, but it spreads a lot less disease, and you can automate the process. So, all you have to do is turn the dial of that spigot. No more wasting hours manually handwatering. It will all be done for you in an instant. I’ll link to a video above and down in the video description that will show you how to install drip irrigation to containers. I have a whole playlist that shows you how to do this. And the other thing I do to reduce my irrigation needs is install shade cloth above my container garden when it starts really getting hot. Shade cloth has been my biggest discovery in the last 5 years. I install it over my plants in June, July, and August, and then I take it down around September 1st, just before the start of hurricane season, and it has been an absolute revelation. Not only does the shade cloth dramatically reduce how much I have to irrigate my plants, but giving them that little bit of dappled light dramatically increases their productivity, it lowers their stress, so I get less plant diseases, and I get way less insect pressure. In fact, this entire structure behind me right here, well, I use this to install a giant shade tarp over my container garden, and it works miracles in my summers. Do you need a shade tarp this large? Absolutely not. But then again, you probably also don’t have a container garden as extensive and crazy as mine. Mine is a little bit crazy because I’m a bit of a crazy gardener. But I urge you, please get yourself some shade cloth. It will change how you garden throughout the summer. I’ll link to a video above that shows you exactly how to install a giant shade tarp, but you can install little shade tarps here and there above your plants. They’re really affordable. I’ll place links to them down in the video description. They come in all different sizes. And that right there are five mistakes you must never make when you are growing a container garden. Container gardens are just different than a raised bed garden or an earth garden. and they need to be treated differently because they are a very unique system. But I’m telling you, if you avoid these mistakes and you follow the tips outlined in this video, I bet you you will see dramatically better results. So everybody, I sure hope you found this video helpful. If you did, please make sure to hit that like button, subscribe to the channel, and please ring the notification bell so you’re notified when I release more videos like these. If you’re curious about any of the products that I featured in this video, like I said, I place direct links to all of them down in the video description. For everything else I use in real life in my garden, that is all linked in my Amazon storefront in the video description. So, expand the video description, click on the Amazon storefront link, and you’ll see everything I use in real life. And while you’re down there, please check out my spreadshop for custom merch if you want to support my channel. Thank you all so much for watching. If you have any questions, please ask them down in the comments below. And I hope to see all of you again on the next video. What is this over here? Who gave you a quart of yogurt? That is not yours. Brett, did you give Why did you give Dale a whole quart of yogurt? I didn’t give him a whole quart. I just I had some fruit and a little bit of peanut butter like mixed in cuz it was the end. He’s got yogurt on his nose. How much? I hope there wasn’t a lot in there. No. Oh boy. How come he gets all the good stuff? He’s squeezing his nose into the yogurt court so hard he’s closing his eyes. Oh, Dale. Oh, Dale. Oh, Dale. Life wouldn’t be worth living without you, buddy. No, it wouldn’t be.