Fixing 8 Common Problems With Container Gardens

Container gardening is an awesome growing method, especially for us cold climate growers, but it's not without its issues. We picked the 8 most common issues container gardeners will face and how we solved exactly those issues!

Container gardens are often looked at as being an "easy" gardening solution, so it can throw many gardeners off when they develop a number of issues that are directly caused by having your garden in containers. We tried to provide our best guidance, based on decades of growing food in containers.

Once we solved all the issues with container gardening, the method has generally been one of our "go-to" growing techniques. Although we do practice other methods from traditional to non-traditional, our container gardens are always a source of inspiration for us and hopefully you all.

Since we grow in the subarctic, one of the main things we focus on in our "public" gardening practice is various variety trials. Container gardens are almost always one of the growing methods we use to test those varieties.

We grow a ton of food in containers. A non-comprehensive list of what we grow in them includes:

Tomatoes, peppers, herbs, beans, corn, artichokes and quite a few others!

We've tried some new things in this video that we haven't practiced previously, that's part of the deal with us becoming better at video editing.

Thanks a ton for watching & supporting us! We've received a tremendous amount of support from you all and we are extremely grateful for it!

We mention a couple of our other videos in this one, so here they are:

Our full container garden setup:

Water soluble vs. Granular Fertilizers:

[frostygarden]

Thanks for stopping by to give a watch! I'm pretty proud of this video, I cut through all the years of learning processes in container gardening that I had to go through and just lay straight the major things you need to pay attention to with the gardening technique. We hope you find it helpful! As always, we appreciate your support and thanks for stopping by!

[Omegawerewolfx]

I use buckets and grow bags so I can move my plants during heat waves or severe storms. One thing I do in every bucket is add flowers and companion plants.
So as a rule every bucket has a Marigold or Nasturtium in it as well as Chives plus whatever else can fit, sometimes just clover. I also use a drip water bottle in each bucket.
I mainly do peppers but I have some tomato plants. I use coco coir as a surface cover.


Subirrigation is a goal of mine but the water bottles and ouyas get the job done so I can hold off.

[aquilaclark]

I had to go to container gardening because I have bad knees and I could not dig in the soil anymore. I’ve been very successful with it. I watched a lot of videos and I’ve learned a lot. Thanks for your tips. The one about not enough soil really was enlightening. And the part about fertilization was good too.🥰

[helenstone]

I am hard of hearing but I never lose a word because the volume and clarity are just right. I can’t believe that that I have no problem with your videos. Many thanks.

[lucky]

I have a condo so container gardening is all I can do. My everything grows well. 😅😅😅even stuff I never planted. Great video.

[Princessgia]

This video ALONE earned my subscription. Pretty much all the things I messed up on this year

[harleyb.birdwhisperer]

I’ve got a dozen containers of berries. I set them all up with 4GPH drip emitters into 1/4” soaker hose loops under cocoa fiber mulch mats (I soak the cocoa in a vinegar solution and rinse it before I use it, since a lot of cocoa is rafted in salt water). I want about 1” of water per week in 2 sessions. 4 GPH gives .0667 gallons per minute. A gallon is 231 cubic inches, so .0667 x 231 = 15.4 cubic inches of water. The surface area of my planters is ~177 square inches ((15 x 15) x .7854), divided by 15.4 is 11.5, so 2 6-minute sessions will deliver ~185 square inches of water 1” deep. Good enough.

[andreagayle]

Great info! This is my first year container gardening. I got rid of all of my raised beds and have about 30 grow bags in my backyard. This gave me some useful information that I intuitively thought may be true, but you helped me recognize that I need to make sure I keep up on fertilizing. I was doing it every other week but once a week does sound better considering I’m washing out so much watering as frequently as I am. I do need to invest in a drip water system. That’s probably gonna be for next year. Thank you for the helpful information! I really appreciate you!

[gooseberrydell]

Clearly spoken. ...Lots of good info. Thank you!!

[MyJourneyOverseas]

Thanks for sharing. This year I will increase the number of container plants and I need to learn.

[merinafebruary]

Thank you very much for helpful information...I'm Merina from Cape Town.. South Africa and really loves container gardening...works wonderfully 🙌🙏💯

[glyzamyr]

Thank you so much! We have a project about urban gardening and it involves pure container planting. Its been very tricky and watching this video prove my conclusions. By the way im watching here in the Philippines sending likes!

[bigsidable]

Been using 5 gallon black buckets for 6 years. Been a real learning process. I have controllable drip lines on a timer. I've had very good harvest. But last year low yields. Due to late planting season. Hope this year's is better. Thanks for the tips.

[cindonagor]

Greetings from Kuala Lumpur MALAYSIA... thank you for the information 🎉

[juandelrio]

I take note of everything you said, and it sounds interesting that I will apply it on my vegetables growing in containers. Thanks.

[sandyforeverbless]

Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge.

[RA-rfnz]

Although I 've been researching and brainstorming container gardening systems for a long time, I only recently started experimenting with it during the non-stop 100+ degree summer we've had for the past2 and a half months. 🤣🤣🤣

Sub-irrigation is the approach I find most efficient as well. The biggest challenge I foresee is maintaining adequate dissolved oxygen for the water sub-irrigation reservoir(s) to prevent anaerobic conditions. For that, I've come up with a solution borrowed from the aquaponics community using an airlift water pump design to run a recirculating water sub-irrigation system. For the wicking material, it also helps to use an inert media to also help mitigate anaerobic conditions (compost and water mix makes for quick loss of O2 and anaerobic muck) -- sand is cheapest but rock wool also works for good wicking material. But yea, while container gardening has some limitations that in-ground and raised beds don't have, containers also have their own unique benefits.

Your system reminds me of Larry Hall's raingutter gardening system. Anyway, thanks for the video production. 👍

[GODPROPERTY]

Sub arigation i'm try that i love drip pan is smart, i do grow bags Thank You

[GmamaGrowz]

Awesome information 🤓 Container gardening is Awesome, TFS!

[MonaDidWhat]

Thanks for sharing. I tried container gardening this summer