CMK- If you try eggplants in pots, chances are you will find as I and many others have found that they seem to do better in containers than in the ground. I use what they call "Al's mix", a very well draining and aerated mix, but I'm sure any good container "potting mix" will do well too. I do mine in 5 gallon containers and they get 6 or 7 feet tall, bushy and crank out fruit until frost. I do peppers the same way and they do really well also.....both much better than any I was able to grow in the ground. Especially the egglants will need watering daily when they get going, unless you do a self-watering container. I've done some winter squash, but they don't do as well. Have fun!

Sylvia, I was amazed at how much rice I harvested over and over again all the summer season long. Those initial 25 seeds produced just under one quart of rice on the final tally. I think the weather here in Florida is just perfect for growing rice. I also want to thank you for suggesting I buy my fruit trees from Bay Laural Nursery. They are really nice trees and the combined shipping is very low priced. When I saw how nice the first trees were that they shipped to me I went back online and made another order. Now I will have to cut down some more forest trees to make room for next years order of fruit trees. Around my older fruit trees I dig a small trench around the outside perimeter of the fruit tree and bury fresh chicken poop so it will degrade and work it's way down to feed the roots that are searching for food. As the tree grows the trench circle gets bigger. (just beyond the tree canopy) The summer rains work the nutrients down to the root area. Lou

While I think worm castings are an excellent garden soil amendment, let me just say that they are not going to add all that much to a container growing situation and could very easily "gum up the works" before they provide anywhere near the nutrient assist you think they might. It is a hard mindset to get established but you cannot think about container gardening the same way you do inground gardening. The conditions, materials and methods are vastly different and attempting the same theories and practices of inground gardening to container gardening is not going to get you the same results. In fact, it will very likely get you results opposite from what you seek. I have grown almost exclusively in containers myself for years and it has taken a lot of trial and error (and excellent advice from some far more experienced than I, like Al on the CG forum) to get to me the level of success I now realized with all my container plants. If you have the worms or the worm castings, then make a tea out of the leachate and use that to fertilize your containers. Not ideal, but better than nothing and you are adhering to an organic source. FWIW, I would urge you to post any further questions you may have about growing in containers on the Container Gardening forum. Regular participants there have a huge amount of experience and knowledge that is not so readily available on non-container focused forums.

As Dan said the common recommendation is to avoid using the peat pots...period. But if you must then don't just cut off the bottom when planting - strip off the entire pot first. You will also have problems growing seeds in them because they screw with soil moisture by wicking it out of the soil leading the grower to over-water the seedlings. You'll do much better if you toss them and use just about any plastic container you can find with holes punched in the bottom. As to number of seeds per container - that's a personal choice. It is very late to be starting onions from seed - try January next time - but one can easily grow 20-25+ onion plants in a 4" pot. No way would you plant just one. For the other vegetables each person has their own opinion as to how many in each pot. I only use 4" pots for transplants and never for seedlings and I start large numbers of seeds in each container and then separate them once sprouted into individual containers. In part it depends on how many lights you have. You can't fit much under 1 or 2 lights. There are several other growing from seed discussions running on this forum right now, not to mention over on the Growing from Seed forum here. If you will read through some of them you'll find most of the basics already being discussed. Dave