What? No sweet taters this year?

Can you grow them in containers? When do you plant the slips?

I forgot about the taters, dude, thanks for reminding me. Sweet taters get planted a bit later than most veggies, don't they?

Susan

Susan

What is Swallowtail? Is it a site? Have you grown the Yellow Doll watermelons? If so, how many melons per plant?

Charlie

Hi, Charlie! I'm such a newbie at vegetable gardening, so no, I haven't grown them. I am just looking for smaller veggie plants that I can grow in pots. Yellow Doll is a smaller watermelon, but I read such good things about it. I believe it is one that Dawn mentioned for growing in containers, too. It is supposed to be very prolific, approx. 3-5 lbs, but I've also seen reports of 7 lbs., smaller plant, with about a 70 DTM. The flesh is yellow, but supposed to be very sweet, few seeds.

Hope this helps, and I gave you a link to the seeds at Swallowtail Garden Seeds. Dawn had a thread the other day about their patio tomatoes that you may recall.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Yellow Doll Watermelon at Swallowtail Garden Seeds

Charlie, Yellow Doll produces from 4 to 8 melons per plant for me with the proper spacing, good soil and even watering. Some years it might produce 8 to 10. That's really good production for such a small plant and they're pretty early (around 60-65 days) and quite tasty. In a bad drought year, I won't get but a couple per plant unless I am watering very heavily, and I'm usually not....because is a very severe drought, you just can't water them enough.

Dawn

In a drought year, which 2011 could very well be since we're in that dratted La Nina pattern, I do better with my containers, Dawn, because I monitor them more closely and they don't generally take as much water as the in-ground plants, which seem to take forever to absorb enough water even tho they are watered less frequently than pots.

Since I'm planning on having so many containers next year, that opinion may very well change.

I plan on a couple containers with the Yellow Doll which is plenty for me.

Susan

Susan, You might want to check this out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Container Gardening

And Susan - if you're thinking about growing container sweet potatoes, let me recommend a tip from one of our former members, Ilene. She doesn't post here much anymore but you could find her under "RockWhisperer" on the seed excahnge forum.

This last year she grew them in children's wading pools. She was moving and everything was in upheaval...but she persevered. If you just want a few, spring would be a good time to find the containers at WM, but if you wait til fall, EVERYONE has them out at the cub for Fall CleanUp. She drilled holes in the bottom for drainage. I think she got close to 20 lbs of sweet taters out of her one pool which was started late. Just depends on how much space you have.

Just a thought to throw out there!

Susan,

I love growing in containers. Even in a non-drought year I get more consistent production from plants in containers because it is easier to keep them well-watered and as long as the soil-less mix drains properly, they won't get won't get waterlogged like plants in the ground can. That's why I have so many containers. This spring I expect to have about 150 containers, and they range in size from 2 gallon pots to a 4'-diameter metal stock tank to similarly-sized (though not as deept) wading pools (I have three of them). I am toying with the idea of growing lettuce in a cattle feed trough that sits up high on legs. That might solve my problem with small critters like baby bunnies, field mice and voles nibbling at greens in the spring. Baby bunnies are very tiny and can get into my garden either through the fence or by squeezing under the gate. It is hard to get mad at a baby bunny because they are just so cute, but I don't like having them eating the lettuce and their othr two favorite plants--pea seedlings and bean seedlings.

The current La Nina did not affect our place the way it normally does in summer/fall, so I'm not sure we'll have the usual La Nina drought in 2011. That's sort of irrelevant, though, because we always have long drought periods in summer in southern OK even when it is fairly rainy elsewhere in the state. Even this summer had lots of drought periods although a brief rainy spell in July and then again in September kept the garden going pretty well, although I had to water very heavily in between those two rainy spells.

About the only veggie I can think of that is really difficult in containers is medium- to large-sized pumpkins. While it is easy to grow the very small pumpkins or the bush pumpkins in containers, to get nice, big pumpkins you have to have a very large container because large pumpkins have massive root systems, and you have to water heavily daily because the plants guzzle water as the pumpkins get bigger and bigger.

I'd love to have my entire garden in containers because it cuts weeding time down to nothing, but with all that I grow, that's never going to happen.

Another problem with containers in drought is that the non-stop heat and sunshine heat up the containers and the soil. I get around that by lining up all the containers close together and then piling hay around them as insulation to help keep them cool.

And one wonderful advantage of containers is that they can help you get a head start in spring. I usually put my first tomato plants into containers in mid-February and am harvesting tomatoes from those plants by the end of April. Having those first few plants setting fruit helps me stay patient and not transplant my main crop into the ground too early.

You also can carry a few plants into fall/winter if you can get the containers into a warm spot at night. Today or tomorrow, I'll be harvesting a couple of handfuls of cherry tomatoes, one bell pepper and a handful of hot peppers from the five big containers I drag into the garage every night. That means I'll have harvested tomatoes and peppers in every month of 2010 from April through December, and that's not too bad.

I also grow strawberries in containers. In the ground, strawberries don't stand a chance here because there's too many wild critters who want to eat them, including the ever-present sow bugs and pill bugs. In containers, though, they're easy. I grow them in wading pools, and it is surprising how many strawberries you get from those container-grown plants.

I still have trouble with snakes....they like to hang out in the shade of the containers and sometimes in the containers themselves, but in our very rural, very wild part of the state, that's unlikely to change no matter what we do.

Dawn

Lots of helpful information again, you guys! Carol, I saved the Aggie website on Container Gardening after reading it, and will likely re-read it several times over.

Love the idea of using kiddie wading pools, but probably will only be able to use one since it will take up a bit of room. I will have about 30 grow-bags and 10 regular plastic pots. I may purchase some more of the 5-gallon pots at Lowe's for $2.75 each. They have the store logo on them and are a Silver Grey color, so no need to paint them. So 40-50 containers all in all. Will the wading pool work for things like lettuce and bunching onions? I think it should but want to be sure.

I've only seen a wild bunny on one occasion in my yard, so don't really have that problem, Dawn. Insects are the more likely culprits for me. I did have a lop-ear bunny in the yard one time. We used to have a neighborhood stray cat that found the bunnies across the street that our neighbor raised under her house (yes!). One day I heard this awful screaming - have you ever heard a bunny scream? Frightful! He had brought a chocolate colored baby lop-ear from across the street into my back yard for nefarious reasons. I went after him with the hoe and he dropped it. We managed to rescue the poor scared little bunny and return him unharmed to our neighbor. We then loaded up the cat and took him to the shelter. The cutest bunny ever!

Dawn, if you're planting your container tomatoes in February, you're probably using wall-o-waters to protect them then, aren't you? I remember when you used to plant out your tomatoes in March and use them.

I need to do something with my black grow bags. I got them where I did because they were inexpensive. They may only last a year, but still cheaper than pots. At least, they are made with a durable plastic, not like garbage bags. I could probably slip the bags into some old pillow cases for the summer (smaller ones), or white trash bags that have holes in the bottom. What do you guys think. The next ones I order will be white.

Susan

Susan,

As long as you poke or drill drainage holes in the wading pools, you can plant anything in them.

We have rabbits galore. Remember that our property is a wild kingdom with everything you can imagine roaming around, especially at night. If you walk outside any time after dark, you're like to see 3 or 4 or even 6 or 8 rabbits running around the yard looking for food. They freeze in place so you won't notice them, and then they scamper away as soon as you turn to go back inside. So, certainly I've heard them scream a lot because there's all kinds of wild things here that eat them.

I can't use WOWs because my garden slopes. I bought some once, but they kept falling over and rolling downhill as I tried to fill them up. After crushing a couple of tomato plants, I gave up on using them. I can use milk jugs, 2-liter soda bottles or cat liter jugs as solar collectors to keep early tomato plants in the ground warm, but even then I have to dig out a somewhat level space for them and use garden stakes hammered into the ground on their downhill side to keep them from falling over. It really isn't worth the bother, so now I plant later and use the container plants for early tomatoes. Our weather changed around 2006 and instead of having the last freeze in early to mid-April, it now hits us the first week of May every single year...usually on May 3rd or 4th, so I don't try to plant in-ground early any more.

With the February-planted tomatoes, I keep them on the concrete patio in full sun all day long and drag them into the garage at night. In the garage, they won't freeze until temps hit about 15-18 degrees outside. If it is going to be that cold, I bring the tomato plants into the house. If they are too big too carry inside the house, I drag them into the garage and cover them up with a blanket. It is a lot of work, but when we are eating the first BLTs of the year in late April, it is so worth it!

Anything you can do to keep the sun's rays from hitting the black sides of the grow bags and roasting your plant roots will help. I don't know if white garbage bags are thick enough, though, as you can see through them, but I think it is worth a try. I use only Sunleaves growbags because they're black inside but white on the outside to deflect the sun's rays and heat, and I've been happy with them.

Dawn

I am going to order the SunLeaves from Worm's Way in the 20 or 25 gallon size (can't remember which one they carry). But these will work, too. My garden does get some shade late day as well, but is sunny enough to grow some veggies.

I just need to find the dwarf Okra seeds that you recommended like Little Lucy and Baby Bubba, I think. I did find them at I think it was Reimer's Seeds or something. I know there are a few negative comments on that other site about them, but I can't seem to locate them anywhere else.

I should be getting my seeds in the mail probably next week. It's so fun to look at those lovely packets! Actually, it won't be too long before we can plant lettuce and things that like the cool temps - around February??

Susan

Susan,

I've always purchased seed for Little Lucy from Park Seed and Baby Bubba from Burpee Seed. At, the present time, I don't see "Little Lucy" on Park's website and that makes me wonder if they're dropped it or if the producer or wholesaler is no longer offering it. If so, I would find that very disppointing because it is such a beautiful, ornamental plant which is easy to grow in containers and even in flower beds. If Reimer's is the only company offering it now, I would take a chance and order it from them. I've never ordered anything from them so have no idea if the many comments on that watch dog site are a fair representation of their performance.

Baker Creek has several dwarf okras that reach about the same height as Baby Bubba, and at least one of them is a red variety, so you might find a container-sized okra or two there. Unfortunately, none of the shorter okras are quite as short or as beautifully ornamental as Little Lucy. The heirloom dwarf red okras have the pod color but their foliage just isn't as gorgeous as Little Lucy's.

For most cool-season crops like lettuce, the recommended planting dates in OK are mostly from Feb. 15 - Mar. 15. I've linked the Oklahoma Garden Planning Guide below because it has a chart of OSU-recommended planting dates. The way the recommended dates work is that the earlier date is for southern OK, the later date is for northern OK, and folks in between the southernmost and northernmost regions can choose a date somewhere between the two.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Oklahoma Garden Planning Guide

Yes, it was definitely Reimer Seeds. They sure have a lot of vegetables. I looked thru the online catalog and they have some very interesting varieties of different veggies. They have packets of "Veggie Tales" for kids even. I will probably go ahead and order them. The seeds are kinda expensive, but I can't find them elsewhere and that's probably why they're a bit pricey. Yeah, I checked Park's Seeds for the Little Lucy seeds, and they did not have any listed this year....yet.

Thanks for the link. I'll save it to my favorites. I attached a link to their Okra varieties - they have quite a few!

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Reimer's Okra Seeds

They have a nice selection, but I still wouldn't order anything from them unless they're the only source for it. They have such awful reviews on the watch dog sites that I'd shop elsewhere if items are available elsewhere.

I have seen every okra on their website elsewhere except for SOK 6101, although that doesn't mean all those varieties are available elsewhere this year. Little Lucy is a perfect example---it was available several places last year, but so far for 2011 it seems to be available only at Reimer's in the USA.

I bought two packs of Little Lucy from Park Seed last year, and planted one pack last year and have one left for this year. I guess next year I may have to worry about where to find the seed, or I can try saving seed from this year's plants. Some people have had good luck with saved F-2 seed from Little Lucy, but I don't know if that has continued on with F-3, F-4, etc.

In general, when I see bad reviews on an independent review site, I don't shop at that supplier unless they are a sole source for the seed I want. I spend a lot on seeds, but I am careful about the suppliers I use. There are a lot of them out there and some of them do not meet "my" standards for germination or customer service.

I just don't understand a great dwarf okra that's highly ornamental being dropped by a major seed company like Park when edible gardening is hugely popular. That's why I wonder if Monsanto dropped the seed from production.

Wonder if it had anything to do with the transfer of ownership. Maybe they dropped the source if it didn't warrant continuing with them or some such reason.

Oh, I didn't mean I was going to order anything else from them. I, too, have seen the reviews. In fact, after searching the net for several days for Little Lucy, I finally caved and brought up Reimer's to look at the Okra seeds. Even tho they have popped up in my search results many, many times, I've never even looked at their store. BTW, Park Seed hasn't done too well in the ratings for the last several years either. In the last year, the negatives outnumbered the positives, so let's hope they get back on track.

Susan

Susan,

I hope they get back on track too. It has been such a long, slow decline for Park that I do think they'll have to work really, really hard to win back customers. I've never had trouble with their seeds or customer service, but their plants in recent years were pitiful, even allowing for the fact that most mail-order plants are very small. I switched to buying plants from Select Seeds Antique Flowers as they ship much larger, healthier plants that take off very quickly when set out in the ground or in containers.

Dawn

I've never ordered a plant from Select Seeds. I have a guy in Arkansas that I order some natives from that sells on eBay, and also, Bustani. I hope a lot of people will consider Steve for plants, too, because talk about fantastic plants. He's already become widely known because I've run across people from both coasts who are very impressed with his plants.

Susan