Dear angierainbow83, Please think about the info from Jodi and Al. I add my own story below. Since thinking through my own experiences will help me too, I hope you don't mind. I believe for me, I need to separate the garden beds from my containers; just as a two bedrooms can be used differently while still being a room, a separate approach to garden beds (to use Al's words, more "organic") vs. containers (more "inorganic") is still gardening. Good luck on your journey! Over the past few years I seem to be suffering from a case of harvest envy. Due to space and location, I do not have the ability to grow vegetables in the ground due to shade, but I do have a very sunny spot where containers work fine. I have "successfully" grown various vegetables (and am lazily including tomatoes in this category). I say "successfully" since I have never been able to come close to the level of harvest that neighbors get when the essentially identical plants with similar methods EXCEPT the plants are grown in the ground. In fact, I can say this with with confidence since I have provided them with their plants. I have experimented with various combinations of top soil, organic potting soil, compost and small gravel. (I won't go into nutrient supplements I have tried.) I have used about 15gal lightly-colored plastic pots raised off the ground. Given my growing climate, young plants move into these pots in early May and typically are taken down sometime after Columbus Day. The plants are still producing, but the colder temps negative influences many of the types I grow. In the case of eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, for example, my plants are 5-6ft tall and produce a crop not quite sufficient for a small family throughout much of the season. When I take the pots down at the end of the season, I typically find the exterior soil to be damp/dry while the center below the stem and near the main roots to be very wet. Further, there are many small roots near the soil surface, possible due to the thin mulch layer I applied (thinking I needed more moisture retention). There are some larger roots that spread in the pots, but not a tremendous amount. The best fruiting, distribution and size of roots was in the year where I only used organic potting soil without a mulch cover. Although I can't say with 100% certainty that by making the soil more organic I caused this problem since from year to year I changed conditions (and growing conditions change too), the evidence is pretty well stacked against me.

DL, I use a Myco product called Actinovate, and it works great in my SWCs. It is made by a Company in Houston called Natural Industries, I believe. Worms Way has it on the Web. Raybo

When it comes to bare-roots, that April chill and damp is a good thing. I'd sort them out and put the ones with big root systems right in the ground and hill them up with soil (you can cover the dirt mound w/leaves or mulch to slow it from drying out). The wimpy looking ones or where they cut the roots real short can go in a 2 to 5 gallon pot, whatever the root system needs. The president of our local ARS puts his new bare-roots in pots, mostly while he decides if they're keepers-- (he shows a lot). He mixes garden dirt, finely shredded pinebark, and perlite as he's retired and it's waaaay too expensive to purchase potting soil for the roses he starts every year. He gave me a couple he started this way and they've very heavy to lift cuz of the dirt but the roses look fabulous.

seedmama - The same year you paid $11, I paid $22 for the bales. The next time I bought bags (like Chandra), not bales because I bought them for the same price Chandra did. They were loading our truck with a fork lift and Al told me I probably didn't have enough so I had them go get me another load. I don't know how long it will stay good, but so far it is fine except the open bag had some ants in it. I used it anyway and the seeds came up just fine. So far, so good. Seeing the pelicans coming in today makes me think I will be doing some more seed starting soon. Yes, I know it is winter still. I had planned to start the Spring things a week earlier than usual, but in my head that date keeps slipping forward.