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.

Joppa - growth rate is significantly affected by the degree of root compaction. The less compacted, the greater the growth rate, all else being equal. There is no notable difference in growth rate between plants in small containers vs plants in large containers until the plants in small containers develop congested roots. The turning point is about when the root/soil mass can be lifted from your containers intact. IOW, if you pot into a 1 gallon container now, and pot up before the root mass can be lifted from the container with soil intact, you're golden. Starting small helps you avoid over-watering due to over=potting. While the 5:1:1 and the gritty mix are very forgiving in terms of reducing the likelihood of over-watering, with the 5:1:1 mix you still have to be in the ball park, and there is no sense in tempting fate. The gritty mix would be best for your plant, but the 5:1:1 mix will also work very well. Best luck!! Al

From left to right: Fafard 3B Fafard 3B 1 bag 3B + 1 bag pine bark fines 1 bag 3B + 1 bag pine bark fines 1 bag 3B + 2 bags of pine bark fines 1 bag 3B + 2 bags of pine bark fines 70% coconut coir + 30% perlite (I normally don't start any scotch bonnet pepper plants in the summer (it is too hot, buggy, and rainy) but this year thought I would give it a shot plus do more in the fall. They last longer than 1 season. We don't get freezes.) Here is just a sampling of some of them. Fafard 3B --great right out of the bag Actually had flowers and now fruit way ahead of others by 7 or 8 days. They have the greatest height and most dense foliage. One of the 4 plants I did with 2 to 1 ratio (PB to 3B) is just as tall and full but one is much shorter for some reason. I expect all of the extra pine bark component ones to do well. The 2 PB to 1 Fafard 3B ratio should be good over the long haul. (They also make a mix called Fafard 52 which I only was able to find once. It was 60% bark.) Fafard 3B is 45% peat and 30% pine bark (one site said 25 % pine bark). I am hoping this also will hold up well --I have used peat based mixes with no pine bark with good results so the pine bark should make it even better as the mix degrades. Coir is plugging along--not quite up to speed with the others but still doing OK. It is the final one of the group. The transplants seedlings I did in coir did awful. There are very good potting mixes on the market and pre mixed makes it super easy . Or buy your own ingredients and mix yourself--that can work equally as well too. Your choice. For many annuals like vegetables --longevity of the mix if you are dumping in raised bed after one season or not reusing is not all that crucial as long as the mix is well draining but nutrient retentive as well. L.O. Can you post pics of your vegetables in the gritty mix? How many times do you expect to reuse?

Hi Laura: As Jacqueline, Tessie, and JeriJen often said: "location, location ...." Tapla's recipe of 5 parts fine mulch, 1 part peat moss, 1 part perlite is best for climate like mine: low-sun, flash flood warning and fast drainage is a must. It is recommended by Douglas Green, an owner of a large Ontario nursery of many plants in pots, including roses. If I use Al's 5-1-1, there is no need to put loose gravels or bark nuggets at the bottom for fast drainage. However, I use super-slow draining MiracleGro in green bag, and medium-slow draining Organic MiracleGro. I skipped this important process of putting loose stuff at the bottom, and regret it terribly. Now I have to dump the soil out of each pot, and start all over. I realize this after a heavy-rain simulation with a hose, with the pot flooding over and loses 1" of soil - which happens every time it rains here! Sure, Field Roebuck said it's not important, just put a paper towel at the bottom of the pot, and fill up with soil. His Texas climate doesn't have the low-sun, and 6" of rain flash flood. Each region should have its own recipe of best potting soil. Now I realize that the regular MiracleGro potting soil (green bag) might have been made for indoor pots, where one puts 1 measly cup of water per week. It's not meant for several outdoor heavy thunderstorms with 4 to 6" of rain per bout like my climate.