As opposed to the weather I see being experienced in North Idaho as photographed by @generikat, we continue to have full blast summer here (dare I mention that dreaded drought word again?). So throughout our summer I have been posting about different ways of growing plants to try and optimise results with limited resources. Bokashi tea was one, another being container planting which is what I wanted to follow up on here.
Cape Gooseberry plant in container
I did an initial planting with the ‘grotainer’ as I call it (soil, air, water with a wicker basket and nutrition provided through the water) which had a cayenne chilli plant seedling in it, and I placed some spinach seeds in the soil. The only watering was done through the ‘overflow’ hole n the bottom container. Six weeks later these are the results…..
Cayenne chilli plant, healthy, happy and producing chillies
Baby spinach, already being used in our salads
An update on the ‘pink pot’ grotainer which contains the gooseberry bush … I topped up the water (through the white pipe) this morning and it took 4 litres of water to which I added some bokashi tea (well diluted)
Healthy tall plant with lots of new growth and fruit flowers
Black circle indicates the first gooseberry… safely in it’s pod
I have a third pot grotainer in which I have planted a green pepper seedling, and some beetroot seeds in the soil. I will NOT be doing organic fertilisation with this bucket but rather using commercially sold fertiliser.
All in all, if you have limited space and / or water this does appear to be the way to go as the plant is never under stress as it takes the water it requires as and when required. NO over / under watering and nutrients can be provided by dissolving in the water or using liquid fertilisers such as bokashi or worm tea.
Thanks for reading!!
