what's going on growers its James Prigioni coming

to you live from jersey growing food is my passion

and i think everyone should have the opportunity

to grow their own fruits and vegetables

so today i want to show you how you can grow your

own fruits and veggies in containers let's go

one thing that i like to emphasize on my channel

is that you don't need a lot of space to grow

your own food in fact you don't need any land at

all you can grow in containers and pots on your

own patio just like i'm doing here we've got

a lot of different stuff growing on this patio

and i wanted to do this to show you that you can

grow food in a very simple but functional way a

lot of the pollinators are out today and they're

working on some of my cantaloupes here we've got

some watermelon some tomatoes peppers a bunch of

different stuff but this is the goal this is where

we want to get to growing a lot of this stuff and

soon be harvesting let me show you how i got to

this point the first thing we need to focus on

when growing planted containers is the container

what pot we're going to actually use so there's

three things we need to focus on when it comes

to containers the first one is that you have to

have to this is the most important you must have

drainage holes at the bottom that's so important

if you don't have drainage holes at the bottom of

your bucket then the water is going to sit it's

going to go anaerobic which means without oxygen

and the roots need oxygen to grow or they're going

to die so you'll have root rot and that will not

be good for your plant so holes on the bottom

number one so important the second thing that's

important is the color of your pots right here

i've got a white pot this is convenient this is

not gonna absorb the sun like some of your black

pots are i'll bring you right here to this black

pot this was just an extra pot that i got from a

fruit tree this thing is going to heat up a lot in
the sun which isn't a big deal if it's the spring
or the fall or you live in a northern climate but

if it's a super hot climate that'll heat up too

much and possibly cook your plants so the color

of the pot is going to be important and there's

one other important thing when it comes to growing

in pots especially these five gallon pots like i'm

doing right here and it must be food grade plastic

so you don't want to just get one of the standard

lowe's five gallon buckets you want to make

sure that they're food grade so that you're safe

actually growing the food in there so these pots

i just got at home deep or lows they were a couple

dollars but they're going to last a little while

they're super light this right here would be nice

to grow in these clay pots because they're porous

which means that they absorb some of the water

and then the roots could suck it back out of the

pot but it's very heavy and they crack easily and
also in the winter they'll freeze over and then

unfreeze so they're not really good in a northern

climate you got to bring them inside it's not

ideal so that's why i love growing in these five

gallon buckets right here now that we've chosen

what containers we're going to be using let's

focus on the soil when it comes to soil the most

important thing is that you do not use native

soil for your potted plants it's way too dense

you want to either make your own soil or buy

some potting mix so right here is a good potting

mix i like happy frog but when you're buying soil

make sure it's potting mix you do not want to use

topsoil in your pots either that can get expensive

if you want to buy your own bags of soil so what

i like to do is just make my own mix let me give

you my ingredients for a simple way to do it the

simplest way to go about it would be one-third of

compost right here i have a nice mushroom compost

so we've got a third bucket full for this and

then one third of peat moss right here and you

can either use peat moss or cocoa core whatever

one you want to use i personally like using peat

moss because uh the structure of it more even

though it's not as environmentally sustainable

and then also you have to add perlite a

third of perlite so one third of all these

will give you great fertilization and nutrition

with your compost and then these two are going

to help with soil structure and water retention

which is super important when you're going in pots

this soil mixture it's about as simple as you can

do it but there are a few things i would suggest

adding especially if you want to grow things

like cucumbers and melons things that aren't

super acid loving and that's some dolomite lime

so the stolomite lime is going to bring up the ph

of your soil because we're adding this peat moss

and this pmos is acidic so we want to make sure

we're raising that soil ph back up the dolomite

lime is also going to add calcium and magnesium

so i'm making here about a half of a cubic foot

of soil and i'm going to put two ounces of lime

into that before i start mixing all this stuff

together i wanted to mention something about

this perlite and this pearlite is good stuff this

is the bag i got it from and any ingredients and

everything i use i'll put links in the description

but this is good perlite this is pure i went to

home depot or lowe's and i tried to get their

pur perlite and i noticed on the package that

it says it's enriched with miracle grow plant

food i definitely do not want that so make sure

you're paying attention to the stuff you're

getting i just wanted a pure perlite so that's

what i got here let's start getting all the stuff

together now and we'll put the compost in first

i'm gonna make one bucket of soil that's why i

have three buckets that they're all a third of
so i'll put the compost in there first
then i'm gonna put the perlite in

and just be careful you may wanna wear a mask

when you're doing this because some of the dust

and stuff can come up so just be careful next

we're gonna put in the peat moss just put that in

then i'm going to add the lime

and there's a couple other things you can

add you can add blood meal if you want

and a bunch of different rock phosphates this

is some rock dust this is azomite greenway this

stuff is awesome i'll put links in it so i'm just

going to add a nice handful of this stuff and then

it suggested that you kind of just wet it down a

little bit so everything doesn't get too airborne

i don't like wetting it too much because

i like to get a good combination of things

then i'm just going to mix it with my hands

because when it comes down to it playing in

the dirt and playing the soil is like one of my

favorite things so we're just gonna mix this up

and get a nice consistency you see there's a

lot of perlite in here and a lot of peat moss

so you don't have to go these exact ratios this

is just a good one for potted plants because

you're going to find out that one of

your issues is with the soil drying out

the soil will dry out so quickly if you don't make

a good soil mix and put in things like peat moss

and perlite things that are excellent at retaining

soil moisture but also building soil structure

this is all mixed up good next we're going to

grab our food grade 5 gallon bucket and fill it up

i'll just fill it by hand one thing to note too

is when you're when you're filling up your buckets

and stuff make sure that you fill them up in the

location where you're going to plant the stuff

because once they're filled with soil and they

get wet these things are going to be heavy
so have them in the location have them
in the spot that they're going to live

and i'm not going to fill this up all the

way i'm going to fill it up to about there

this way i can add some compost and top dress if

i want to next we want to saturate this completely

fill it up with water and get it all mixed because

we don't want a lot of the soil at the bottom to

be like all dry we want to make sure this thing

is completely saturated and we don't really have

to worry about being over saturated because

we have nice drainage holes at the bottom

so i'm just going to continue to mix this you'll

notice as i'm watering it it's starting to compact

a little bit more so we'll put some more soil in

just to make sure we're about three quarters full

and then water it in again the water is all

absorbed into our soil and it's looking really

nice we're not worried about sitting water because

we have the nice drainage holes at the bottom now

i'm just going to show you how i transplant

right here i've got a fig that i've actually

uh cloned myself i did it previous in the

season you can check back at some of the videos

what i'm going to do is just take out some

of the soil so i can easily drop this fig in

you can see how wet the soil is all the way
throughout that's what we want then i'm just going

to loosen up the sides and you can see i reused

an old pot that i got from somewhere so and then

i'll just flip it upside down the roots don't

look fantastic but they still look pretty good

we'll drop this in actually before that i'm

going to put on put some mycos on it this

is a inoculant of the mycorrhizal association

this is a fungus that's has forms a symbiotic

relationship with the roots and they help

support one another so we use some of that

i'll push this place this there actually

i can probably put a little more soil
here and then we'll just backfill
around the plant with the soil

and i've got a little more soil if i need more

off to the side here so it looks like i

need still just a little bit more soil

and i'm going to grab it so this one

isn't wet yet but i'll just water it in

and we want to push this down not really hard but

relatively firm so we're feeling any air space

and then since i added some more soil i'm

just going to water it back in one more time

and that's how easy it is you don't want to

ever really fill your pots all the way to the

top though because you want to be able to water it

and allow the water to sit in there and then sink

in you don't want to you know just have the soil

all the way to the tippy top that's not going to

be ideal for your plants another convenient thing

about these five gallon buckets is the handles on

the side and these leaves are a little green but

that potting and that transplanting with the new

fertilizer in the soil should really help it's

another hot day here and tuck is actually just

sitting inside watching me while we're right

outside on the patio because it's just too hot

for them dedicated though he's still watching

out for us he's still guarding the garden

but it's tough because we added a whole another

section this patio so he's got more garden area

to protect this guy never has a day off now that

we have our pots chosen our soil made and our

plants in them we're starting to grow and when you

get to this point you're going to notice one thing

you really need to stay on with potted plants

is watering them they'll dry out ex extremely

quickly especially once they get started to get

really large because the root base is taking up

a good percentage of the pot so it's a good idea

to have some mulch in there like i have for my
fig tree right here this is a nice wood chip
mulch and i'm having a little bit of trouble

getting wood chip mulch at this time of the year

just with everything that's going on but the fig

is doing great with the mulch you can see it's

got some nice little figs on it so watering is

again so important so a good mulch will help you

i'm actually gonna get some leaves and then crush

those up and use those as a mulch but a good way

to know if your plants need to be watered a good

way i like to know is i like to check my weight so

i just watered this it's very heavy i know that so

i'll come out in a day or two and i'll feel the

weight if i feel like it's getting pretty light

i know that i need to water you don't want your

plants drying out though if they completely dry

out that'll really really negatively affect

them it'll make the roots go searching for

water and it'll just stress the plant out potted

plants and ones growing in containers like this

need to be fed more often with a fertilizer

than your ones growing in the ground because

everything that the plant needs to

get has to come from this container

so i like to feed my plants regularly with some

fish emulsion that's a good one i use that for

basically any kind of plant and it works real well

but another one that i use if i really want to get

big healthy great plants is this one right here

i love this product and it's a great company too

it's ivy organics and this is the all-purpose it's

the super blend and it's got your npk but it also

has a lot of the macronutrients so it's got a

lot of stuff in there that a lot of the other

simple fertilizers just don't have so you can use

this as a spray and it'll work for 20 gallons or

you can use it in a few different ways one way i

like to use it is as a top dressing so i take some

of this stuff in here i'll take like a tablespoon

or so mix it into here maybe a little more till i

feel like it's a about right then i'll mix all

this up in some of the soil that i just made

then i'll go around to some of my plants

like we'll say this pepper right here

this one's growing real well as you can see

beautiful pepper looks like we're gonna have a

lot of nice peppers it's starting to flower and

then i'll just put top dressing around the base

of it this has the fertilizer in it so every time

i water this in it'll just uh it'll just soak it

all in so that's one way that i like to use this

fertilizer but it's also great when you use it

as a foliar spray whatever fertilizer you want to

use that's up to you but just make sure you have a

lot of the principles that's what's important

when you're going with pots you can also use

some seaweed extract and stuff like i mentioned

there's a bunch of different fertilizers whatever

you think works well for you then go ahead and use
that one so i'm just going to water this in and

that'll feed the plant nicely i want to show you

some of the stuff i'm growing one of the things

that i haven't shown you yet this year and i'm

super excited about i have it in the food forest

too right here is the red malabar spinach look at

this such a cool plant a beautiful edible and this

is called malabar spinach it's not a true spinach

but it tastes really good and you can eat it like

a spinach the reason i love this is because once

spinach is basically done for the year because it

gets too hot is when the malabar spinach starts

to come up so it's like we're always eating these

fresh greens grated stir-fry get grated salads

and they have this thick succulent leaf to them

full of water an earthy flavor just really a

fantastic plant overall so easy to grow and i

think in the tropics it grows as a perennial

and just around here we grow it as an annual
but it's something great you got to put into
your garden you'll notice this section though

how what i try to do to get more space out of the

container area is i put this fence up back here

so whenever you're container gardening what

you've got to try to do is be as creative

as possible and try to utilize the space as

best you can that's why we always try to go

vertical if possible i've got all my cucumbers

and stuff going growing back there and then all

my peppers and stuff growing in the front

another thing that we should think about

when we're container gardening is the how we're

situating our plants and the arrangement of them

for instance the location i'm in right now

the south is right that direction there

straight ahead of me so if i'm if i point this way

that's the south and that's the north and when it

comes to patios you can't really choose where

you put everything but if you could try to make

sure your shortest plants are on the south side

and then that ascends up to your tallest plants

being on the north side this way when the sun sets
rises in the east it'll sit in the south and then

set in the west so it'll rise in the east and

hit all this stuff and then when it sets in the

west it'll hit some of the stuff in the back but

you want to make sure that you're not having all

your tall plants in the south here because when

the sun comes up and it sits in that south side

if all your tall plants are on the north it'll

shade everything on that far side so again shorter

plants in the south and then ascending with your

tallest plants in the north before i let you go i

just want to show you my setup it's very basic and

the reason i did that is because like i mentioned

beginning i want it to be simple but functional so

i just have a couple concrete blocks two here and

then one here and then just a piece of wood on

top of it i think it's about a two by eight or
two by ten just something that's pretty wide to
keep the the pots here then what i did was just

put up this fencing and i fortunately found a six

foot fence which is pretty rare usually i can only

find like four foot ones but i got a nice six foot
fence here and then put in these uh posts and just

t posts and just knock them in and that's made a

perfect uh area for me to trellis along getting

all that extra growth space that's today's video

growers thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed it

i hope you got something out of it i hope you're

encouraged and motivated now to get out there if

you have any space and get some potted plants in

so you can be harvesting your own natural organic

just amazing tasting food if you enjoyed the

video hit the like button hit the subscribe button

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also on tick tock so check that stuff out tuck

in james we'll be back at you again real soon

we out!