container gardening - my mistakes

[isaeed]

I have used some large pots having height of more than 24 inch for planting annuals.The Mali filled it upto the top with mix of garden soil,bhal,sand,leaf mould and plant fert.Next we planted flowering plants such as calcoleria,petunia violas etc.I did not find anything wrong in this methodology and continued repeating it every spring.However I have now realized the many mistakes that we had commited in this process.I list some below.Members may find others

!) The mix used was not right -should have used a potting mix which is lighter,has better water retention characteristics but at the same time, good drainability
2)filling up the pot to the top with the above mix made it so heavy that it almost needed a crane to move it to any desired location
3)The plants had a shallow root zone so a deep pot mix was quite unnecessary.

lessons learnt are as follows,
1)Dont use soil from your garden.It is heavy and replete with weeds,bugs or their eggs.Instead use a soilless potting mix made from organic material,coco peat,burnt rice husks,sand.pelite etc or buy substrate which has all these present
2)Fill the bottom half of the pot with lightweight material or place a smaller pot in an inverted position at the bottom and then fill with potting mix
Hope members find the above usefull.Any suggestions ,comments will be welcome
Irfan Saeed

[Mustansir Billah]

Gardening is all about experimenting and learning lessons from past mistake...

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

Hi
Irfan Saeed,
Size of a pot Should be smallest that would meet the requirement of the plant/planting keeping in mind the root system.
I plant lilium bulbs in 14-16 inch deep pot ,Where as I use 8-10 inches pots for my Amaryllis. Bigger pots are required for bushes and shrubs.
The well tested proven soil that you have used so far is still the best, any way find it out your self.
If you do not want to discard and replace the large pots, simply fill the un-required depth with packing foam .
Arif