Stealth plants and containers

I have been late getting a post out because I had a little operation done. All is well now and I am back to work. In this post, I will cover container growing and stealth plants.

Many plants, even trees, can sucessfully be grown in containers. The keys to success are to have the right soil, to have enough soil and to have the proper sunlight for each plant.

One of the easiest food plants to grow in a container is radishes. They grow quickly and provide the closest thing to instant gratification there is in the plant world. The small round type can be grown in as little as three inches of soil if it is rich soil.

Other plants need more soil. In general, if you can get at least ten inches of soil depth, you can grow most of the common food plants. Fourteen inches will grow just about everything.

Containers can be made of many different materials. There are a few to avoid, such as treated wood and containers that have held toxic substances. Otherwise, wood, concrete, some plastics and terra cotta are good choices.

Place the container in the proper sun and you will have success. One point to remember is not to overwater. All containers should have drain holes to let exess water out. But they may drain slowly and keep the plants too moist. Overwatering is a common mistake with container gardening. Poke you finger an inch or two into the soil. If it is dry, give it a little water. The best test is to lift the conatiner a little to see how heavy it is. If it is too light, water it. Of course, with large containers, this is impractical.

Use a good, well balanced soil in your container. Remember also that the soil cannot absorb nutrients from the surrounding soil. So you will have to periodically feed the plants to keep them healthy. Any good balanced plant food will work, or organics, such as manure tea.

Stealth plants are plants that are food plants but are not generally recognized as food plants. So you can grow them and not have a big problem with people taking the harvest just as it gets right. Many common ornamental plants have a great deal of food value and are easy to grow. A few good stealth plants to grow are daylillies, nasturniums, roses and some unusual potato plants. There are many more stealth plants that you can research.

The next post, we will cover some stealth plants in depth and how to grow and prepare them for food.

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