How To Grow Sweet Potatoes In Containers

Easy vegetables for container gardening. Best tips on how to grow tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, zucchini, cucumber, potatoes etc in pots!

No matter how big or small a garden you have, it is fun to grow your own food in even tiny spaces on patios, decks, and balconies. Before we talk about all the delicious vegetables you can grow in containers, here are a few basic important rules that apply to all container vegetable gardening.

Water-loving vegetables such as lettuce, cucumber, and eggplant do best in plastic or glazed ceramic containers, which are impervious and retains moisture better. Always make sure to have drainage holes on the bottom of containers.

Containers require more regular watering than in ground gardens. In hot and dry climate, self-watering planters with built-in reservoirs are good choices.

When in doubt, choose larger containers 12 inches or deeper. Bigger pots also hold more soil, so the plants don’t dry out as quickly between watering.

Now let’s look at some easy and best veggies to grow in your container garden!

Lettuce

Lettuce is one of the easiest vegetables to grow. Check out our 16 favorites here.

Most varieties of lettuce grow easily in pots. Because lettuce have shallow roots, the best containers are wide and shallow, 6-8 inches deep is often enough. You can either direct sow your lettuce seeds in the pots or transplant seedlings into bigger pots. Source: Fine Gardening | Renee’s Garden

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are most popular vegetables for container gardening. The compact bush or determinate tomato varieties, grow especially well in pots or grow bags from 5 gallon to 20 gallon in size. Indeterminate tomato varieties grow larger and do better in large pots 20 gallon or bigger. Source

Onions
Onion containers should have at least 10 inches of soil depth. Each onion needs about 4 inches of space to grow. You can plant multiple onions in a 5 gallon bucket or even a plastic tub.

We also love to grow onion scraps from grocery store onions. You can use the green shoots as scallions. Sometimes they will even grow into multiple heads of onions. Tutorial on how to grow onion scraps here!

Eggplant
Eggplant loves lots of sunlight and heat. Choose the hottest location, and a large pot at least 15 gallon in size. Keep soil moist but not soggy. Source

Peppers
Peppers are easy to grow in pots and look beautiful when they fruit, with peppers of so many shapes and colors. There are so many varieties of peppers. For best results, look for varieties that are labeled “compact” or “for containers”. Source

Bell peppers can benefit from support trellises because of the heavier fruits. Install the support such as stakes or tomato cages shortly after planting to minimize damage to the brittle pepper plants.

Zucchini
When growing zucchini in pots, bush types such as ‘Astia’ and ‘Bush Baby’ are especially great for container planting. Via Growing North

You can plant zucchini in 5 gallon or larger pots. Zucchini plants love moist soil and hot sun, so keep them well watered. Fertilizers formulated for other fruiting vegetables like tomatoes and peppers are good for zucchini plants.

Cabbage
There are many different types, in various shapes, sizes and colors, for harvesting at different times of the year.

For container planting, choose cabbage varieties with small to medium size heads. Plant one head of cabbage in each 5 gallon or larger pots. Via Amy on Instagram

Mustard greens
Like many leafy greens, mustard greens are cool season vegetables that are some of the easiest to grow in containers. The best type of containers to grow mustard greens are shallow and wide. You can even use window boxes or wine crates to grow mixed greens, like in Karin‘s beautiful balcony garden.

Bok choy
With tender leaves and succulent stems, fabulous flavors and high vitamin content, Bok Choy is one of our favorite vegetables that is also one of the easiest vegetables for container gardening . These favorites from Asia are popular in a variety of dishes. The small plants are upright and compact, which makes them perfect for growing in pots. Via Savvy Gardening

Potatoes
They require a rich, free-draining soil mix, such as good garden soil, horticultural sand and manure or compost mixed together using a 1:1:1 ratio. A pot provides warmer soil temperatures as it can transfer heat from the sun directly into the root environment. Via Garden of Eaden

Beets
Beets are easy-to-grow cool season vegetables with delicious greens and roots. Similar to onions, beets are compact root vegetables which grow well in containers. Each beet needs about 4 inches of space and 10 inch of soil depth to grow. Via Container Garden Beds

Radish
Radishes are fast growing vegetables for container gardening. Grow them indoors on a windowsill or outdoors in pots. Via Savvy Gardening

For most common radish varieties, like Easter mix or French Breakfast, select a pot that’s at least 6 inches deep, with 2 to 3 inches of spacing between plants.