GROWING VEGETABLES IN CONTAINERS ON A

STAND


The biggest mistake gardeners make each season is starting out
too big and then quickly realizing their large plot requires too
much weeding, watering, and backbreaking labor. Vertical
gardening guarantees a better outcome from the day the trowel
hits the soil-by shrinking the amount of "floor" space needed and
focusing on climbing plants that are less prone to insects,
diseases, and animal pests.
Notable author and gardener Derek Fell has tried and tested
thousands of varieties of vegetables, flowers, and fruits and
recommends the best plants for space-saving vertical gardening.
His grow-up, grow-down system also shows which ground-level
plants make good companions underneath and alongside climbing
plants. Best of all, many of Fell's greatest climbers and mutually
beneficial plants are available in seed packets in every local
garden center in US.
Growing vegetables in containers can be just as easy as growing
vegetables in soil,if you know how to work around the limitations
of container gardening.
A container vegetable garden has many advantages:
Convenience Container vegetable gardens are right outside
your door, footsteps away from your kitchen.
Freshness You cant get any fresher than right off the plant.
When growing vegetables in pots or window boxes, you can
harvest leafy vegetables as needed.
A potted vegetable garden can be boosted up on plant stands or
benches to make the pots more accessibleand add vertical flair
to your balcony farm. - See more at:
Beauty Container vegetable gardens are beautiful, not just
bountiful. Green, leafy lettuces, red tomatoes, and deep purple
eggplants delight the eye and add interest to any apartment
balcony or deck. Growing vegetables in pots or window boxes
expands the range of color and form available to container
gardeners.
Watering is by far the biggest concern when growing vegetables
in containers. Container vegetable gardens have limited root
zones, so they need frequent wateringsometimes twice a day in
hot weather, or on balconies exposed to lots of sun or drying
winds.
Often people refer to west to borrow and adopt in gardening at
homes. We in the east have a notion that , Rural is bad,urban is
better and Foreign is best. Often this is not true. I have been
involved in Rural Rechnologies since devades. Developing
countries development solutions should come from locally but not
imported. In the west,it is all consumer economy and unless you
price any commodity they wont even look into it while in the east
it is reverse. For Example when I designed Growing Green leafy
vegetables on book racks(which costs less than 50US$, an
American Inventor of Garden equipment design laughed at me
and said their system costsUS$ 2000 1 One should not forget the
fact that Bulock Cart is still one of the modes of transportation of
goods in rural India.
In a bid to have vertical stand vegetable growing,I have designed
a simple,innovative,novel cost effective system utilising local
resources and resourcefulness.
When you supply plant nutrients at the roots they wont go deep.
I have designed a stand(sturdy,iron) and fitted rings of about 1
foot diameter (3) in 3 layers. There is enough space between the
rings horizontally and spece to grow plants vertically. The base
has a strong round stand for stability(Iron). Pots(Conical) are
filled with soil and animal dung and natural fertilizer. Vegetables
seed lings or seeds like tomato,Bhendi and others are raised in
the pots. There is a small hole at the bottom of the pots to drain
away excess water. The pots chosen are of tough plastic for light
weight,durability and elegance. The plastic pots are covered with
thin black canvas so that due to sunlight absorption weeds wont
grow and evaporation water supplied is reduced. Moreover all the
nutrients in the container are taken by the plant.The stand is
painted with Redoxide to free it from rusting. Since the stand is
with in reach,watering is not a problem.
One can use this system to grow vegetables on the roof or in the
backyard. Rural women can grow vegetables in this way for
markeing on a small scale locally. The units are modular
depending on the requirement of vegetables.
The whole unit costs about Rs 2500 including pots and the cost
can be recovered in less than a year.
Earlier Dr.Jagadeesh designed a system to grow Niutritious Green
vegetables for all to be raised on Book Racks.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India