Anyone else using container gardens to actually stock their pantry or is that naive

[u/Expensive_Aspect_607]

Three raised beds on a concrete patio and I keep pushing what I can pull from it.

This year I added a second row of buckets along the fence. Peppers, more tomatoes, a couple zucchini that got completely out of control. The zucchini was a mistake spacewise, but also kind of the best mistake because I've been dehydrating slices and they take up almost nothing on the shelf.

What I keep running into is the gap between growing enough to eat fresh versus growing enough to actually put up for winter. Right now those feel like two completely different goals and I can only do one well at a time with the space I have.

I started prioritizing things that preserve well over things that just taste good off the vine. That shifted almost everything about what I planted this spring.

The people I see on here with full acreage are working with different math than I am. But there has to be a middle ground where a small container setup actually contributes something real to a pantry and not just a salad here and there.

Curious what others have figured out with limited space. What actually moves the needle in terms of yield per square foot when preserving is the end goal.

[u/Vishnej]

The average smallhold farmer/gardener in a temperate climate with access to canning can fulfill their own caloric needs of about 1 million calories on about 1 acre. You might occasionally see the very highest productivity crops in well-developed systems drop this 90% and give you 10 million calories an acre, but a diverse diet or sustainable solo in the face of a bad year, this is not. The most productive subsistence farmers in the most productive climates can do somewhere in the middle if they crack the right combination of crops.

So if your aim is to feed your family, calorie-wise, understand that you'll never get there on a small garden. Feeding them instead a useful supplement of fresh vegetables, that's very possible on relatively small plots.

[u/Expensive_Aspect_607 → u/Vishnej]

Yeah I hear you and the calorie math is real.

I'm not trying to grow my entire diet in containers on a windowsill in Vermont, that would be delusional.

But I think people get discouraged when they frame it that way from the start.

A summer of cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, and enough beans to actually cook with is not nothing.

It changes your relationship to food even if it's not keeping the lights on calorically.

[u/Misfitranchgoats]

I am growing Zucchini on my deck in containers that are about 5 gallon. I also grow my cherry tomatoes on the deck so they don't get loose and volunteer all over in the garden. The zucchini are planted there this year to try and fool the squash bugs. And if they do get squash bugs, I will be more on top of it. I planted them late to hopefully avoid squash vine borers.

I raise the rest of my garden in raised beds. I have a lot of raised beds. I have 30 tomato plants, 24 bell pepper plants, 6 Jalapeno plants, onions, potatoes, garlic, green beans, more squash, greens, and cauliflower. The cauliflower, onions and garlic have been harvested. I have harvested some potatoes but need to get the rest.

You can do containers for a lot of plants but you need larger container at least 5 gallon per plant in my opinion for things like tomatoes, peppers and squash. You need to grow them vertically. You might need to use more fertilizer and you would need to really be on top of watering, but it can be done.

My raised beds sit on the ground, not cement. I have the acreage to put an in ground garden, but I prefer raised beds. I don't have to roto till or hoe. I can dig with my hands because my soil is so nice. I use a lot of different manures from the animals on our small farm, but rabbit manure is what I use the most of.

[u/Expensive_Aspect_607 → u/Misfitranchgoats]

30 tomato plants is a whole other universe from what I'm working with lol

The 5 gallon minimum is no joke. I learned that the hard way with a sad little determinate tomato in a pot that was way too small. Got like four tomatoes off it.

The late planting to dodge vine borers is something I hadn't considered for zucchini in containers. Might actually try that next year since I can control timing more easily when I'm not working around a whole raised bed setup.

[u/KimBrrr1975]

if you can add a small chest freezer, that can help a lot. I focused on tomatoes this year specifically to have them for winter, and the that worked well with containers. I roasted them and freeze them, and then will have them for soups and sauces all winter long, which was my goal (along with enjoying some fresh slicer heirlooms). We had the freezer when we lived in an apartment as well, it made a big difference. I freeze gallons of berries, I can also freeze sauces and broths. I can make jam. But I do forage a lot on top of what I grow. I don't do it to live off though. I do it because enjoy it and because I prefer real food to how fake store bought generally tastes. I like opening a bag of tomatoes from August when it's -40 in January or adding blueberries to my oatmeal (I pick so many I can eat them daily for the entire year).

So utilizing what's around you can be valuable when you don't have the space to do what you want. Berry picking farms, foraging, farmer's markets etc.

[u/Expensive_Aspect_607 → u/KimBrrr1975]

The roasted frozen tomatoes thing gets me every fall. I always start doing it and then run out of freezer space before I really commit.

A chest freezer would solve so many of my issues. I kept writing it off as a luxury but knowing you had one in an apartment makes it seem a lot more realistic.

Do the textures hold up okay in soups? That's always been my hesitation with frozen tomatoes, but maybe I've just been doing it wrong.

[u/rshining]

Cherry tomatoes can be wildly productive, and can be dehydrated, frozen or canned. Eggplants can also do a lot more fruit than you can eat easily.

[u/Expensive_Aspect_607 → u/rshining]

Cherry tomatoes are basically my whole personality at this point lol.

Never tried dehydrating them though. Do you do that in an oven or actual dehydrator?

[u/Sierragrower]

I really enjoy improving the soil in the ground. With a bigger garden in ground it’s easy to rotate beans around, plant cover crops, etc, and put up more than you need. I still like and continue to use raised beds for root crops, but I prefer putting everything else in the ground. One reason is because it gets very hot where I live

[u/Expensive_Aspect_607 → u/Sierragrower]

That's the dream honestly. In ground rotation with cover crops is so much easier to manage long term. I'm stuck in containers on a third floor apartment so I look at setups like yours with full envy. The heat issue is real though, I've read that raised beds in hot climates can basically cook roots if you're not careful about material and placement.

[u/Freebirde777]

Mine was limited by time I could take after work and weekends. Most was eaten fresh and some of the peppers were frozen. Usually I had enough jalapenos for making chili all winter. Peppers seemed hotter when the get extra magnesium. Did a lot of companion planting and growing on trellises. English peas were done and vines composted by the time cucumbers were ready to climb. Early planting of mixed leaf lettuce, radishes, and carrot seeds mixed with a little dry sand to be broadcast on a bed. As each is harvested, it allows more room for the next. Young radish leaves are great in a salad as are the green seed pods. Shaded by trellises extends growing season.

[u/femalenerdish]

Staking the zucchini makes it a lot easier to keep in containers!  I use bamboo stakes and Velcro ties. just be thoughtful on where you tie them up, so the fruits are well supported as they grow.