Guide to planting fruits/veggies in pots.

There are people who anyways direct plant their tomato, pepper seeds etc... Instead of starting seeds in small containers then potting up. with potting up once or twice, you bury the stem up to the first leaves and then roots grow from the buried stem. so you are just giving these plants time to produce a better root system before their final planting. Just having started your seeds in smaller containers is better than direct seeding. I pot up twice before final transplanting but thats because I am newer to gardening and I just want to follow what is most recommended. I am waiting on some seeds from the US and then I may be able to do a seed swap... :)

Some of my seedlings got their first leaves already but I have been so busy , I did not have time to transplant them yet. I have read that it is better to transplant them into a bit bigger pot first and only later put them into the bigger and final pot. I have never done that as I do not have enough of the small size pots. Do you know why is this recommended, what does it help with? I have planted 5 tomato varieties ( Marmande, Red Cherry , Costoluto Fiorentino, Principe Borghese and Micro Cherry) and I have 2 more varieties ( Ace and Matina ) which I want to plant as soon as I get some time. From the supermarket seeds I saved, only 2 peppers and 1 eggplant germinated. The rest are not showing any sign. If you are interested in seed swapping I would love to exchange as I have many opened packets which need to be used at one point :)) I can Post what I have and see if you are interested in anything.

I got all my soil order from shalimar too and thank God I the guy agreed to take all 25 bags up to my roof for me! I gave him a tip,a bag of cold drinks and even a new shirt because he was drenched in sweat! Poor guy!

Some of my seedlings have gotten their true leaves so I have potted them up to bigger pots... But I am still waiting for a little more than a dozen more seedlings to get their true leaves. After this potting up, I will pot them up one more time before planting them in their final pots! I found out about another new tomato variety named Orange Minsk so I just ordered some seeds... My chili pepper seeds were bad seeds (I stupidly bought them on Ebay) so I decided to order some a few different non-bitter eggplant varieties and one zucchini variety to grow instead. I hope they get here soon!

Hi girls..just wondering how are your veggies doing? Mine are still in the small pots i sowed them into. I have ordered my soild from shalimar and all the seedlings should be transplanted soon. I have planted tomatoes, peppers, chilli pepers , eggplant,zuchini,watermelon, melon and cucumbers. So far the best looking ones are the cucumbers. What about your garden? Oh, and today i had 2 big butterflies in my garden!!! They were so beautiful and it was the first time i ever saw wthem in dubai. Made my day <em>edited by Eli1979 on 03/10/2011</em>

Green-ish, LooooooL ok, that makes sense then! I miss being able to go to the lakes back home and watching/feeding the ducks!

I didn't know there were wild ducks here!!! I want some ducks! How cuuuute! Lol...I'm in Australia now Adaddon. ;)

I didn't know there were wild ducks here!!! I want some ducks! How cuuuute!

I have a culprit - DUCKS! Lol...our gorgeous, wild ducks who now have wee ducklings toddling along behind them. I have no problem sharing my crops, I just think the little blighters were greedy! Am going to try fencing the vege patch since they don't touch my neighbour's veggies on the other side of a very low fence.

oh nooooo! and unfortunately the plant row covers aren't so expensive but they absorb heat so you can't even use those in this weather... of course one company makes one that doesn't absorb heat but its not sold here!!! http://www.gardensalive.com/product.asp?pn=82274 now that I remember this I WISH (still wishing LOL) I had remembered to order this so my nephew who was vacationing in the US could have brought this back for me!!!! heyyy, I just did a google search for how to protect seedlings and here is a really good idea: "Toilet paper rolls, cut in half or thirds, place around seedlings when they sprout..." also: "As for protecting your seedlings or newly planted plants, then sticking twigs in the newly dug soil can keep cats off" thats easy and cheap if you have some toilet paper or even paper towels that are almost used up :D incidentally, I dropped the box with all of my tomato seeds waiting to sprout and totally dislodged almost everything so I have to start over. this time though, I am going to try this one tea prep for seeds that I read about online... http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/pepper/2002074906031735.html

OK, my new veggie patch is a complete disaster. :( Last night something ate every single one of my seedlings, except the corn and this morning I found the neighbour's cat munching on the corn!! FFS!! Wish I could afford a net/mesh/screen enclosure. :( I'll start again with seed tomorrow before the weather gets too hot...but this time I'll have a good chilli & garlic spray on hand to keep the little blighters away.

YAY! A gardening thread that has actually taken off and has some different advice and Points of view! Good reading ladies and my job for the week is to get up to the plant souk to buys big pots and soil! Did you get to the souk???? :D

Green-ish... ok, I won't be so disheartened... I am still a newbie and I just got my first successful tomatoes earlier this year. Last year I tried to start from seed in mid-February and by the time I got them into their final containers, it was way too late and they fried. I also tried carrots for the first time earlier this year and stupid me packed down the soil so much the carrot was not able to push all the way through the soil and I got little 1-2 inch carrots with a long string hanging off the end (that part was supposed to fatten up as part of the carrot too)--in my defense I googled up how to grow carrots and the very first page I read said to pack the soil down really well. Later on I found out I was supposed to let it be more loose. This year once the weather cools I am planning on mixing regular soil with some desert sand to make it nice and loose and try again :) Oh, also, I planted the carrots too late because by the time they were ready to pick, the temps were in the mid 30s. And I found out high temperatures make them bitter. So unfortunately, we did try the carrots, but they were bitter. As for the "I wish they sold..." I know I know... I have been here almost 6 years and still find myself saying it!! :P But I can't help it as I just started trying out some gardening last year so its all new to me and learning about all the kinds of stuff you can feed your plants, and accessories to help the plants grow... I can't help but dream... :P Eli979, that makes sense... Hopefully if I successfully grow these tomato/pepper varieties, I can save the seed for future success too.

I read somewhere that the success of growing vegetables in this extreme climate is all about the seeds. The best are those that have acclimatized - and that takes only a season. Since I did not save any seeds from my last year crop, I thought I could try with the supermarket ones. So today I have bought some locally grown capsicum, tomatoes and aubergines from Carrefour. I plan to take the seeds out , put them on a newspaper on top of the fridge and hope they will be ready to be planted in a couple of weeks . Will see how it goes and if I will have more success with those or the store bought seeds. Happy gardening! <em>edited by Eli1979 on 11/09/2011</em>

Hi girls. :) Don't be too disheartened Abaddon! Lol...I originally joined this forum for local gardening advice and called myself "Green-ish" because my thumbs aren't completely green! :D I'm a self-taught, trial-and-error gardener. lol Tomatoes have never been my strong suit. You had better stop the "I wish they sold..." line of thinking in Dubai. It will drive you MAD! Lol...they are KIDDING themselves - it's laughable that Dubai considers itself the shopping capital of the world. :D Eli...Thank you. :) I love it that I'm still welcome here in my second home. lol. On lettuce, I just used to pick up cheap packets of lettuce seeds at ACE or C4...any of the 'non-hearting' varieties. You can pick from them as they grow, removing just the outer leaves so the plant keeps producing. There is NOTHING like a salad you pick from the garden and eat straight away! :D Make sure you keep the pots well watered and feed regularly. I used to buy the smelly 'organic' pellets from the plant souk and soak a whole lot of them in a bucket to make a 'fertiliser tea'...dilute that in a watering can and water early in the morning to feed your green babies. :D Oops...children awake and demanding breakfast. Happy gardening girls! OOh...before I go. I like the fertiliser-in-the-tank idea Eli, BUT be careful because not all of your plants will have the same food needs. I always find it easier to grow similar 'feeders' together and feed each pot according to their needs. :)

Green-ish, I am disheartened to hear your roma tomatoes didn't do well.. I am planning on trying two paste varieties this year, San Marzano Redorta and Super San Marzano. I hope they don't turn out dry and tasteless! I am also going to try Either Kellog's Breakfast (an orange tomato) or Green Giant (as the name implies, a green tomato)--wish I could grow all but I think 3 will be enough to keep me busy trying to care for them. They will be in the fabric containers on the roof of our villa. The fabric pots I am buying are the brand Smart Pots and I am ordering them from the US. Unfortunately, I haven't seen them for sale here. I will have a whole new learning curve about watering plants in fabric pots though, because water will evaporate more than in plastic/clay pots. If they are successful, they should produce longer into when the hot season comes back because the fabric pots won't retain heat like plastic or ceramic. I wish they sold good tomato cages here. Like the brand Texas Tomato Cage or EZ Tomato Cage. They would be ridiculous to ship so I am hoping I can bring some as part of my baggage allowance next time I travel to the US and back to Dubai. I also wish they sold more gardening products here. And I wish I had a trip planned to go to the US in the near future so I can get a bunch of stuff I want but it looks like I won't be going till the Spring of next year. For other things I will try to grow this coming growing season-- I have seeds for yellow, red, and white carrot varieties that I will try once the weather cools significantly. Also golden beets. And French shallots since they are expensive here...might as well by a lil baggie or two of them and plant them to get much more in return. I bought seeds on Ebay of 4 pepper varieties (Atomic Heart, Cheyenne, Omni Colored, and Black Cobra) and I will try to grow them but I have found some info online that the seller does not sell good seed. I am hoping I got a good batch of each variety. And I hope they are the variety the seller claims I purchased! Of course the seller's feedback is 99% positive but everyone is reviewing about the fast shipping and not reviewing after trying to grow the plants. I have no garden space for anything so everything will be grown in containers. :)

Greenish, great to see you are still around!! Thank you for the tips and for sharing your Dubai vegetable growing experience. I can’t wait to start planting my garden this year. I am very excited, as this time round I actually have an irrigation system in place which I adapted to work for the pots. This will hopefully make a huge difference as the main issue I had the previous years was watering on time. Another problem was fertilizing without touching the leaves. One guy at Dubai Garden center has recommended a liquid organic fertilizer and has suggested placing it in the water tank of the irrigation system. Never thought abt that , but it’s a great idea and should make fertilizing so easy . I just hope I get the measure right and not kill the whole garden in one go! I also hope to be more organized this time and actually get to fill out that cute expensive garden diary I bought more than 2 years ago which is still laying around empty , without a single word in. :) May I also ask which lettuce variety did you have success with? I never manage to grow any, maybe because of the heat? It’s my favorite vegetable and would love to finally get to eat some from my garden.:):) <em>edited by Eli1979 on 09/09/2011</em>

Interesting Abaddon...I hadn't heard of 'fabric pots' before, apart from the good old hessian sack for growing potatoes. :D Just had a wee 'google' and they're great! Can you buy them in Dubai? Fabric pots are in complete alignment with my experience over there that veggies, herbs etc do better in large, deep, well-drained, UN-glazed pots. Large and deep to maintain moisture, but unglazed to allow some evaporation through the side, keeping the roots cool. I completely agree with Eli...MUCH easier to grow in pots, in a half decent potting mix. The couple of years that I tried garden beds cost a small fortune in fertiliser and water. Cheaper to shop at Spinneys than grow your own! Pots are far more efficient in that environment. I tried a few varieties of tomatoes and the only ones I had any success with were cherry tomatoes. It was just too hard to keep the water up and the pests off any of the big tomatoes. Roma tom's were a complete, dry, tasteless disaster for me. :( I'm a titch OCD ;) about my gardening and have just pulled out my Dubai planting diary. Things I had most success with over the winter, I planted from the end of Sept when the weather was really cooling off. If feeling really impatient, you could seed now and place the pots where they will only get morning sun then move them out for more sun in early Oct. Planting (seeds) now...broccoli, carrots, radish, celery, lettuce, Asian greens, peas, spinach, basil, parsley, (and from my ME gardening book, you could try kale, peas, potatoes, cauliflower...lots more if you want me to continue :D ). My tomatoes & cucumbers did better planted at the end of winter, with some shade from the summer heat. Carrots were the only things I had success with in the garden rather than pots. I never grew corn over there but it should do really well in the warmer months. One of my favourite purchases at the plant souk was a weeping mulberry tree in a huge pot. GORGEOUS, pretty tree with yummo fruit. You can't kill them (considered weeds in many countries!) and the kids love picking the berries. :) Full sun in the winter, shade for the hot months.

I grew 4 tomato plants earlier this year in 7 gallon pots. I bought a ton of tomato seed varieties but planted only determinate varieties (they are more suitable for smaller containers but only produce tomatoes once) I was not impressed with the tomatoes at all (they produced well but did not have that incredible homegrown tomato flavor. so in a week or two I am going to try a few other varieties... But am getting much larger 30 gallon pots since they are indeterminate varieties (meaning they will keep producing tomatoes till the growing season is over) But my husband got an inderminate cherry tomato plant from his friend last year that got really tall (over 8 feet) despite it being in a puny lil' 3 gallon pot. and it produced very well. Incidently, if you grow your plants in fabric pots they can still grow well in smaller size pots due to the way fabric pots help the roots of plants... I am trying fabric pots for the first time this year.

Hi Janesul..I am also planning to start a container garden this season. I have tried growing different vegetables and fruit in the garden but it did not work out.The soil /sand is too poor and had to fertilize and water way to often. I also grew tomatoes in big containers and they did very well! Had had plenty of supply for a couple of months.

i buy seeds in either the local mosque plant shop or one of the supermarkets - Carrefour / Lulu. About 2 weeks from now is roughly the earliest you should plant (depending on the seeds - they usually give you a guide on the packet). I have found that the following grow well from seed in pots - basil, rocket, parsley I have also grown tomatoes & aubergine successfully in pots but always started them in the garden and then transplanted the small plants into pots. I find carrots grow brilliantly in the soil here but never tried them in pots. I have had great difficulty growing beans & peas and limited success with peppers, chilli etc Hope this helps!