How to Grow Organic Container Crops

Story by Phil Dudman

PHIL DUDMAN shares an idea for maximizing returns with container growing, along with his prized recipe for an organic potting mix that guarantees success every time.

This photo shows a fun idea for growing your vegies in pots. All I’ve done is scattered some seeds on top of the mix and let them go, and just look at the results. It’s like a miniature crop!

These are Asian Greens, and you can see, they’re a good size to start harvesting now, just perfect for tossing into a stir-fry. I can just pick and thin out a few as I need them, and the others will keep on growing, keeping us in greens for weeks. It’s brilliant!

But the true key to this success is in the mix. Vegies are hungry plants so when you grow them in pots, you need a rich organic blend that’s really going to nourish them.

Here’s a recipe that I’ve been fine-tuning:

1 9-litre bucket of good quality potting mix

½ 9-litre bucket of good garden compost

½ 9-litre bucket of coir peat

1 400g tin measure of pelletised chook manure

1/3 400g tin measure of blood and bone

1 good pinch of Sulphate of Potash

Mix that together and you’ve got a truly magical blend for growing vegies in pots. You should also supplement the nutrients in the mix with a weekly application of seaweed extract and fish emulsion diluted at ½ the recommended strength on the label.