Beds verses pots?
Good question. If you have really nice soil plants in the ground will out grow plants in pots most of the time, unless of course your potting soil is perfect. If the potting soil is less than perfect, the plants in pots will be slower growing. (My Potting Soil Recipe)
For years it has been my contention that plants in beds will out grow plants in pots and I usually say that because most people don’t have their potting soil exactly where it should be when starting out so bed planting makes more sense until you get you potting soil in good shape.
I’ve Made a Lot of Mistakes. Learn from them.
This year we potted up a bunch of Potentilla but I stuck about 10 of them in a landscape planting to use as stock plants. The plants in the pots are far out growing the ones that I planted in the bed. Why? Potting soil must be pretty close to what it should be and the plants in the bed are small and mulched with 3″ of bark mulch. Not enough roots into the soil? Have we kept the plants in the pots watered more consistently than the ones in the bed? Probably.
I don’t know for sure, but as soon as I draw a conclusion about something I see something that makes me contradict my earlier claim.
So here’s my conclusion as of today.
In most cases if the soil in your yard is good plants in beds will out grow plants in pots. Unless your potting soil is near perfect.
Plants in pots need a lot more water. A lot more water!
Plants in pots are much easier to care for and keep weed free because you can pack them together then spread apart as needed. Once the plants fill out the pot the weeds don’t have much room to grow.
Plants in the ground? It takes a lot of calories (energy) to get plants out of the ground and the window of time to do so is pretty small. Digging season starts after Thanksgiving and ends about mid April in zones 5 and 6. Other zones are similar but the window is longer in the far north and shorter in the south.
If you plant in the ground, mulch the beds. This spring we put a lot of time, energy, effort and money into mulching all of our Japanese maple beds. What a difference. Weeds starting showing up in the isles weeks before the mulched beds and we used a pre-emergent herbicide over the entire area. The mulch helped the plants, it really helped with weed control, and I believe it carried the pre-emergent better than the soil.
Plants in the ground or in the field have to be close enough together to make weed control manageable, and even then, you’ll spend a lot of time “managing those weeds”.
Are you one of the many people that are trying to grow and sell plants without having to buy my system?
If so, I wish you the absolute best and I’d like to offer you this additional free advice that will help you.
Mistakes are costly and information is cheap.
I could write a book on the mistakes that I made that have cost me thousands of dollars. Last spring I made a mistake that cost me $1,000. That’s right, a quick, cool one thousand dollars out the window because I did something dumb. In that particular case the difference between success and failure was somewhere between one and two inches. Can you believe that? It’s true. I could have easily made $5,000 and instead I lost $1,000 because I was off by one inch.
Like I said, really, really good information is cheap.
See, here’s the deal. You are going to spend the money one way or another. If you spend it up front, you reach your goal a lot sooner.
Could it be that plants in pots are in an isolated ecosystem without much interaction with the other plant roots and organisms present in the ground? Since plants have evolved to survive in the ground ecosystem, maybe it’s easier for them to grow in the ground rather than alone by themselves?
Sashi,
Not really the case. Plants in containers, as long as you have a good potting mix and I’ve written extensively about that on this site, they will thrive in pots. In the ground? That depends on the soil. In good soil they will thrive, in heavy stick soil they will simply stand still.
Mike, thank you SO much for this post. We’re exactly at this point, where it makes sense to put everything straight into pots instead of in the ground… howEVER, our potted plants grew so poorly due to inexperience making potting soil. I was CONVINCED that growing them out in the ground was a necessary step. Im so glad to hear that we can skip it, and grow beautiful plants straight into pots with the right soil. What a relief.
I did side by side potting soil test this year… 1. Bagged potting soil (Majestic Earth brand) 2. Our soil with fertilizer. 3. Our soil without fertilizer. The difference was incredible. The bagged soil grew the most amazing plants. Our soil with fertilizer, eh. ok plants. Our soil without fertilizer, nothing happened. no growth whatsover, all summer. The bagged soil is just too expensive, so we’re planning on using your potting soil recipe next year. I need to learn to listen to you better and follow your directions precisely. You have never steered me wrong! Thanks for everything you do.
Trisha,
You are welcome and thank you for sharing. You’ve done a great job, I know we figured out some marketing issues for you earlier this year, and now that you are going to work on your potting soil you are going to hit it out of the park in the future. Wishing you the best!
https://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2013/03/how-to-make-65%C2%A2-per-square-inch-in-your-backyard/
I gotta say, Your AD, was the make it or break it point in our backyard nursery business. It was getting kinda grim until you gave me the actual word for word ad, and told me exactly where to put it. Now I see a future! and YES. As I continue to learn about soil, I say it on repeat ‘were gonna grow the most beautiful plants around’ I cant wait… Thanks so much!
what is the name for an octopus looking-green& white striped plant that has avery sharp needle at the tip of each stiff leaf?
Helo Mike
It is always pleasure for gardeners in particular to read your gardening methods and tips. These are always very useful even to old gardeners. Thanks for the loads of info
AR
I enjoy reading about all of your wisdom on gardening. My mother could stick her thumb in the ground & it would bloom. After she pasted away my step-father let everything go. Her yard looked like Better Homes & Gardens. She also built things she liked. We bought her home after my step-father died.we have azaleas in front by the ditch in front. Also a bridal wreath plant in between. I have a problem with morning glory & lace wine taking over. Every year I pull & pull & pull. I don’t know what else to do. I wish u could help.
Mary,
Read the article I just posted about weed control. It’s all about getting control, then staying ahead of the weeds.