Could be nitrogen, could be Iron / calcium. I might get slapped around for this, but, fish emulsion on leaves of plants (in pots) good, but to the roots bad. Container gardening is not earth gardening. I would not poor fish emulsion directly into a pot. Try some Miracle Grow and see if it corrects the issue.

Organic in pots to me, means no pesticides on the leaves. But, they have to be fertilized, just the way it is. Container soil does not offer a plant what mother earth can offer.

I agree with linchat - going organic in containers is hard. I've had some luck this year with topdressing each pot with coffee grounds and some compost, but I've been doing that every 2 - 3 weeks since my plants germinated. I also used potting soil that had leaf compost in it.

If your looking to grow container pots with the environment in mind, your better off to add a good quality slow release fertilizer that is designed for pots ... any fertilizer that is diluted in water will just run out of your pots and get in to the water table.

I'd just give them a shot of something like miracle grow that has a huge content for immediate relief, and then topdress with compost.

Kathryn

I seem to recall - ahem - being excoriated by someone earlier this year that *gasp* MG was poison and yada, so there are strong feelings by some on this issue.

As I said elsewhere, I've done containers for years and organic in ground. Container organic is hard to do, as a search of this board will show. Supplemental fert is certainly in order, and if you aren't so hard core that MG 'organic' is good enough, you need to get on it PDQ if the beans are flowering.

Dan

I've had some mistakes and some success with container gardening organically so far but the season is not over yet so we will see.

What's working is mixing well composted manure into the potting soil and rotating between fish emulsion, kelp and composted quail manure diluted in water as fertilizers. I use all fertilizers at a very low strength, weekly.

My earlier mistakes included using cheap potting soil by itself and not fertilizing. Even using really old used potting soil. Many of the plants recovered by adding the above, especially the quail manure. Some are stunted from getting a rough start though. They are small but producing.

Thanks so much for your advice, everyone.

Miracle Grow is a synthetic fertilizer that is not acceptable to an organic gardener and is not something any organic gardener would even think of using. In the quantities recommeneded on the label it would not be a poison, although a bit more could be.
Whether, and what, your plants might need will depend on what the soil in your containers is. If that soil was a soilless potting mix sold in a store your plants need more help then even Miracle Grow can supply.

WOW! How to respond to the erroneous assumptions stated or implied in the previous post?

1) Container gardening requires a totally different mindset from inground growing due to the unique requirements and characteristics of this method. It is not reasonable to apply the same principals, theories and methods of inground gardening to container gardening - they are apples and oranges.

2) The most successful container potting mixes are those without "soil". Garden soil does not provide adequate drainage and aeration for a container environment and hence "soil-less" container mixes prepared with various combinations of peat, coir, bark and drainage enhancers like perlite or turface. Even compost or worm castings - sources of natural nutrients - are ill-advised in quantity for a container soil because of their ability to breakdown rapidly and compact the mix and impede drainage. In container gardening, drainage and aeration are key.

3) Because quality potting soils have a minimal organic matter component and are not really "soil", populations of soil organisms may or may not exist or are not present in sufficient quantities to conduct the same activities as they do in the ground. Therefore, relying on organic fertilizers to supply all the nutrient needs of a container gardening effort is problematic. Organic fertilizers require the soil microbes to convert them into plant accessible forms - if the microbes are not present or not present and active in sufficient populations, this conversion cannot occur and the plants will suffer.

4)Do plants recognize the difference between organically sourced nutrients and those provided by synthetic fertilizers? Nope! By the time the plants are able to access the nutrients, they are in the form of soluble salts, whether they were provided that way directly in the form of water soluble synthetics or they were organics converted to that form by soil organisms. If there are no soil organisms (or they are present in a highly reduced quantity and diversity) as is most common with a container mix, it stands to reason that the efficiency of an organic fertilizer is in question, whereas the efficiency of a synthetic fertilizer is not.

5)Do plants grow well in a soil-less container mix? You bet! Consider the potting medium as primarily an anchorage to support the plant roots - water and necessary nutrients are applied manually, in much the same manner as hydroponic gardening. How and what you apply in the form of necessary nutrients will determine how well the plants grow, not the 'soil' itself, unless it is a soil that breaks down rapidly and interfers with proper drainage and aeration.

If you read through various threads on this forum, you'll find various discussions regarding the issues involved in organic container gardening. It is not as simple as it sounds and many who garden extensively in containers have found that adhering 100% to organic principles offers less than optimum results, particularly when it comes to nutrient supplementation. Delivering nutrients in adequate concentrations for optimal growth - necessary because of the frequency of watering of containers and the nutrient leaching that occurs as a result - is most efficiently and effectively accomplished via soluble synthetics.

The bottom line: Can you grow a great crop of whatever in a soil-less container mix using only a Miracle Gro-type water soluble synthetic fertilizer? Of course you can! Is it 100% organic? No, but the results will be consistent and predictable. Sometimes compromises must be made.

Gardengal48,

Well said. I was going to say, tell all those folks in the container garden forum that there plants need more help then MG. Amazing things can be done in containers. As gardengal48 said, is it going to be 100% organic, no, but you can set your sites high. Practice organic methods in fungal/bug control, use control release ferts so your not washing all your ferts out of your pots.

Most of the folks in the container forum practice an organic-like program. But you got to fertilize, no getting around it.

I have for many years used just the compost that I make as my potting soil with very good results, no need for Miracle Grow or any other magic elixar. There are some here that will say this cannot be done, but I have and I know many other people that have done the same with good results. There is no need for me to spend money on non renewable resources such as peat moss, or products that need to be transported halfway across the world such as coir.

Trying not to be didactical, I also have lots of my veggies growing in containers organically w/o any synthetic amendments & not particularly soilless - I generally use a mixture of bagged compost, potting mix & garden soil to start off, then continue adding organic amendments & homemade compost throughout out the season & I also mulch w/ rotted hay &/or dried grass clippings.I don't mix the materials much; when I start a new pot, I fill the bottom 1/3 or so w/ soil, then add the compost & potting mix on top. I add a layer of fresh compost before replanting, but have never bothered completely replacing the soil.

My personal rule of thumb is to use extra large containers ( most are black nursery pots that trees & shrubs come in) so plants have plenty of room for their roots & I even add earthworms - tho some migrate into the containers w/ no help from me.

Things that do best for me in pots/containers are peppers, eggplant, pineapples, celery, almost all types of greens, herbs & green onions(Egyptian). Beans, broccoli, kale, cabbages, cukes, squash & tomatoes go in the ground.

I realise my situation here in FL is quite different than most other parts of the USA - my peppers generally last several years, so those pots do not get changed out for a long time, & I have perennial herbs for much longer than that, but I do try to rotate everything else.

For fertilising, I use all kinds of stuff - seaweed extract, poultry manure, rabbit feed, compost & compost tea, cornmeal, dry & liquid milk, bone & blood meals.

HTH

We are giving this container gardening idea a try, or rather "self-watering" containers. I had done container gardening years ago and found watering everyday was a pain. We're in Florida, too, and have the added problem of very,very sandy soil. Our earth garden needs as much watering as a container garden because with the sand, wind and hot sun, the soil dries out very quickly. Also, the fertilizers tend to wash away. We got the book "Incredible Vegetables from Self-watering Containers" by Edward C. Smith and are giving it a try. Problem: commercial self watering containers, when you can find them, are very expensive. Found a link with instructions for making your own, but we're having trouble finding plastic containers that aren't ugly. Used to be able to pick up white 5 Gal. containers from painters and bakeries, but folks are holding onto them. Anyway, we found some ugly orange ones at Home Depot to get started.

Here is a link that might be useful: Self-Watering Container Gardening

I made some this past winter out of 18 gal Sterilites, came in at ~ 10.00/per. I've had the white 5 gal buckets and the Sterilites are easier to take care of. Plenty of threads on this Forum to search.

Dan

I agree, all organic is very difficult in containers, but I still do it. Most are large containers 8-16 gallon - but have successfullt pulled off 5 gallon grows in a season. My soil/less combo mix "cooks" for atleast 2 months now in a plastic tote, sometimes for as much as 6 months. It has alot of "organic" nutrients and 4 brands of microlife booster. It has been very expensive though, and I am afraid that this year will be the last for the container grows. I will prolly lean towards Kimms way of thinking with mostly my compost as the mix instead. It will work, since it is only for 1 season, then the remainders will be turned into the garden. TiMo

Have had a small urban garden for 30 years, large containers a staple and use Black Land Praire gumbo in the mix. I mix with this, lots of compost, a little: molasses, alfalfa, dried manure, a small bit of SulMoPo. and every two or three years dump out and remix. Expanded shale is the new thing in Texas have added some of that. Sometimes add worm or green sand.

Mainly it is the weather that determines my garden.

Oh have to put 3" of mulch on the pots, 2" away for plants.

Grow lettuce in those salad bowl shaped plastic pots with extra dried manure and the mix above less the Slomopo. Have all lettuce can eat all the time. Cut and come again.

As long as the soil smells sweet and you use lots of compost should be fine.

I'm glad to see a thread about what actually works organically in containers. I'm learning a lot. I know most people advise against it and they probably do have a point, maybe it is harder to do, but I'm just not comfortable putting non-edible items in my containers.....meaning non-edible or harmful to dogs. They often eat fertilizer that I put down or go digging around. I don't want them harmed by any chemicals. I'm very strict about it since their livers do not filter out toxins as well as ours.

Right now, I'm using 5 parts potting soil to 1 part very well composted horse manure in my pots and fertilizing weekly with very diluted fertilizer. I am alternating between quail manure, kelp and fish emulsion, except the tomatoes that get fertilizer monthy. They go too large, too quick when I did it weekly and I was afraid they wouldn't fruit well.

So far so good but I will have to report back when the season is over.

Ania