Pot your Plants - Choosing a Plant Container

Pot your Plants - Choosing a Plant Container

Pot your Plants - How to Choose Potted Plants

Pot your Plants - How to Choose Potted Plants

Pot your Plants - Putting Soil in the Pot

Pot your Plants - Putting Soil in the Pot

Pot your Plants - Arranging Plants in a Pot

Pot your Plants - Arranging Plants in a Pot

Pot your Plants - Placing Plants in the Container

Pot your Plants - Placing Plants in the Container

Pot your Plants - Watering your New Plants

Pot your Plants - Watering your New Plants

Tips on Plant Watering

Tips on Plant Watering

Plant a Tree - Planning

Plant a Tree - Planning

Pot your Plants - Choosing a Plant Container

Pot your Plants - Choosing a Plant Container

How to Winterize an Ornamental Garden

How to Winterize an Ornamental Garden

April Gardening Tips

April Gardening Tips

May Gardening Tips

May Gardening Tips

June Gardening Tips

June Gardening Tips

July Gardening Tips

July Gardening Tips

August Gardening Tips

August Gardening Tips

September Gardening Tips

September Gardening Tips

Fast Fall Lawn Revival

Fast Fall Lawn Revival

Planting Cool Weather Vegetables

Planting Cool Weather Vegetables

Top Fall Gardening Tips

Top Fall Gardening Tips

Keeping Color in the Garden

Keeping Color in the Garden

Top Lawn And Garden Watering Tips

Top Lawn And Garden Watering Tips

Late Summer Lawn Care

Late Summer Lawn Care

End of Summer Garden Maintenance

End of Summer Garden Maintenance

Top Tropical Garden Plants

Top Tropical Garden Plants

Summer Watering Secrets

Summer Watering Secrets

Making The Most Of A Mid-Summer Garden

Making The Most Of A Mid-Summer Garden

Tips For A Deer Free Garden

Tips For A Deer Free Garden

Control Garden Pests The Natural Way

Control Garden Pests The Natural Way

Pruning The Perfect Summer Garden

Pruning The Perfect Summer Garden

Early Summer Gardening Tips

Early Summer Gardening Tips

 Springtime Vegetable and Herb Planting

Springtime Vegetable and Herb Planting

Spring Annuals Brighten Any Garden

Spring Annuals Brighten Any Garden

Secrets To Spring Garden Success

Secrets To Spring Garden Success

Bring Your Lawn To Life

Bring Your Lawn To Life

Spring Vegetable Garden Secrets

Spring Vegetable Garden Secrets

Spring Gardening With Perennials, Annuals And Bulbs

Spring Gardening With Perennials, Annuals And Bulbs

Top Tree Planting Tips

Top Tree Planting Tips

Spring Tree And Shrub Gardening Secrets

Spring Tree And Shrub Gardening Secrets

Get Garden Ready For Spring

Get Garden Ready For Spring

Great Garden Winterization Tips

Great Garden Winterization Tips

Make Garden Mosquitoes Disappear

Make Garden Mosquitoes Disappear

Prepare Your Garden For Winter

Prepare Your Garden For Winter

Fall Pruning Procedures

Fall Pruning Procedures

Fast Fall Garden Clean Up

Fast Fall Garden Clean Up

Garden Tool Maintenance

Garden Tool Maintenance

Storing Garden Machines for Winter

Storing Garden Machines for Winter

Planting Trees And Shrubs

Planting Trees And Shrubs

Storm Damage Pruning

Storm Damage Pruning

Preparing Container Plants for the Move Indoors

Preparing Container Plants for the Move Indoors

Putting The Garden To Bed

Putting The Garden To Bed

Raking & Bagging Leaves

Raking & Bagging Leaves

Christmas Tree Shopping Tips

Christmas Tree Shopping Tips

Composting & Mulching Fall Leaves

Composting & Mulching Fall Leaves

View more ...

Mitch Baker

American Plant Garden Center and Nursery

www.americanplant.net  

(301) 469-7690

Mitch Baker is the Horticultural Specialist at the American Plant Garden Center and Nursery, in Bethesda, MD, focusing on natural gardening products and organic gardening. Mitch is a MD Certified Professional Horticulturist, with more than 34 years of experience in the garden center industry. He has studied at numerous horticultural institutions from New York to Oregon, and also serves on the board of the Rachel Carson Council.

Pot your Plants - Watering your New Plants

Mitch Baker is the Horticultural Specialist demonstrates how to water your new plants.

This expert: 336,880 views
This series: 58,655 views

Download to Mobile Device

Tags: 
Print

Transcripts

Hi, I am Mitch Baker with American Plant Food. We have planted up our container garden now, fertilizing and watering are the next steps, and they are key to keeping a container garden like this looking good throughout the growing season. Fertilizers have lots of different choices today; from powder to granular forms to liquid forms, water-soluble fertilizers. Im going to recommend an organic liquid fertilizer like the fish and seaweed combination. This feeds the soil as well as the plants. So, it promotes the life in the soil. Weve used a composted soil amendment. We want to take advantage of that by using an organic fertilizer to enhance the life in the soil. Now, there are also granular forms of fertilizers. This is a pill type, convenient, easy-to-use fertilizer thats compressed into a large tablet or pill like this. Its an organic fertilizer, but it also contains micro-organisms, so, we can add some additional micro-organisms to the soil. These are easy to use, just as is, you place them in the soil right in the root zone around the plants. For a container this size, three tablets, just placed into the soil, then those will dissolve the first time you water. Watering is really important for container gardens like this in order to do well. Containers dry out a lot faster than plants that are in the ground, so you want to make sure they get adequate water each time you water, and water regularly. Now, I am using a water wand here on the end of the hose that helps break up the pressure of the water, you get a nice volume, a flood of water without all the pressure, and you want to thoroughly saturate the container when you water, not just a little bit of water, but enough water to thoroughly saturate all of the soil in the container, and allow it then to drain out at the bottom of the container naturally. About an inch of water a week is necessary, depending upon temperature and time of year. A container like this, again, watering it well each time you water, not just a little bit of water, thoroughly saturate that root ball so that you can see the excess water draining at the bottom. Think about watering once a week as a guideline, but you may have to adjust that depending upon temperature and time of year. Fertilizing, youre going to need to repeat that throughout the year. This is a seasonal garden, you want to maximize the results, so depending upon the type of fertilizer you are using you may need to repeat that every two weeks, once a month, every six weeks. Follow the label directions on the fertilizer, but make sure you continue to feed right through the season to get the maximum results out of a container garden like this. Water regularly, feed regularly, a container like this will give you pleasure for the entire growing season.

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Herb Garden - How to Select a Container

Herb Garden - How to Select a Container

Herb Garden - Making Sure You Have Adequate Container Drainage

Herb Garden - Making Sure You Have Adequate Container Drainage

Herb Garden - How to Choose Your Herbs

Herb Garden - How to Choose Your Herbs

Herb Garden - How to Make Your Own Potting Soil

Herb Garden - How to Make Your Own Potting Soil

Herb Garden - What Location is Best

Herb Garden - What Location is Best

Herb Garden - How to Water

Herb Garden - How to Water

Herb Garden - How to Fertilize Your Potted Plants

Herb Garden - How to Fertilize Your Potted Plants

Herb Garden - What to do if You Have Pest Problems

Herb Garden - What to do if You Have Pest Problems

Herb Garden - Harvesting Your Herbs

Herb Garden - Harvesting Your Herbs