Re: CULT: Pot culture utopia vs dirt

This will be my first year to grow some irises in pots.  Some are scraps
of survivors of attacks of molligrubs, others are new ones that I don't
think would live in the ground.  Or probably wouldn't bloom.

However, I have some experience growing other things in pots, and don't
plan to go back to ground gardening for those.  Combination of
competition from tree roots and gravelly soil made it impossible to keep
things watered in a mixed bed.  This year, it's all pots, with only some
self sown, purple leaved perilla and a few orange cosmos.

It is not only easier to control weeds, our climate encourages a lot of
soil borne diseases (fusaria and other fungal diseases, bacterial wilts
of various sorts, plus Erwinia).  I'm hoping growing in almost sterile
potting medium will help some of these iris varieties that come from
climates where they aren't used to such nasties.

What has worked reasonably well for me for cultivars that thrive here is
growing in 'corn' rows - plowed rows about 3 or more ft apart, spraying
with Roundup between the rows just often enough to keep it passable,
then rolling along on my little garden cart, hand pulling the canopy
weeds about twice a year.  Most years, I'm pretty aggressive about
keeping some weed species out (grasses!!), but some of the leafier weeds
with sparse roots seem to help.  This year, the plants I'm digging out
from under the knotweed look a lot healthier than the ones that I've
kept the weeds out of all year.

I wouldn't want to tend as many pots as it would take to grow all my
irises.  However, I have already been thinking about converting mixed
beds that have become a huge mess.  If the pots work for me.

I guess I better plant a pot or two with some things I know will do well
in the dirt for comparison.

<Of those of you that have
                   tried pots, if you had
                   your druthers and money were not an issue (don't
                   we all wish?), would you
                   be a dirt grower or a pot grower?>

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

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