A 5 gallon bucket is very useful for most gardeners out there. They may be put to use on your terrace garden or indoor patio garden in a number of ways. So, the question arises about which are the best vegetables to grow in a 5 gallon buckets for gardening?
Growing vegetables and fruits is one of the most apparent uses for these repurposed containers. You may produce a variety of fruits and veggies in 5 gallon buckets.
To begin, remember that plastic buckets will need drainage holes. Some plants require more drainage than others, but all require a place for excess water to drain.
There are various benefits to using 5-gallon buckets.
Here are a couple of such examples:
- You don’t need a vast backyard or landscape garden. You can grow vegetables whether you have a backyard or not. These buckets may also be placed on your front porch or patio.
- It saves a lot of space. You continue to acquire home-grown food, but the buckets free up space in your garden or otherwise occupied area.
- No plants are ruined by anyone if they step on them or if pets try to eat them.
- You will also avoid having to deal with undesirable weeds.
- Lastly, the buckets are lightweight. If you see that your plants aren’t receiving enough sunshine, just pick up the bucket and move it to a more suitable location.
Here’s a list of the 10 best vegetables to grow in five-gallon buckets-
Tomato plants
Tomatoes are among the most common container plants. Growing tomatoes in a bucket have the advantage of letting you move your plants indoors when winter arrives.
This can extend the growing season and give green tomatoes more time to ripen in colder locations.
Cultivating only one tomato plant in each 5 gallon bucket is advisable. If you’re growing vining tomatoes rather than bush types, you might want to consider giving your tomato plants some support.
Peppers
Pepper performs well in a five gallon bucket. The veggies may grow in a container garden because of their shallow roots. They can also be put indoors in bucket or under cover when winter weather approaches at the end of the season in colder places.
Dwarf pepper varieties may also grow in even smaller pots or buckets. On the other hand, most sweet and chilli peppers variants will thrive in a bucket.
Remember that pepper plants prefer relatively high humidity, so when conditions are dry, spray the foliage and dampen nearby hard surfaces in addition to watering to improve humidity levels.
Zucchini
Keep in mind, though, that they are relatively thirsty and hungry plants; they do require a good drainage system. As a result, you’ll need to water a lot though good drainage is also required and fertilize your plants on a regular basis. Make sure you have sufficient sunlight for bucket gardening.
Eggplant
Eggplants, another member of the plant family, that you may also grow in bucket relatively quickly.
As long as you feed and water it consistently during the summer months, a single plant in a 5 gallon bucket should have enough space and nutrients.
Providing support for your plants as fruits emerge and expand, like with tomatoes, is a good idea. Certain small-size varieties, such as ‘fairy tale’ and ‘little finger,’ are ideal candidates for containers.
Lettuce is an example of a plant growing in soil.
Simply disperse the seeds throughout the surface of the growing medium in your bucket, leaving a 0.5 to 1-inch interval between them. Other easy leafy crops that you can grow with lettuce include arugula, leaf mustard, spinach, and chard.
These plants do not need the full size of a bucket. You may also cut holes in the sides of a bucket. Lettuce growing buckets suggests that you may also plant these leafy crops in the holes, resulting in a bigger harvest from less space.
Onions are an example of vegetable in a 5 gallon bucket
Growing full-sized bulb onions in a 5 gallon bucket may not be the best option. Each one will only allow you to plant 3-5 onions. However, bulb onions are not the only onions kind that are available in the market. Other types are significantly more suited to bucket garden.
Bunching onions, chives, and other perennial onion species can also be planted in a bucket, among other plants. If you keep filling pots with fresh compost/mulches and adding liquids, you may grow perennials in buckets that will provide food, not just for one season!
Carrots & Other Root Vegetables in 5 gallon bucket
You can easily grow a wide variety of carrots in a 5-gallon bucket since it is deep enough to allow longer roots to sprout. You may cultivate root crops of various types to grow in 5 gallon buckets.
When compared to other common crops, carrots have low nutritional requirements. They do, however, require a light, well-draining growing medium. Add some sand to your potting mix to aid in the drainage of the bucket for survival.
Potatoes
You can grow a plant with a 5 gallon bucket tip potatoes. This may not appear to be much, but each potato plant may easily produce 10 potatoes. As a result, you will require fewer buckets to collect a suitable quantity.
When growing potatoes in a bucket, do not fill the bucket completely. Give your potato plant space to grow in potting soil. Also, as it matures, it will require good fertilizer and area to expand in the bucket itself.
Peas to grow in garden.
Plant the peas about 2 inches apart and 1 inch deep from each other in potting soil. Select dwarf shrub varieties to avoid the plants growing too tall and toppling the container over.
Remember that in some of the smaller plants, you can pluck as pea shoots, which are great in salads, while others can be left to mature later in the season to yield snap peas or shelled peas.
Beans
In 5-gallon buckets, you may cultivate other nitrogen-fixing plants, such as beans. Each bucket may accommodate one bush of bean plant. Consider planting 2-3 climbing/vining beans in each bucket if you are supporting it with a trellis or other structure.
Beans vegetable need a lot of water for moisture, so keep the soil moist, especially when the plants have flowers, and the bean pods start to form.
Pro tip- Do not try to add any more plants since they will be unable to grow healthy if overcrowded- applicable to all vegetables.
So, now that you know and learn about the various delicious vegetables that you can easily grow in five-gallon buckets, whether you live in a bungalow or in an apartment, you should be able to grow your own produce!