The more I use containers, the more I seem to like it. One advantage I seem to find is with containers, I am not planting long rows of something in a single planting and letting much of what grows go to waste. With containers, I can plant a few pots of something like tomatoes, or potatoes and then later plant a few more pots and keep the veggies coming in staggered instead of having alot all at once. This is the first year I have ever tried to get two crops of potatoes in one growing season. While my second crop didnt produce what the first planting did, I attribute it to not planting the crop eairly enough and the fact it didnt recieve any new compost or fertilizer.. Another advantage is reduced weed pressure. The intended crop pretty much shade out any weeds. Also it seems insect pressure is reduced since most of the leaf eating beetles live in the soil, they cant establish a decent size colony in the pots to do any real damage. Another thing the wife likes is when canning, she is not faced with hugh bushels of produce to process at one time. She much prefers to do one canner run and done till next week instead of peeling and washing for hours and spending long hours cutting up and putting in jars and waiting all day long next to the stove. Of course the amount one puts up depends on how much you need and how much you grow and there is no doubt you can grow more in the ground than you can in a pot, but for two old folks, the pots seem to be working well for us. I still grow taters and corn in the ground, and it would take to many pots to grow the onions and orka we eat. Things like squash and cucumbers that make long vines do well in pots. Peppers and tomatoes and even carrots seem to do well in pots also. I have also grown cabbage in pots with great success, and my broccli I planted a few weeks ago seems to be growing well, along with the onion sets I put in the pots with it. I also had decent luck with sweet potatoes in a pot last year. One thing I have learned is to not plant to much of anything in a pot. Taters seem especially prone to over crowing and producing small taters if they dont have enough room to grow.
you can even cut the long ones up some a week or two before planting for more seed.
