5393391245239365980

5393391245239365980

How Many Plants To Grow Per Container – Garden Tips

Byking_adm on March 12, 2021

If it’s your first time growing a container garden, you’re probably aware that things are a little different than the traditional garden you’d be growing outside. You might be wondering how many plants to grow per container, where the plants should be situated in each container, and many other things. While there isn’t an exact answer that will cover each and every scenario, it’s comforting to know that a lot of plant varieties are known to be pretty adaptive to their environments. It’s always good to research a few tips before you dive headfirst into your container garden.

Standard Planting vs a Living Flower Arrangement

The two ways to plant are typically the old-fashioned traditional planting style and the living flower arrangement method. With the living flower arrangement, you’ll be putting lots of plants into each container you’re using. With this method, the container will appear to be nicely loaded with different plant varieties. While this method might appear to be nice for a short period of time, the overcrowding of plants will cause their lifespan to be drastically reduced. The plants in the container will be subject to a higher risk of disease in comparison to traditional planting. Some people like doing the living flower arrangement approach if they’re wanting to have some added decorations in preparation for an upcoming party.

With traditional planting, it takes a more conservative approach and situates each plant in a container so that they will grow adequately until they appear nice and full in around three weeks. Some people like to place around 4 plants in a 12-inch container, while others like to go up to 6 plants in a 16-inch container, or even up to 8 plants in a 20-inch container. Traditional planting takes a while longer for you to get a container that looks lush, so you’ll have to exercise a little bit of patience if you go with that approach in comparison to the living flower arrangement. Traditional planting produces plants that are a lot healthier because:

• Their roots have more room to grow.
• The containers aren’t as crowded as the living flower arrangement.
• There is increased airflow which speeds up the drying process of foliage.

Things To Keep In Mind

Now that you have a better idea of how many plants to place in your containers, there are a couple of other things to keep in mind along with that. Depending on how big the plants will end up being once they start growing, you can use that as a rough guideline for how many plants you’re going to be using per container. Let’s take a look at an example. If you’re considering planting Supertunias or Petunias, you need to be aware that they spread pretty quickly. Because of that, you might want to just use around 3 plants throughout a 14-inch area. Because of their rapid growth pace, they’ll be able to fill the container in no time. As they grow, it’s recommended to trim them every now and then so that more branches will sprout out.

If you look at Supertunia Vista Bubblegum and Supertunia Vista Silverberry plants, you should know that they also grow fairly quickly and vigorously. Even with a large container of these plant varieties, you’ll still end up seeing them fill out the full container pretty fast. It’s good to do some research into the variety of plants that you’re wanting to place in containers before just blindly jumping the gun. Some plant varieties might not do well with other ones, so if you’re considering planting Supertunia plants with 7 other plant varieties in the same container, your results might not be as positive as you might initially think.

Another consideration to keep in mind is that if you have plant varieties that grow into an upright stature, there’s a good chance that they might not fill up the container as much you anticipated. This means you’ll have to add more into the container. One example of this is Pansies. Pansies are plants that grow in an upright stature and are also known to grow fairly slowly. Many people like to grow Pansies because they are fairly resistant to cooler weather. If you’re planning on growing Pansies, you’ll want to plant a little more into the container than you might expect because of how they grow. Some people even like to plan around 8 Pansies in a 12-inch container. Even with 8 plants in that container, it still won’t run the risk of appearing to be overcrowded.

Does Size Make A Difference?

Now that you know to keep in mind how big a plant will end up growing and how fast it will grow, another thing to keep in mind is the initial size of the plants. This almost seems self-explanatory, but if your plant is already larger in size, then you typically won’t want to be putting 10 large-sized plants in a 12-inch container. It’s always recommended to look at the label of the plant you’re wanting to put into a container before doing so. Doing this will give you a guideline of how big the plant will get, how fast it will grow, and what growing conditions it will thrive in.

The spacing recommendations should also be on the tag of every plant you purchase. While the spacing displayed on the tag will apply to primarily planting in the ground, you can still refer to the spacing guidelines for figuring out how large the plants will get and if the plants will work in a container you have. If the plant tag says that smaller spacing between plants should be used, then that usually means that the plant will be on the smaller side. In the same way, if there is a very big spacing guideline on the tag, it usually means that the plants will grow to be pretty big.

Placing Your Plants

After figuring out the number of plants you’re going to be placing into each planter, you can now start planning how you’re going to be putting them in. As a rule of thumb, you’ll always want to leave a tiny bit of space from each side of the planter. If you’re using a planter that’s on the small side, you can leave about half of an inch from the plant and the edge. If your planter container is big, then you can go with up to around two inches. The space between the plant and the edge of the container is known as headspace. Headspace is useful for preventing any soil from accidentally being flushed from the container. If you don’t’ leave proper headspace in a container, the water will just run off from it. Always leave headspace in your containers to make the watering process easier.

After the soil has been added to your container, you can now start situating the plants around. Remember to leave some headspace between your plants and the edge of the container. Another bonus to leaving headspace is that it gives the plant the chance to root out in every direction. While it can sometimes be difficult to leave headspace once you start situating more plants in the container, you should try your best to achieve optimal growth results.

If you’re going to be placing around 3 plants in a circular container, you’ll want to situate one plant right in the middle front area, one at the back left, and one at the back right side. Doing so should give your plants enough headspace and room to grow efficiently. If you’re using a square container, you can also use a triangle formation approach to achieve the same results. If you’re using a rectangular-shaped container, then planting in a row should work the best.

Planting any more than 3 plants will require a little bit of creativity for the best results. With 4 plants being planted in a circular container, 3 will be situated on the backside and the final one will be planted in the middle front area. If you’re using a square container with 4 plants, you’d use a square formation instead of the triangle formation like you used for the three plants as mentioned above. When using rectangular containers, you’ll be planting two of the plants in the front and then two at the back.

If you’re considering planting 5 plants in a circular container, you’ll want to situate one in the front, two right in the middle on perpendicular sides from the first one, and two near the back beside the edges of the container. For square planters, you’ll situate 4 plants in a square formation and place the last one right in the middle of it. If you have a rectangular container, then you’ll plant 3 of them across the front of it and plant the remaining two near the back.

If you’re planning on planting any more than 5 plants in your containers, you’ll want to keep these formation guidelines in mind. You’ll always want an equal space between each of the plants in the container. It starts getting a little more difficult with the more plants you add, but with a little creativity and patience, it can be done effectively.

Plants of all the same variety in a container aren’t as complicated as containers that have a bunch of different varieties of plants. You’ll need to refer to the plant tag to ensure you’re combining the right plants with the right varieties.

Again, always ensure you’re leaving equal space between each plant in a container, and also leaving headspace between each plant and the edge of the container. Doing this will increase the chances of your planters looking fantastic.