Edible hanging baskets

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Edible hanging baskets

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quixoticgeek

Joined: 23 Dec 2008
Posts: 296
Location: Canterbury

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 16 7:03 pm Post subject: Edible hanging baskets
This year I'm considering not growing tumbler tomatoes for my 2 hanging baskets, but instead experimenting with other edible hanging basket plantings. Can anyone suggest plants that work well in hanging baskets? I'm currently considering some dwarf beans, or dwarf runner beans, maybe some salad leaves. Any other ideas? J

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 16 7:23 pm Post subject:
Interesting. I'd be tempted to add alpine strawberries as you can keep the slugs off them. You could use mangetout rather than beans, or even peas that produce edible tendrils. Nasturtiums would be an obvious choice, edible flowers & foliage and the seeds are good pickled. I'd also be curious to know which way carrots grow if you pushed a plug of seedlings into the side of a basket...

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6612
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 16 7:31 pm Post subject:
There's at least one nice prostrate rosemary variety that is nice in baskets (provided it's with other plants that appreciate a periodic drying out)

quixoticgeek

Joined: 23 Dec 2008
Posts: 296
Location: Canterbury

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 16 7:33 pm Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

Interesting. I'd be tempted to add alpine strawberries as you can keep the slugs off them. You could use mangetout rather than beans, or even peas that produce edible tendrils. Nasturtiums would be an obvious choice, edible flowers & foliage and the seeds are good pickled.

Nasturtiums have gone on the list. I have 2 baskets, I'm thinking in one I may do dwarf beans, in the other dwarf runner beans. Then a mix of nasturtiums, maybe some calendular and a petunia depending on if there is room.

I'm also wondering if there is room for a 3rd hanging basket...

Quote:

I'd also be curious to know which way carrots grow if you pushed a plug of seedlings into the side of a basket...

Unfortunately hanging baskets I'm using are a rigid self watering type so I can't put stuff in the side. On the plus side I don't have to water them 2 times a day in the middle of summer...

J

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15967

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 16 10:24 am Post subject:
I think carrots would grow with their tops going up as they tend to grow vertically if you try to grow a top from a cut off upper part that isn't square, but an interesting experiment.

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6612
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 16 11:58 am Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

I think carrots would grow with their tops going up as they tend to grow vertically if you try to grow a top from a cut off upper part that isn't square, but an interesting experiment.

I thought the question was about which way the root would grow (down, due to gravitropism)

lorrayne

Joined: 17 Dec 2004
Posts: 239
Location: Hampshire

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 16 1:51 pm Post subject:
I used parsley in my basket with toms plus you could use basil. L

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15967

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 16 8:23 am Post subject:
Slim, if tops grow up, roots grow down, at what angle might need some experiment. I assumed it was the tops as that is the bit that would be seen.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 16 10:20 am Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

Slim, if tops grow up, roots grow down, at what angle might need some experiment. I assumed it was the tops as that is the bit that would be seen.

Gravitropism was pretty well understood by Darwin. Shoots grow directly away from gravity, roots towards it. So, theoretically, the centre of the earth. It's mediated by auxin, and can be complicated by competition with light sensitivity.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 16 10:46 am Post subject:
I like the idea of hanging baskets of herbs outside the kitchen door.

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6612
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 16 12:24 pm Post subject:

Nick wrote:

Mistress Rose wrote:

Slim, if tops grow up, roots grow down, at what angle might need some experiment. I assumed it was the tops as that is the bit that would be seen.

The biggest effects we see are definitely gravitropism and phototropism. But it's of course always more complicated than that as well. For example, when a root hits a rock and starts to curve to one side, that physical stretching of the outside of the curve spurs on a lateral root branch being initiated so the roots starts to grow in either direction around the rock.

Auxin is the big player, but there are a whole suite of plant hormones that are doing things and having effects. Strigalactones are a newly discovered class of plant hormones that seem to being involved in more and more aspects of plant development. (often in concert with auxin)

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