other dwarf vegetables or fruits - please recommend varieties

[gardeninglee]

I'm loving the dwarf and micro tomatoes so much this year! I'm wondering if others have grown other types of smaller sized veggies or fruits in their garden? I have a small patio but can fit quite a few plants in.

Can you recommend other veggie varieties to grow in tight spaces - I'm looking for cucumbers, corn, peppers, peas, fruit, anything that produces something edible and can work in a 5-7 gallon pot or smaller.

[nhardy]

Do you grow herbs? They take up little space. A small pots are all you need. Rosemary, basil, chives, sage, oregano, thyme or parsley. So many more.

I have figs. They are in pots that I overwinter. Most can get go down to 20 degrees. No problem for you in LA. I have Violette de Bordeaux, Mary Lane and Celeste. VdB is a really good small plant & tastes really good too. I put the fig out of the pot & pruned the roots this year. I go it every two years. It's loaded because of the pruning. They are in 10 & 15 gal. pots. Good forum, Figs4fun.

I had a potted banana. In my climate it never produced anything and was too had to overwinter in the basement. But your climate you can have the dwarf potted like Novak or red dwarf banana. They can live in a 10 gal. pot.

Have you heard of Brazel Berries? From red raspberries, blueberries and now blackberries. They are to be grown in pots. I have Raspberries Shortcake. It's a fall bearing raspberry. Cut the dead canes back in winter. They grow new canes and bear fruit the same season. You can buy canes from places like Nourse Farms of any of their fall bearing raspberries and pot them. I bought Caroline canes this year & they are in a 15 gal. pot. My Shortcake is in a 5 or 7 gal. pot. Mysore raspberries or Sweetie Pie blackberries would grow in your area.

I have peppers in pots too this year. Love the sweeter ones like pimiento. They should be on your like for sure! I planted from seed Red Crest. I got lots of peppers early for once. Any pot that is 7 inches deep will work. For sure you can get bush cucumbers and eggplants to growing in containers.

One more before I go. And it is weird I know, sweet potatoes. I used old recycling containers. After the waste hauler failed to collect the recycle bin when they lose the contract, I put them good use. I got Garden soil, compost and humus with manure to fill the 30+ gal. bins. I put 6 slips in each bin. I fertilizer with a high level of potassium and water. Vines spill over and down to the grown. 5 months later you turn the bins over on a tarp and start looking for the roots AKA sweet potatoes. I just brush off the soil, then wrap them in newspaper and store for a month. Tons of youtube videos on how to start slips from potatoes bought at Whole Foods.or videos of growing slips in containers. I mail ordered for slips the first time. This year, I picked up slips from a farm I was buying corn at.

[nhardy]

Here is a fig soon to ripen if it does not split from too much rain and water combined with humidity. Fig are worth growing even in containers. I bought a larger pot to repot VdB. But it did not need a bigger pot. It is still it's 10 gal. pot. I used the huge pot this year for my to many planted seedlings tomatoes that I could not kill. So in to the huge pot they went.

[Cole_Robbie]

Peppers take well to pots, especially hot peppers.

If you grow Basil, there is a compact variety I like called Emily. It is great for containers, even small ones. I sell it at market in a 10" oval planter that is barely a gallon or so.

My favorite cuke is Sweet Success. These were grown in containers:

[gardeninglee]

The figs look amazing. I have a loquat tree in a pot right now and it's not doing so well so I may just have to replace it with a fig tree. I'll have to look around to see whose still carrying fruit trees. How do the brazel berries taste? I saw some of the reviews and they complain that they are sour. I don't have a full day of sunlight here. I'm in a multi unit complex so at the best I will get 6 hours of sunlight - in the winter I can get as little as 3 hours of sunlight. I have two huge magnolia trees on both sides of me and I really just get a sliver of light. It's funny because the two units next to me are in total shade most of the day.

Cole - I do have a jalepeno tam pepper and fresno pepper doing. They seem to be doing very well. I might have to try that cucumber variety next year. I've never had much success with cucumber on my patio.

[nhardy]

Are you zone 10? I looked at things with low chill hours.

I ate the raspberries off the plant. Raspberry Shortcake tasted like regular red raspberries. Maybe these people haven't eaten a fresh raspberry??? I grow black raspberries in the ground too. They are lots of work for a plant with thorns. I too have a Magnolia Grandiflora. I get dappled sunlight in my bedroom.

The owner of the Figs4fun forum sells figs & banana trees. Jon runs http://encantofarms.com/ in San Diego. So many fig choices. You can email him and he would help you pick the right fig for your location.

The first two year pinch back all figs but one or two. The third year let the tree form 6 figs only. The forth year you can let it form more figs. On the winter of the forth year prune your roots while the plant has no leaves in winter before spring. I use hand pruners. 2 inches off the bottom for sure. add soil back to the pot. I prune every 2 or 3 years. I pruned this year have more figs. Fertilizer after it leafs out each year. I can use my Tomato Tone. You can prune it for shape.

The pinching of figs on a young tree redirects the energy to the tree to grow. People have killed branches of the fig trees by letting them fruit too much the first few years. I got my first fig, Violette de Bordeaux in 2009. I used potting soil and mini pine bark as the potting medium. It is not very tall about 4 ft. in the pot. It's a dwarf one compared some of the others. But Jon can help you pick the right one for your location. Then sign up on his forum and the member will help all the newbies until you get the fig bug. Hard to only have one fig. I have three. They are simple to manage.