Container Gardening: Container Size and Soil Quantity

In this posting, I provide a table which tells you the approximate amount of soil you need to fill a pot or container of a given number of inches in diameter.  I also provide the metric equivalents -- centimeters and liters.

If you grow your vegetables, fruit trees and herbs in pots you know it can sometimes be a challenge to figure out how much soil you need to fill a pot of a given size.  I pulled together a chart to provide the amount of soil required for pots of a given diameter as a resource for myself and my readers.  Please note that pots vary in shape and degree to which they taper, so the below table provides approximate amounts.

In my next posting, I'll provide information about the size of container required to plant a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Comments

[Julianne Idleman]

Very handy! Thanks for sharing this.
I have a hard time keeping some of my containers moist enough and would like to add something to the soil in them to give it extra water retaining ability. Do you have suggestions?

[H. Mark Delman]

Hi Juleanne:

Thanks for the comment. Cold summer here in Northern California. My green house tomatoes are doing fine, the ones outside are suffering badly. Doesnt look like a good year so far. Maybe it will warm up a bit.

-Mark