alt Hacker NewsYou are still overthinking it. If you have well draining soil you can 'overwater' things much more. It's not as water efficient but it is easier.
You are still overthinking it. If you have well draining soil you can 'overwater' things much more. It's not as water efficient but it is easier.
That is the correct general answer
But you can add a lot of variations depending on the crop. A few don't mind to have their feet submerged permanently. Other are from dry climates and can be watered once in a blue moon.
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A big point is economics. As space, seeds, pots and materials are expensive, home growing vegetables are expected to be more expensive than mass produced market vegetables. Sun space is specially valuable in a city. Too much shadowing.
The newbie strategy will be to grow the easiest crops, but these are also the cheapest. A better objective could be to grow the most productive and expensive product possible instead to waste your precious balcony space culturing 100 pots of lettuce
It should be also organic. Because chemicals make the bill skyrocket, and because if you want vegetables with pesticides the market is plenty of the same, but bigger and for less money so eating good food without plastics and poisons is what make the effort worth it
Secondary goals should be to save time and gas (less travels to the supermarket), and to have full control over the process so you know what you ear, and to enjoy the process of having vegetable "pets" at home. In that sense lettuce can be competitive again, because the success ratio is high and can be used daily. Just don't spend 3 dollars in stuff to obtain a 1 dollar lettuce. Is 90% water.
Your goal should be to produce good food without the added waxes, plastic envelop, and pesticides, not to grow the biggest and most perfect vegetable in the planet.