The Greenstalk Planter is a vertical garden system that not only saves space by growing vegetables vertically but also has an impressive watering system.
What is a Greenstalk?
GreenStalk is a patented, soil-based vertical garden made in the USA, right in Tennessee. You can buy either a 3 or 5-tier Greenstalk original or a 5 or 7-tier leaf Greenstalk. The Leaf Greenstalk has smaller pockets than ours and is perfect for plants with smaller root systems, whereas the original is better for those with larger rooms like carrots! The tallest original has 30 pockets, and the tallest leaf has 42 pockets.
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It has an impressive watering system to ensure each pocket is fully watered without watering it or getting any of the leafy greens wet by using the hose. The patented watering system works well, and you only need to water from the top reservoir for it to deliver fresh water to each tier and pocket below it.
How does the Greenstalk watering system work?
The Greenstalk has a series of reservoirs stacked between each tier that delivers fresh water from the top to each tier’s pockets. You can add your favorite potting mix with starter plants from your local nursery or garden center or even use your own seeds.
What’s the best potting mix for container gardening?
Usually we’d go with Happy Frog potting mixes. They’re rich in nutrients and have given us great results. Due to food allergies we had to figure out which potting mix would be best for us this year.
Thankfully we found Black Gold® Natural & Organic Potting Mix. So far we’re extremely happy with this potting mix. We’re using this potting mix due to peanut allergies as many soils do contain peanuts, sometimes dairy and even shellfish. This is not usually a concern unless you have little hands helping that can have a reaction, which we do.
Tip: when filling the Greenstalk, we recommend filling or covering the hole before adding the potting mix.
What can you plant in a GreenStalk?
What you can plant in the Greenstalk will vary by season and which Greenstalk you purchase. They have a handy Greenstalk planting guide that will show you all your planting options.
We’re currently growing cucumbers, zucchini, strawberries, string beans (green beans and purple beans), broccoli, and peppers. We plan to add beets, carrots, zucchini, greens like lettuce and kale, and peas. We’d also love to try garlic and onions in the Greenstalk. This is our fall garden in the Greenstalk, so our spring and summer will have tomatoes, and we may even try small melons.
Why use a Greenstalk?
Growing in a vertical garden is ideal for those with a smaller space like a balcony or small backyard. We especially like we do have a smaller yard so we can get more in a vertical space vs a horizontal space. We have many blueberry bushes and blackberry bushes taking up horizontal space in pots (yes, you can grow blueberries in containers and blackberries in containers!), so we knew we had to maximize the space for other things in the garden.
How to water the Greenstalk
You can use a hose or a bucket to fill the top reservoir. We like to water until the water pours out of the bottom extension hose, and we can see the bottom tier is getting water drips.
How often you water the GreenStalk depends on your area and the current weather. We like to check the soil and see how wet it is. We don’t want it soaking wet, but we don’t want it too dry either. We like to go a day or two between watering when it’s hot or sometimes even daily if needed. Other times you may only need to water your Greenstalk garden every 2-3 days.
Note: when planting seeds in the Greenstalk, you’ll want to water the pockets individually at first to give them the best germination rate. We’ve had 100% germination in the Greenstalk so far.
Is Greenstalk food safe?
The Greenstalk is made out of food-grade UV-resistant plastic that is also BPA, BPS, & PVC free. They also come with a 5-year warranty.
Where can you buy a Greenstalk Planter?
We recommend buying straight from the Greenstalk website, especially when there’s a Greenstalk sale going on. You can buy a Greenstalk planter directly from them by going here.
CLICK HERE TO SAVE $10 OFF A GREENSTALK PURCHASE
You can also find the Greenstalk planter on Amazon.com.
Is the Greenstalk Planter worth it?
We’re about a week and a half in and thrilled with the results so far. We have had a 100% germination rate, even with tomatoes which aren’t a fall plant, but our daughter wanted to try. For those interested, we bought our seeds from Renee’s Garden. The wait time was longer than we’d like, but we are thrilled with the results and would order again, just more in advance.
We bought it full price, but you can find sales during certain holidays, so that may be the time to purchase if it’s too pricey. We think it’s a great investment, and we’re excited to see how well our garden grows using this vertical gardening system.
We plan to use it again in the spring. We’ll overwinter our strawberries and eventually plan to have this entire Greenstalk as a strawberry tower one day. If all goes well, we may get a 2nd and 3rd Greenstalk! Next year, we’ll amend the soil to freshen it with some good compost.
We hope you enjoyed our Greenstalk review so far, as we just started using it for our fall garden this year. We plan to update over on our Youtube channel so be sure to subscribe there as well.
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