Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: jason g on December 30, 2012, 13:07
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hello, i have had a look around the forum and cant find the answer ,so i thought i would ask for help for a change.
i have grown toms ,pepers etc, in the same border for 4-5 years and all i used at the time was bought in compost,of which i have now removed.i am planning of putting a few winter crops in too in future
i have read that us amateur gardeners need not worry about build up of pest,diseases due to only growing in that border for 6 months of the year ,is this true?
also i had intended of using bagged topsoil bought in and the odd bag of soil conditioner for re-filling in my border , would that be sufficient?
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'They' reckon that after 4 or 5 years of growing toms in the same place you will notice a deterioration in growth and yield...............my view is that I will completely change the soil when and if this happens ::)
I do however remove a large potful of soil from each tomato location, and replace with garden soil - although in reality the roots spread out much further than that. it makes me feel I'm doing my bit ;)
In spring I dig manure or homemade compost into the border.
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I think what you have heard is not true.
Greenhouses are not exempt from pests & diseases, although admittedly they may be less prone to getting those which usually spread from neighbouring allotment plots.
As well as the diseases, you need to remember nutrition for the soil. If you grow the same crop in the same soil, you will rapidly deplete it of the necessary nutrients - different plants have different requirements. This is particularly true of multipurpose compost, which becomes exhausted within about 6-8 weeks of putting plants into it.
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ok so the i have done right by moving this copost out , but what do i put in it to replace it ,i cannot get soil from garden
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IMO bagged soil would be best JI 3 is the soil based one I think - you can use multi purpose but it runs out of nutrients very quickly, and watering is more of a problem as well, I think
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ok cool well i will go with that then ,thanks for replies
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I remove the top 4-6 inches of soil out of my two greenhouses every year and take this to the lottie to bulk up the compost bin. Is this OK? I haven't had any diseases in the greenhouses so far and they have been in use for quite a number of years.
I replace with a mixture of manure and compost and then feed as needed throughout the growing season.
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I have just finished reading one of Bob Flowerdew's books. He said that it was 15 years before he noticed any problems with growing in the same soil in his greenhouse. He does grow in soil though.
Yana, he said that when he did change the soil he swapped it with soil from one of his raised beds, so I can't think it would hurt to put yours on your compost heap (unless there was a really nasty disease in there). I grow tomatoes in pots (although I believe that they would be much better in the ground) and just throw the spent compost randomly over any bed! :)
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Oh right. I'll use it top up the raised beds from now on then. I thought that as all the 'goodness' would have been used up by the stuff growing in the greenhouse border that it wouldn't be worth putting it on the beds.
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Couple of thoughts:
I replace the soil in my greenhouse borders every Autumn. I put in the contents of the compost heap - which is best described as "rough" and "mostly composted" :blink: - I don't take a lot of care over composting, I just chuck everything on the heap and leave it until Autumn then strip the top, uncomposted layer, off and put that in the new heap and the rest goes into the greenhouse borders.
That I mix, about 50:50, with well rotted manure.
It holds moisture well for the greenhouse crop, all the weed seeds germinate really well and are easily removed, and (I think) that leaves the resulting "compost" less weed-seed-y.
The material that comes out of the greenhouse borders is really fine, and I find that useful in the garden for mulching and potting. It is also quite light, compared to my heavy clay soil, so less strenuous making the annual change compared to a soil-based replacement.
Second thought is to buy grafted Tomatoes etc. These are better suited to mono-cropping in the greenhouse. They are relatively expensive to buy, but value of the crop you will get its probably not significant.
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Oh right. I'll use it top up the raised beds from now on then. I thought that as all the 'goodness' would have been used up by the stuff growing in the greenhouse border that it wouldn't be worth putting it on the beds.
It would serve a purpose as a soil conditioner, but you are right that it would not have much nutrient value.
I empty my old greenhouse containers out onto my raised beds at home and chuck a handful or two of pelleted chicken manure onto the soil before chucking on the spent compost as a mulch. I dig it in come the spring and chuck on a few more handfulls of pelleted chicken manure :)