Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: Chrysalis on October 18, 2014, 11:32
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My greenhouse has done well this year - a zillion cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and strawbs., but now what do I do, please?
Should I dig out and remove the soil, or just dig it over and put in some fertiliser of sorts? I'm happy to do either but as it's half term, I'd like to get on with it over the next fortnight!
Many thanks,
C
I should add that we grow in the soil and in pots. Pots will obviously be changed, but the beds???
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I'm not clever 😏 but if I were growing in beds in the greenhouse, I think I would treat those beds the same as I do outside beds. Dig and feed with whatever you use.
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What I do is sort of halfway between the 2 options ???
I dig out a couple of spadefuls where the plants actually were and replace with a soil and compost mix.
Give the beds a quick fork over and a little BF&B and plant the beds up with winter salads :)
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I'm a bit like MoS and FP. Same as outside. except my fertilizer is old chicken poo and comfrey!
Dig a bit of the ground soil out and chuck it on garden, then fertilizer and I put the old comost from the pots on it too, then new compost in the pots. :) :)
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I do the same as MOS and GrannieAnnie except for about four years ago. After 20 odd years productivity in the greenhouse had really fallen so I dug out all of the soil in the border and completely replaced it. But I would only do that again if it was really necessary. :)
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Same as MOS, dig out where they've been growing and replace with soil/compost.
Plant up with winter crops
In addition, I put "drippers" off the waterbutts to try and get some water back into the ground. (No matter how hard I try to water enough in the summer, the ground always looks really dry by now).
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Thanks all. I think I'll dig quite a bit out and replace with muck from a farm where my OH's uncle lives - it's really well rotted by now! Asking the question has spurred OH into helping and making suggestions, so a good result! :nowink:
Also, like the suggestion to water....will get onto it tomorrow.
Thanks again,
C
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To GrannyAnnie,
I also use Comfrey, but still have them in pots as I haven't decided where to put them. Every place I've thought about is a space for fruit-growing bushes.
Where have you put yours?
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Put the comfrey in a place where you won't want to move it from. It forms VERY long roots and is difficult to move once established.
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I replace the border soil in my cropping greenhouse every Autumn, using a mixture of 50;50 compost heap and rotted manure. The Compost Heap is not well composted, so a mix of old stalks and Good Stuff. After a year in the greenhouse it comes out Boo'tiful and I use it for all sorts of potting. The mix is quite a bit lighter to work with than than my garden soil, and holds water well which suits the crops. I don't grow any greenhouse crops in containers any more, too much effort watering them - or more correctly watering them often enough / at the right times, growing in the border evens that out with much less effort on my part.
If you want to mono-crop your greenhouse borders year after year, without changing the soil, I think it would be worth looking at Grafted plants as they will be more resistant to disease and perform better at extracting nutrients which might be getting depleted etc., personally I find the resulting material that comes out of the greenhouse so useful I'm happy to replace the "soil" every year.
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Put the comfrey in a place where you won't want to move it from.
Yes, I'm aware of that, thank you. It's just that every space I have is used for growing fruit instead and I wondered if you had that problem and where it was you decided to put your comfrey.
I think I may just have to make a new (comfrey) bed somewhere!
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Put the comfrey in a place where you won't want to move it from.
Yes, I'm aware of that, thank you. It's just that every space I have is used for growing fruit instead and I wondered if you had that problem and where it was you decided to put your comfrey.
I think I may just have to make a new (comfrey) bed somewhere!
I found an area to the side of my shed and I was contemplating planting more and was thinking about the boundary between my plot and my neighbours as a harvestable hedge row. There is a little clump that come up naturally (or previous planting) on that line anyway. My neighbour thinks it a weed and is quite happy that I keep it under control :nowink:
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I put my comfrey along part of the border of my plot with the main path and more recently put some right at the back of the plot against an adjoining Laurel hedge boundary with the housing behind. It has spread quite a lot and I have to keep digging up the new pieces before the root gets out of control.
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Thank you, both, for your replies.
I *do* love the idea of using the comfrey as a border-type plant. That could really work for me.
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Make sure you purchase bocking 14 comfrey plants as they will not spread like the ones Confrey patch has obviously used. You can purchase root cuttings off ebay quit cheaply
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My comfrey has only been in one year - mostly in the boundary hedge. Once its established I suspect clumps might mysteriously start to grow in other hedges nearby... ;)
Pip pip,
Balders
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Balders - funny that because I'm suspicious that comfrey is likely to start growing along the access way between the two gates to the allotment along the fence line next year as a resource for those that can identify it.
Believe it or not I'm the only one on our allotment that grows comfrey and uses it.
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I usually suggest Newbies ask an existing allotment holder for a "root of Bocking 14" ...
Believe it or not I'm the only one on our allotment that grows comfrey and uses it.
... has a queue formed yet? :lol:
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I usually suggest Newbies ask an existing allotment holder for a "root of Bocking 14" ...
Believe it or not I'm the only one on our allotment that grows comfrey and uses it.
... has a queue formed yet? :lol:
Nope, my Comfrey Patch is Bocking 14. The lady on plot 5 has some growing and after making tea once could not stand the smell so she adds to compost of feeds to the chickens she has now attempted to dig out when she put a pond in and surprise surprise it keeps growing back.
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Yes, it is smelly.
It's a tough choice - upsetting the neighbours or making compost stew.....
Maybe a bottle of home brew might smooth things over?
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Confrey has become quite widespread on our site in the last couple of years.
When I took on my plot 2 years ago there wasn't much knowledge about comfrey. ;)
_ Actually our site has a few permaculture plots and a few open-minded old-boys so I’m not really claiming it was down to me. Though I seem to be the only one encouraging its appearance in hedges and along pathways....
Pip pip,
Balders
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Thank you, both, for your replies.
I *do* love the idea of using the comfrey as a border-type plant. That could really work for me.
I have open fronted manure bins at the front of plot 39. I've planted the comfrey that is rife on our site in front of the open bins, it helps screen the manure from the main path & hold it in place until I harvest it.
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Quick thought -- when you use lime and fertilizers etc in outside plots much is lost to rain etc over the year so it does not build up in the soil. In greenhouses and polytunnels just be a bit cautious as there is no rain and much less water goes thro the soil so ph and other soil characteristics can be far greatly affected by even small amounts of additives so go more lightly than on open plots. Otherwise I agree about compost and comfrey etc. I double dig and mix in compost across a third of my polytunnel and greenhouse beds every year and rotate crops but I don't change the soil.
Make good use in winter by growing spring cabbage for example and whenever you can grow beans or peas eg dwarf beans early and late in the season to benefit the soil just as in open plot rotations.
Enjoy
R
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I have open fronted manure bins ...., it helps screen the manure from the main path & hold it in place until I harvest it.
While SWMBO loves the idea of (me) recycling and composting, the latter is definitely NIMBY. Part of my garden plan is not only composting but of leaf mould also. I want to get to a point where I do not buy compost. I think your use of comfrey this way is tip-top and I may pinch that idea.
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Next year I going to grow lots of green manure and if I don't get to dig it in I shall fill my daleks up with it