Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Sweetpea C on April 29, 2013, 13:54
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My daughter's tomato plants are coming on lovely and need to be potted on. I do have some large deep pots which I have grown tomatoes in before, or I have a growbag - please can someone tell me which are best?
Many thanks,
Caroline
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Either will be fine though I confess that I use growbags in the greenhouse but sink a bottomless pot in filled with compost to give the plants more room for the roots. The bags retain water a lot better than pots so during hot sunny weather, the bag acts like a reservoir
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It's flower buckets for me and I stand them on pot trays and water from the bottom. Always manage good crops but a neighbour uses grow bags and gets good results. Keep in mind some grow bags are bigger and better than others.
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Pots for me as you can plant the toms deeper and stick your bamboos in nice and deep, grow bags are just to shallow try getting a bamboo cane to stand up in a grow bag.
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I cut my growbags into two (widthwise), stand them on their ends and use them as makeshift pots. You can then stick a bamboo cane in pretty deep to give support.
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It is certainly easier to keep the watering under control in a pot, but you can get plastic trays that fit neatly under growbags so you can water from above and below.
I use cheap builders buckets with a few holes drilled in the base. Much cheaper than pots :)
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For the last few years I have used full-sized bags of MP compost laid flat and used exactly the same as growbags, but of course there is considerably more compost in them than growbags (especially the skinny ones!)
This year I have made long planters from old pallets which will be lined with old compost bags (with drainage holes in the bottom) and filled with MP compost. Should make more economical used of the compost, give better depth (around 12") and be easier to water without having to mess around with upturned bottles etc.
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I cut my growbags into two (widthwise), stand them on their ends and use them as makeshift pots. You can then stick a bamboo cane in pretty deep to give support.
Why didn't I think of that. Good idea.
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I cut my growbags into two (widthwise), stand them on their ends and use them as makeshift pots. You can then stick a bamboo cane in pretty deep to give support.
Why didn't I think of that. Good idea.
I must confess it's not my idea. I think it was mentioned on Gardeners' World about 10 years ago.
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Definately go with the grow bags cut in half....the flower buckets I am assuming are black and I have found that they lose moisture
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So, which compost or growbag should I use?
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I've bought the Levington Tomorite ones this year.
I've been told they're good.
I also mix some well rotted manure into the compost too.
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I've always been happy with B&Q Verve Growbags (the ones have have peat), but I've not tried any others. I then use a tomato feed as soon as teeny tomatoes have started to set.
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Have used pots, bags and bottomless pots on bags. Some of the better grow bags are probably quite good tomorite ones etc, as they hold loads more compost than the skinny little bags.
IMO, the growing media is the most important thing no matter what the crop is. For that reason I'll be using large pots filled with Levington m2 and some vermiculite.
Totty
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I grow them in bottomless pots buried in the borders in the polytunnel. I remember reading somewhere that the roots near to the plant are used for nutrition and the long roots that grow outside the pot are for water. Doing this changes some of the soil in the borders so the plants are healthier but also means that they get lots of water from the polytunnel borders.
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Definately go with the grow bags cut in half....the flower buckets I am assuming are black and I have found that they lose moisture
Just tape a sheet of white paper round them to reflect the sunlight then they don't lose anywhere near as much moisture.