[Patch]

Hello Allotmenters 

A friend of mine asked a question which I didn't know the answer to but I said that I would ask more experienced people on here.

They have a small garden, only big enough for vegetables in containers, and so planted potatoes in large pots last year, which did very well.

They used shop bought multi-purpose compost for the task.

The multi-purpose compost is still in the large pots and they want to know if they can plant potatoes, a different variety, in these pots again, using the same multi-purpose compost?

I thought maybe they could, possibly adding Growmore granules fertiliser to put back some nutrients into the compost of what last year's potatoes took out, but I told him to wait until I had received some answers on here, which hopefully Allotmenters on here will supply.

Has anyone any suggestions or ideas?

Many thanks.

 

[solway cropper]

Not a good idea to put potatoes back in the same compost for the risk of spreading disease but they could put lots of other crops in. The compost will be almost devoid of nutrients after growing spuds so will need the addition of a slow release fertilizer and perhaps a sprinkle of growmore to get things going.

[muntjac]

turn out all the pots  onto a hard surface . break it up well add 4oz growmore 1oz sulphate of potash to the full mix. use for any plants other than spuds ,bad news to put spuds in he same ground year after year...buy new 60 litre bag compost for the spuds add 2 oz sulphate of potash to the new stuff 

 

[Patch]

Hello solway cropper and muntjac. 

Many thanks for the advice which I will endeavor to pass on.

I must admit I thought that putting Growmore granules into the multi-purpose compost may have solved the problem but evidently not.  My friend will have to buy new multi-purpose compost in order to accommodate the potatoes.

Many thanks again for the advice.

 

[fatcat1955]

If he has a Wickes near him, excellent compst 4 bags £13

[Patch]

Thanks fc, but sadly no, I don't think we have one near us.

[LeeR]

What do you fellow allotmenteers do with your spent compost?  I've just started composting and I've been putting compost I've used to start seeds into my compost heap.  I assume that this is OK?

[mumofstig]

as it's already composted...........I just add it to the beds as soil conditioner

[Robster]

I chuck all my spent potting compost into the compost bin.  This gets a lot of chiken poo on it so I hope it's diluting it a bit and getting some "goodness" back in it.  It comes out again in six months or so.  But hey, I like making compost.

[Debz]

I tend to scatter it around the garden as a mulch at the end of the season and start with fresh again the following year.