[neal]

After growing tomatoes for the last 4 years in the soil beds of my greenhouse and finding the crop was poor for the first time last year i have desided to grow them in bottomless pots on gravel. I have dug the soil beds out to a deapth of 8ins and lined it with plastic now the question is do i peirce the plastic to allow for drainage. All the articals i have read do not say anything about allowing water to drain away. I don't want to go to the trouble of digging out a ton and a half of soil and replacing it with that amount of pea gravel then find i then need drainage holes much easer to do it at this point than find the plants die with over watering. All comments and any experiences would be welcome.     

[yorky]

Do not pierce the plastic. I made this mistake when I first used ring culture and the gravel dried out too quickly. After putting in new plastic I have had excellent results with this method. I have had the same gravel down for donkey’s years; I just give it a good soak with Jeyes Fluid at the end of every season to kill off any disease.
I wouldn’t grow tomatoes by any other method now, it ticks all the boxes for me.

[Potiron]

  Tell me more please, this all sounds very interesting. Like how do you do ring culture and what do you feed the plants on?

[neal]

The plants are grown in 22cm (9ins) bottomless pots filled with a good potting compost that are placed on a bed of gravel or weathered ashes (hard to get old of these days). The plants are well watered in and then only the gravel is watered. A liquid tomatoe feed is applied to the top of the pots when the first truss has set do not apply fed to the gravel as it will be washed away with the watering. Two root systems are made one for feeding in the pots and one for water up take in the gravel. At the end of the season the plants and pots are removed the gravel can then be flushed with clean water and some disinfectant (jeyes fluid) this can be done every year.     

[goose]

sorry, am i being a bit thick to ask "how does the water stay in the pea gravel", or is that what the plastic lining is for?

[woodburner]

sorry, am i being a bit thick to ask "how does the water stay in the pea gravel", or is that what the plastic lining is for?

That is indeed what the lining is for. Don't put drainage holes in it!

[goose]

i only have a hard base in my greenhouse.  if i build a raised bed type thing, line it with plastic and fill it with peagravel, will this do?  how much water do you give the gravel?  sorry to ask so many questions but this sounds so much better than using growbags, even if i do have an auto watering system.  thanks so much in advance.

[lacewing]

Hi, I would love to try this method for growing toms. Would this work with Gro Pots? I have lots of them from last year. How much pea gravel would I need for 1 side of an 8' greenhouse?. I have heard that some tomato leaves should be smapped off during the growing season to allow more energy for the fruit, any ideas on that!

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[dugless]

 ???Neal you forgot to mention the fact that you feed through the pots at least every 7 to 10 days

[woodburner]

Hi, I would love to try this method for growing toms. Would this work with Gro Pots? I have lots of them from last year. How much pea gravel would I need for 1 side of an 8' greenhouse?. I have heard that some tomato leaves should be smapped off during the growing season to allow more energy for the fruit, any ideas on that!

Thanks in advance for the advice.

What are Gro-pots?
Don't really know how much gravel.
Aha! Google is my friend. Taken from Gardenworld website: "To prepare the border for ring culture dig out a trench at least 20 cm (8 in) deep and line it with plastic sheeting. Fill the trench with a layer of pea gravel 15 cm (6 in) deep. Tomato plants are then grown in purpose designed bottomless pots which can be sunk into the gravel. The plants are watered via the gravel but fed via the pot."

I don't think the pots need to be sunk to the bottom of the trench, just enough to level them and stop them falling over.

Edit: Forgot to say I don't believe the business of breaking off the leaves to give more energy to the fruit. Leaves are what makes the sugars to go into the toms. If someone said it helps reduce the risk of blight I might believe that, but I don't think I've heard that. 

[dugless]

As I understand it. the leaves are taken off the bottom later in the season when the leaves turn yellow, this not only keeps the plant heathy but assist in ripening.

[Potiron]

  Do we think tomato ring culture would work for other plants, IE. red peppers ,melons, chillies ect.?     

[vegikev]

  Do we think tomato ring culture would work for other plants, IE. red peppers ,melons, chillies ect.?     

i was going to ask the same thing. and also could you grow them together in the same gravel trench?

[Yorkie]

I see no reason why plants which have similar other requirements - e.g. temperature, water - shouldn't be grown in the same trench / tray.

[lacewing]

Grow pots are specially designed for grow bags, they are open ended and have serrated teeth at the bottom end to cut through the grow bag, there is an inner section which you fill with compost and feed the plants, the outer section has holes for watering the bottom roots. As far as I can understand the idea seems much the same for ring culture but without the growbag.