[flowerpot girl]

Hi All, hope your all well ,Just want to ask if its ok to use the soil from your tom plants again to grow next years plants? i am just not sure if i should just mix it into the garden or that i can grow toms or potatoes with it . the soil was from grow bags so dont know if the toms have took out all the goodness from the soil( bet you all think i am completely thick.......... and you would be right  ) i really am a complete novice at this growing malarky .

[noshed]

Your best bet will be to get some new grow bags for next year. Your results will be much better.
You can re-use the old grow bag contents though - mix in some rotted compost and a bit of blood, fish and bone and you could use it for potting. Add some sharp sand and it can be seed compost. Or just chuck it round the plot and it will get incorporated into the soil.

[8doubles]

Mix some sand with the used compost and use it for growing carrots. They do not need a  very rich soil. Apart from that i always use good fresh compost for planting seed into.

[loupilou]

Hi All, hope your all well ,Just want to ask if its ok to use the soil from your tom plants again to grow next years plants? i am just not sure if i should just mix it into the garden or that i can grow toms or potatoes with it . the soil was from grow bags so dont know if the toms have took out all the goodness from the soil( bet you all think i am completely thick.......... and you would be right  ) i really am a complete novice at this growing malarky .

well, my dad always said that you never grow toms in the same soil, he used to dig out about 6 to 8 inches of soil and replace it with soil that the potatoes or carrots had grown in mixed with some compost, as long as you feed the toms well this will be ok! 

Best of luck

[Yorkie]

Please remember that potatoes and tomatoes are the same family therefore pests / diseases from one will carry over to the next year and affect the other

[peapod]

you could always try some winter lettuce in it,and then incorporate it into your soil next year (bearing in mind what Yorkie says of course)

[strangerachael]

I have got rid of all my tomato compost as they had blight 

[peterjf]

we change our tomato medium every 3rd year, digging down a full spade spit , usually about this time of year,

once greenhouses are ready about late january time we will sulphur candle each greenhouse for 12 hours

then we will add a good 6-8 inches of well rotted manure and dig it in,

doing this allows the bacteria back into the soil and we are ready again for

growing for about mid march - april

[cooperman]

Although I grew toms in new growbags this year I decided to experiment with last years tom growbag soil.  I potted this up into florist buckets and without any additonal compost or feed grew some toms in these side by side with the growbags (in the greenhouse) and only fed them with the same liquid feed.  Great results no different to the new growbags in fact. Whether this is a one off I am not sure.... will try the same again next year.
ps I even grew some outside and had er... better results than last year.... strange

[pushrod]

I always grow my toms in buckets of john innes no3 - this year the garden centre was sold out so rather than wait for more to come in i used an ordinary compost. Result - the smallest sized toms i have ever had. Almost certainly down to the lack of nutrients (suspect most grow bags are equally lacking in nutrients).

Have already bought my john innes no 3 for next year 

[DD.]

My biggest & tastiest tomatoes were grown outside, straight in the soil with nothing added. No watering either apart from when they were first planted.

[LittleRedHen]

I'd throw it into the garden this fall, along with any other goodies and turn it in.  We do this every year.  BUT we don't plant potatoes or tomatoes in that area again for a year's time. 

[Kristen]

I replace the "soil" that my greenhouse tomatoes grow in every year.

On the basis that Potatoes and Tomatoes are the same family, and share the same diseases, I put he "soil" from the greenhouse onto the plot where the Potatoes were grown.

I then replace the greenhouse border with a mixture of half-manure and half-compost.

(Actually my Manure and Compost are pretty rough, so after a further year's growing, in the greenhouse, its pretty good compost, so I don;t really regard it as a chore, more a "refining process"

[cooperman]

I always grow my toms in buckets of john innes no3 - this year the garden centre was sold out so rather than wait for more to come in i used an ordinary compost. Result - the smallest sized toms i have ever had. Almost certainly down to the lack of nutrients (suspect most grow bags are equally lacking in nutrients).

Have already bought my john innes no 3 for next year 

I have found that growbags AND composts vary considerably from manufacturer to manufacturer - "John Innes" compost is only a formula and not a brand - any manufacturer can make a "John Innes 1,2 or 3"  - One make i bought last year (Arthur Bowyers) was rubbish and I told the garden centre that supplied it what I thought of it.  This year I used WESTLAND composts as they got a "Best Buy" in a WHICH report and have been great.

[flowerpot girl]

Thank you everyone, that has helped me loads,lots of good advice , your a good bunch