[yorkiegal]

I have about 20 tomato plants in the polytunnel which need to be potted into their final pots now. Some of them will be going into purpose built tomato growing bags full of compost. For the others I have lots of florists buckets with the bottoms cut off. I have soil on the floor of the polytunnel which has been double dug with chicken manure pellets put in, some fish blood and bone, and some well rotted compost from our heap. Can I put the buckets direct onto the ground or do they really need to be placed in growbags? I've just shelled out so much money already on tools etc for our new plot and would like not to have spend even more on growbags if I don't have to.

[Madame Cholet]

you can put the pots on the ground and let the roots grow through or plant the tomatoes straight ito the soil.

I grow my toms in the ground and in lrg tubs on the patio all do ok. In some ways grobags are more difficult to get the water right.

[Ice]

I'm not a fan of growbags for tomatoes.  They need water from the bottom and food from the top so a bucket on a tray is my preferred method for growing them.  Water in the tray and feed in the top of the bucket.

[leeks r us]

 you can use grow bag medium in pots to grow toms but if i were you i would put them straight in the ground, i plant some in the polytunnel and some in the greenhouse in pots. the growing medium i use in pots is the cheapest compost you can find and mix a tablespoon full of growmore to each pot of compost ,its worked fine for me for years.

[angelavdavis]

I tried for three years to grow tomatoes in grobags and have always been disappointed with the results - even when using cut off pots on top of grobags to increase the root area.  This year I am just going to use large pots in the greenhouse sitting in large watering trays.  If this fails, I am going to put in a raised bed and create a hotbed style setup, emptying the rotted manure at the end of the season onto the beds outside the greenhouse. 

As you have the option of putting straight in the soil I would say go for it.  I know they warn about soil sickness when growing tomatoes continuously in greenhouse soil, but it will take a few years for the problems to occur and so you can move the polytunnel to another spot after a couple of years to avoid this problem.

[sunshineband]

I'm not a fan of growbags for tomatoes.  They need water from the bottom and food from the top so a bucket on a tray is my preferred method for growing them.  Water in the tray and feed in the top of the bucket.

This is a really good way of growing them and I forget about it some years and go to growbags (double depth) and am sorry!

[yorkiegal]

thanks everyone. I'll get them dug in today then. My plot hasn't been worked on for a number of years so hopefully there won't be anything harmful in the soil.

[mumofstig]

This only the 2nd year in these positions for my greenhouses, so my toms grow in the soil border. I change a bucket load of soil for a bucket load of compost from each planting position
in the Autumn when the toms get cleared out.

Hopefully this will stop/delay any soil sickness.

Other than that the 'extras' go in tubs in trays on the paving, and also give good crops considering they're outside  

[New shoot]

I'm not a fan of growbags for tomatoes.  They need water from the bottom and food from the top so a bucket on a tray is my preferred method for growing them.  Water in the tray and feed in the top of the bucket.

This is a really good way of growing them and I forget about it some years and go to growbags (double depth) and am sorry!

This is my method as well    Cheap builders buckets from B&Q with drainage holes drilled in the base sitting in gravel trays.  If the trays seem too expensive, you can sit the bucket in a rubble sack rolled down a bit to form a makeshift saucer - I've done this before when I have run out of trays  

[DD.]

Like MoS, I've gone back to growing direct in the soil this year.

I used to do it, not sure why I stopped. The plants are far less prone to drying out or waterlogging and you can get more growing height rather than being stuck in a tall pot.

I will refresh the soil also after the growing season. The border currently has the contents of one of my compost bins dug in and a handful or two of Growmore. (Would have been chicken manure pellets, but Mrs Digger objects to the smell!).

Plants are doing well.

[JayG]

The cheap, skinny growbags are useless unless you mess around cutting them in half and standing them upright (in which case you might as well have grown them in large pots of normal compost in the first place.)

The dearer ones contain much more compost and I have used them successfully, although now I have the greenhouse I have moved on to whole 60-70 litre bags of MP compost used as growbags. Worked well last year - this year I will at last be "trialling" the peculiar-looking Wickes compost alongside the more promising-looking Vitax Q4. We shall see.......... 

[GrannieAnnie]

My tomatoes that are going in the polytunnel will go into the soil which has had chicken manure rotovated in it, and the leftovers which will go outside are going into my few really large pots, which are about 15inches across.  The rest, as I can't bear to throw any away are going into the compost bags which I have emptied, with a mixture of compost and soil in.

This year I am treating them to some Tomorite.  I usually only use my comfrey tea! 

[yorkiegal]

All done! Some are in the ground, which I had to add some lime to after checking the ph. Some are in bottomless buckets and the rest are in tomato planters in compost. So I'll see which do best.

btw how long after adding lime do I have to wait before using liquid tomato feed?

[DD.]

You use tomato feed once the first fruit has set.

[Goldfinger]

This is exactly how I'm doing my toms this year. My dad and grandad called it 'the ring cultured way'.

Only difference was, every winter, he'd take out the soil (concrete base of G/H), and sterilise it on a tin sheet over a fire. (Did I mention this in another thread that I was going to try this?  :blink: )

I don't have any 'base' under my soil, so when the toms come out at least I can grow some kind of 'catch crop' too. And so far, I'd say you use less compost overall, only in the rings/pots, saving a bit £££ buying bag upon bag of compost...