#6 |
(16-08-2020, 11:53 AM)Mark_Riga Wrote: The greenish in the water is unlikely to be nasty, it is the excess water itself that might well rot the roots.Thanks for the tips. I think I need to water my tomatoes using the rose on the watering can - without one, the column of water just seemed to punch through the compost and coir liner without soaking in appreciably, which means a lot of water wasted. Can you tell I've never grown anything in hanging baskets before?
Plants in pots here all have a way out for excess water. I wouldn't dream of lining with plastic. As long as the compost isn't allowed to dry out, any running through is in excess of what the compost can hold and needs to escape I would have thought.
I have found Dalefoot composts to be very good - but expensive. They advertise on their web site that plants don't need additional feeding and have a mix for tomatoes. If you have a supplier nearby you could give them a try. Whether the savings on feeding would balance the extra cost of the compost?
https://www.dalefootcomposts.co.uk/our-stockists.aspx
I bought it to see what it was like as i have a patch of bracken near by and that is one of their main ingredients besides wool - but I didn't get round to cutting it this year, may be next. In mid summer with 101 things needing doing, next years compost making is easy to miss.
I was going to order a bulk bag of Dalefoot to top off my new raised beds, since our own topsoil is rather poor (a mix of chalk and clay), so I might add a bag or two of their tomato compost to the order for use next summer. I know Dalefoot is expensive, but the cheaper options I've looked at have either not been peat-free (mushroom compost usually contains peat) or is of dubious quality (random topsoil full of bits of broken glass!). I'm in the fortunate situation of being able to afford the good stuff, so why not?
How much veg and wildlife can I pack into a 6m x 8m garden in suburban Cambridge? Let’s find out!