growing own veggies in bags and pots (Merged)

I am going to try to grow my own potatoes, tomatoes, salad leaves and runner beans in pots and bags. I would welcome any advice or tips on the following.

I read in a sunday paper a few weeks ago that you can grow potatoes in a tomatoe compost bag. You snip the top off the bag roll the side down and remove most of the compost then plant the potaoes in the botton. When the potatoes start to grow you roll the bag up a bit and add the compost that has been taken out. I thought this sounded like a brilliant idea but have no experience in growing potatoes so wondered if anybody out there with green fingers could advise if this will work or not. Also I need advice on where to get the potatoes from to plant, do I just use a few that have gone to seed or am I best going to a garden centre to buy some. I dont want to do loads but I thought 5 bags would produce a good crop and I thought about staggering the initial planting so we would have the potatoes for longer - again some advice would be great on this too.

I was going to plant some tomatoes in a tomatoes compost bag too - again where is best to get the seeds from. Can I just plant a few from a tomatoe that I have at home or am I best getting some seeds from a garden centre. I am assuming that to start off with I will need to plant the tomatoes indoors and move them outdoors after the frosts have gone ?.

With the salad leaves I was just going to do a large planter with compost in and get a pack of mixed salad leaves. I was going to wait to do these untill the end of the month and plant them directly outside.

I have just bought a packet of runnerbeans to plant at the supermarket, bought a kids pack because it was cheaper than a big pack and I am thinking we wont need many. I was going to start them off indoors and plant them out in a 2 large pots ( 3 plants per pot ) I also was not sure if I should stagger this too so that we will have a crop for longer.


I actually have space at the side of my house that would make a brilliant veggie patch ( only gets sun in the morning though ) but the ground is solid clay and I think the only way that I could turn it into a veggie patch would be to get a digger in and remove the clay/soil and replace it with good soil !. Any ideas on a cheap way of turning the ground into something workable ?

sorry for the essay and thankyou for reading :)
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Comments

  • glenstan
    glenstan Posts: 321 Forumite
    I have just got rid of green house and decided to use ground it was stood on as a veggie patch got peas, beetroot, spring onions, and red onion to plant straight into ground
    I did grow potatoes for a couple of years but used to put them in buckets at the end of summer to harvest for christmas dinner
    just kept some potatoes from shop in drawer till they sprouted and then planted them in buckets of compost
    always got a good supply of "NEW POTATOES" for xmas and new year, think this was more down to good luck than managment
    :hello:What goes around - comes around
    give lots and you will always recieve lots
  • glenstan
    glenstan Posts: 321 Forumite
    through last 4 to 5 years i have found it cheaper to go to local allotments to buy plants the folks there sell there surplus plants for pence i was buying tomato plants , but they also had veggie plants for sale as well,
    :hello:What goes around - comes around
    give lots and you will always recieve lots
  • hilary1
    hilary1 Posts: 1,443 Forumite
    I am going to try to grow my own potatoes, tomatoes, salad leaves and runner beans in pots and bags. I would welcome any advice or tips on the following.

    I read in a sunday paper a few weeks ago that you can grow potatoes in a tomatoe compost bag. You snip the top off the bag roll the side down and remove most of the compost then plant the potaoes in the botton. When the potatoes start to grow you roll the bag up a bit and add the compost that has been taken out. I thought this sounded like a brilliant idea but have no experience in growing potatoes so wondered if anybody out there with green fingers could advise if this will work or not. Also I need advice on where to get the potatoes from to plant, do I just use a few that have gone to seed or am I best going to a garden centre to buy some. I dont want to do loads but I thought 5 bags would produce a good crop and I thought about staggering the initial planting so we would have the potatoes for longer - again some advice would be great on this too.

    I was going to plant some tomatoes in a tomatoes compost bag too - again where is best to get the seeds from. Can I just plant a few from a tomatoe that I have at home or am I best getting some seeds from a garden centre. I am assuming that to start off with I will need to plant the tomatoes indoors and move them outdoors after the frosts have gone ?.

    With the salad leaves I was just going to do a large planter with compost in and get a pack of mixed salad leaves. I was going to wait to do these untill the end of the month and plant them directly outside.

    I have just bought a packet of runnerbeans to plant at the supermarket, bought a kids pack because it was cheaper than a big pack and I am thinking we wont need many. I was going to start them off indoors and plant them out in a 2 large pots ( 3 plants per pot ) I also was not sure if I should stagger this too so that we will have a crop for longer.




    I actually have space at the side of my house that would make a brilliant veggie patch ( only gets sun in the morning though ) but the ground is solid clay and I think the only way that I could turn it into a veggie patch would be to get a digger in and remove the clay/soil and replace it with good soil !. Any ideas on a cheap way of turning the ground into something workable ?

    sorry for the essay and thankyou for reading :)

    I'm not an experienced gardener but I use seeds from a cherry tomatoe to grow tomatoes and they've been ok. You dont need may plants anyway so even if you buy some seeds they will last for next year. Or spread them round friends and family.

    Wilkinsons sell lettuce seeds for 39p for about 1200 seeds.

    Potatoes I grow in a wooden box from shooting potatoes in the cupboard. i used to buy seed potatoes but its a waste of money when they are really just potatoes with shoots on. I think growing them in a growbag would be great and I'm going to do one of those myself aswell this year.

    Happy growing
    The curve that can set a lot of things straight is a smile
  • oops_a_daisy
    oops_a_daisy Posts: 2,460
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    do you dry the tomatoe seeds first Hilary ?
    :cool: Official DFW Nerd Club Member #37 Debt free Feb 07 :cool:
  • Strepsy
    Strepsy Posts: 5,651 Forumite
    Make sure you punch some holes in the bottom of the grow bags for drainage and the best kind would be the ones with black inners to keep out the light. I bought my seed potatoes from a garden centre - got 10 for about £2 I think.

    Using supermarket potatoes is not recommended because of the risk of it carrying diseases to spread to your own garden, or that it may have been sprayed with who-knows-what chemicals which could contaminate the soil, so it's not the environmentally friendly option. But I guess growing them in grow bags you avoid those problems - as long as you don't tip the soil onto your garden afterwards which would be the ideal option as you could do with it to help condition the clay soil. The other problem with using tomato seed out of a tomato is that you may not get very nice tasting tomatoes, and as they need quite a bit of care and effort, would it really be worth all that to get tasteless tomatoes when you can buy a pack from Lidl for 29p? If you want to experiment I would do a couple of each, then you can compare and as is mentioned, the seed will be fine for next year and probably the year after too.

    Tomatoes do need to be started off inside, they are very susceptible to frost.
    I've been lucky, I'll be lucky again. ~ Bette Davis
  • annie-c
    annie-c Posts: 2,542 Forumite
    Hello, great thread, if you want more advice on growing then this thread might help - it has links and tips going back to January by Oldstylers who are keeping track of what they are growing in 2006.

    All the best!

    Annie
  • Murtle
    Murtle Posts: 4,154
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    I read in a sunday paper a few weeks ago that you can grow potatoes in a tomatoe compost bag. You snip the top off the bag roll the side down and remove most of the compost then plant the potaoes in the botton. When the potatoes start to grow you roll the bag up a bit and add the compost that has been taken out. I thought this sounded like a brilliant idea but have no experience in growing potatoes so wondered if anybody out there with green fingers could advise if this will work or not. Also I need advice on where to get the potatoes from to plant, do I just use a few that have gone to seed or am I best going to a garden centre to buy some. I dont want to do loads but I thought 5 bags would produce a good crop and I thought about staggering the initial planting so we would have the potatoes for longer - again some advice would be great on this too.

    yes this is how you grow potatoes, if you grow on or near an allotement don't grow sprouted old potatoes that you bought from a shop but forgot to eat, as apparently they can spread disease. They are fine to eat, I do this but have been strongly advised not to do it near allotements!!

    Hope you have fun

    M
  • mummysaver
    mummysaver Posts: 3,119 Forumite
    What a great idea to grow potatoes like this, saves the hard work of digging them up too! Will be off to get some grow bags tomorrow! Thanks!
    GC Oct £387.69/£400, GC Nov £312.58/£400, GC Dec £111.87/£400
  • voodoozoe
    voodoozoe Posts: 531
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    mummysaver wrote:
    What a great idea to grow potatoes like this, saves the hard work of digging them up too! Will be off to get some grow bags tomorrow! Thanks!

    I've been and got my seed potatoes and onion sets today from a lovely little man at a Nursery and blow me down if all the blinkin Garden Centres are shut so I can't get my gro bags :mad:

    I have bought "first earlies" to plant now and "main crop" so as to hopefully have an almost continuous supply. I'm SO excited :j !!!!!
    Laughing at my ancient signature...voodoobaby now 10 years old:eek:


  • nearlyrich
    nearlyrich Posts: 13,698
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    I grew some vine tomatoes in grow bags in the conservatory a few years ago, the problem was the watering was tricky as the floor is a decent real wood laminate that cost a fortune and I didn't want to damage it. I also had to support the stems using strings down from the rail for the vertical blinds. The tomatoes were fab but the risk to the decor outweighs the saving so I can't do it again.
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