Growing fruit & veg in tubs - where do I start?

ladylouise62

Furny wrote: »

. My neighbour has suggested just turning them and putting new compost in but I haven't dared as I've always had brilliant results so far with new compost and thought surely a lot of the goodness will be washed out with the rain etc.
.:)

Why don't you try it with a couple of pots and see what happens, after all, soil has water running through it as well, and we don't completely replace that every year. Take a look at how to enrich your compost/feed plants and you may find that you don't have to replace it every single year. I did a couple of pots of the same tomato last year - one was in fresh compost, one was in 'renewed' stuff. Taking into account that the new stuff was in a much larger pot with a water reserve, the renewed one did pretty similar.

You could still tip it all out and enrich 'en mass' rather than each pot individually, but do have a go, you might be pleasantly surprised. The only thing I would say is that to prevent disease build up try not to use the same compost for the same plant every year.

ellebee1986

How do you know if theres risk of disease when re-using compost? Ive got a couple of pots full from peppers I tried to grow last year and wondered if I could use that again this year mixed with some new stuff?

poppysarah

If you use old compost for growing the same family of things then maybe.

Refresh it with some nice seaweed fertiliser or pelleted chicken muck.

Cleopatra

Hello. If you're growing vegetables in pots, especially tomatoes, its best not to use black plastic pots because they absorb the heat from the sun a lot. The plants dry out really quick and the roots get too hot even if you water regularly. The browny colour pots are best and obviously make sure that they're standing in decent sized saucers or trays which you can keep topped up with water.

littleowl

Hi,
Last year I grew runner beans in pots - three plants to each large pot with three 7 ft canes in a 'wigwam'. They were fantastic - cropped really well and kept us in beans through the summer. I used a variety called Scarlet Emperor' and they were delicious. I also grew tumbling tomatoes in hanging baskets - these are cherry tomatoes and, again, they cropped really well - I didn't buy any tomatoes the whole summer. I also grow herbs and intend adding French beans to the list this year. It is vital to water almost every day if dry weather.

Do try it - the taste of freshly picked beans and tomatoes is one you will never get from bought veg!

LittleMissAspie

laurel7172 wrote: »

Agree that spring onions are bomb-proof, as are radishes, if you like them (I don't!).

It makes me sad whenever I read this as I tried growing spring onions and radishes the other year and they completely failed! None of them developed a bulb on the end We also grew the "Tumbler" tomatoes, they grew but tasted revolting, really bitter. No idea what we did wrong with any of it.

I'm going to try salad leaves this year but I'm not expecting results, based on past performance.

MrsRogers

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

It makes me sad whenever I read this as I tried growing spring onions and radishes the other year and they completely failed! None of them developed a bulb on the end We also grew the "Tumbler" tomatoes, they grew but tasted revolting, really bitter. No idea what we did wrong with any of it.

I'm going to try salad leaves this year but I'm not expecting results, based on past performance.

Did your tomatos have lots of sun? Its important that your tomatos have lots of sun and feeding them with a 'Tomato feed'.

Not all spring onions form into bulb eg lisbon and very straight..

Have another go.. dont be disheatened its great fun :T