Hanging basket compost bags for tomatoes
Posted: Wed May 06, 2020 12:54 pm
This is another proposed experiment.
I could not get hold of standard growbags this year but there were 40 litre HB compost bags at 3 for £11at a well known rebellious independent plants centre near me in EXETER.... I plan to use them as growbags for my tomatoes. They are shorter and deeper than growbags
I do NOT have a greenhouse
I usually only grow trailing cherry or plum varieties
I lost half my tomatoes last year to late blight,
growing then in the open on a raised bed 10 ft from the house
the year before we had a huge successful Crop from growbags sitting on horizontal ladder 2ft off the ground right next to our south west facing house front wall. The ladder is now knackered and unavailable.
( I am also using rootrainers for all indoor sowing for the first time this year )
I propose to grow a mixture of trailing and normal vine tomatoes this year using full 40 litre bags of hanging basket compost,
with planting holes big enough to Slide in the rootrainers plants
- Two bags will be on top of a 3ft high wall near the house ( one of these bags will be normal multi compost )
- One bag will be on a bench by the same house wall
- One bag will have vine tomatoes growing in a cheap plastic covered lean to cold frame against the same wall.
This can be heated overnight by a couple of slow cookers - Yes we did have a sausage casserole one day cooked overnight.
It protected my infamous early PSB and sweet corn plants during hardening off and now has tomatoes and imminently squashes in it upper tiers.
All the bags will benefit for a timed micro bore irrigation system.
Any comments welcomed re nature of experiment
- Especially on number of plants per bag , I previously have planted 3 trailing plants in each standard growbag
Any comments on personality of experimenter might be amusing
Donald in Devon
I could not get hold of standard growbags this year but there were 40 litre HB compost bags at 3 for £11at a well known rebellious independent plants centre near me in EXETER.... I plan to use them as growbags for my tomatoes. They are shorter and deeper than growbags
I do NOT have a greenhouse
I usually only grow trailing cherry or plum varieties
I lost half my tomatoes last year to late blight,
growing then in the open on a raised bed 10 ft from the house
the year before we had a huge successful Crop from growbags sitting on horizontal ladder 2ft off the ground right next to our south west facing house front wall. The ladder is now knackered and unavailable.
( I am also using rootrainers for all indoor sowing for the first time this year )
I propose to grow a mixture of trailing and normal vine tomatoes this year using full 40 litre bags of hanging basket compost,
with planting holes big enough to Slide in the rootrainers plants
- Two bags will be on top of a 3ft high wall near the house ( one of these bags will be normal multi compost )
- One bag will be on a bench by the same house wall
- One bag will have vine tomatoes growing in a cheap plastic covered lean to cold frame against the same wall.
This can be heated overnight by a couple of slow cookers - Yes we did have a sausage casserole one day cooked overnight.
It protected my infamous early PSB and sweet corn plants during hardening off and now has tomatoes and imminently squashes in it upper tiers.
All the bags will benefit for a timed micro bore irrigation system.
Any comments welcomed re nature of experiment
- Especially on number of plants per bag , I previously have planted 3 trailing plants in each standard growbag
Any comments on personality of experimenter might be amusing
Donald in Devon