Time to change the greenhouse border soil

[mikepearce45]

When previously changing the border soil in the greenhouse, I have used a mixture of Garden centre bought "Farmyard Manure" (which is actually mushroom compost and is really a soil improver) John Innes No 3 plus a bag or two of General Potting Compost (peat free) with a generous mixture of powdered Chicken Litter. I only grow tomatoes and cucumbers therein and have generally had reasonably good results although I feel that perhaps they could possibly be better.

What recommendations would others make for a better soil replacement please? I usually change the soil every two years.

[Pa Snip]

I think I would consider dropping the chicken litter, which might be excessively influencing the level of nitrogen and go for a slow release general fertiliser in its place.

If you currently carry out your replacement on a two year basis I might also consider adopting a policy of "if it aint broke don't try and fix it"

At some point I expect most of us wonder if we couldn't do better

[mikepearce45]

Tend to agree with your comment re "if it aint broke etc" and I have wondered over the years why I change the soil so frequently especially as I tend to use the ring culture system for the tomatoes.

Unfortunately, this year I will have no choice as I did not clear out the dead plants from last season until after Christmas owing to a family bereavement which diverted my attention elsewhere. The plants were covered in botrytis with rotting tomatoes lying on the soil when I eventually got round to the job. Not good.

Will switch from the Chicken Litter this year and try something else and see if that makes any difference to the "expected" yields. Will be growing Ailsa Craig and Akron this year instead of last year's Ferline.

[Geoff]

I never change the greenhouse soil, I just treat it like any other bed. I do have the advantage that I only half fill it with Tomatoes, the rest is Sweet Corn, Cucumbers, Carrots, Brassicas, Peppers etc. I just alternate where the Tomatoes are from year to year and it seems to work. I dig it over and add compost to all except what is having Brassicas (that gets lime) or Carrots (just dig). I feed the Tomato bed with limited FBB, Potash and Superphosphate; Brassicas with Growmore; rest with heavier FBB.

[retropants]

I don't change ours either. However, if they are looking a bit full after multiple additions of compost, I'll take a few barrow's worthe out and top up as necessary.

[robo]

I used to change it every year when I had my first greenhouse in the garden this rotted about twenty years ago, our pollytunnels on the plot where I grow all our tomatoes never gets changed I just top it up with pigeon and chicken manure I very rarely feed the plants as I don't think they need it my returns are good I even managed to freeze 180 tomatoes this year

[mikepearce45]

General consensus appears to indicate that I should have been using my energy all these past years on improving the soil and not replacing it.

Once I have replaced the soil for this season(for reasons stated in my previous post) I think that I will in future concentrate on soil improvement plus rotating the crops more.

No matter how long one gardens, you will always learn something new from other people's experiences. Thanks everyone.