Topic: Ring culture substrate

[andyh]

Hi, I'm going to try ring culture for my tomatoes in the greenhouse this year. I intend to build a 12 inch tall rectangular box. line it and then fill it with a substrate to retain the moisture before inserting the rings. I'm sure I have read somewhere a clean mix of builders ballast is useful for the substate. Anybody any alternative ideas?

Thanks

Andy

[derbex]

I'm going with gravel about 3" deep -I saw some trays at in the glass house Audley End from memory they were gravel and I'm pretty sure they weren't a foot deep.

See also beds and bags in the 'greenhouse' section. http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/smf/index.php/topic,16991.0.html

Would ballast suffer from algae and being difficult to clean?

[andyh]

Hi Derbex,

My thoughts were that by making them so deep they may retain moisture for longer. This was a bit of a guess and may not actually be the case. Any ideas?

Cheers

Andy

[derbex]

I've run a seep hose under mine and plan to use a timer on it. Which will be fine until the water butt runs out  :)