Author Topic: Tomato soil  (Read 11141 times)

hartshay

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Re: Tomato soil
« Reply #20 on: February 02, 2017, 12:57:10 »
I remove and replace a spit of soil/compost each year.  Double dig  properly every 2/3 years.  I grow tomatoes densely at about a foot apart and get huge crops in the polytunnel and glasshouses.  By removing soil you eradicate lots of potential pests.  But it is a lot of work!


(My soil is very a sandy/peaty loam that 'eats up' a barrow of compost for every metre each year)

galina

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Re: Tomato soil
« Reply #21 on: February 04, 2017, 18:51:22 »
Yes, a lot of work, but clearly worthwhile for you.  Gosh that's very tight spacing for tomatoes.  Are you into square foot gardening?  Do you prune them really well too?   :wave:

 

hartshay

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Re: Tomato soil
« Reply #22 on: February 05, 2017, 12:40:15 »
Yes I do plant densely and also water rarely and never feed!  The plants tend to be vigorous and need lots of shoot nipping and even pruning at times.   I find San Marzano and modern f1 types do best in this regime.   Oh I also underplant with Basil!

johhnyco15

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Re: Tomato soil
« Reply #23 on: February 05, 2017, 13:15:16 »
i never grow tomatoes in the greenhouse i have one leanto greenhouse for cucumbers an 8x6 for peppers,aubergines  and a 6x6 for chillis dont have no probs with outdoor toms and i find they taste better than greenhouse grown not sure why thou
johhnyc015  may the plot be with you

ruud

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Re: Tomato soil
« Reply #24 on: February 05, 2017, 16:54:33 »
I am always put the whole greenhouse under water every two years.If you do that for a couple of hours you flush all the bad things out of the soil.This is for me the only methode that works.Professional gardeners overhere steam the earth.

Robert_Brenchley

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Re: Tomato soil
« Reply #25 on: February 06, 2017, 18:53:43 »
Interesting. Nature's likely to do that to me every couple of years; the site floods every time we have a thunderstorm in the wrong place.

Vinlander

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Re: Tomato soil
« Reply #26 on: February 09, 2017, 12:35:08 »
i never grow tomatoes in the greenhouse i have one leanto greenhouse for cucumbers an 8x6 for peppers,aubergines  and a 6x6 for chillis dont have no probs with outdoor toms and i find they taste better than greenhouse grown not sure why thou

I grow very few tomatoes in my polytunnel - some early ones in the soil and some late ones brought in pots.  I always remove them (and beans) June-September inclusive if I've had success raising aubergine plants (tricky buggers).

I prefer the taste of  tomatoes grown outdoors (Gardeners Delight, Sungold, Piccolo), but the main reason is that aubergines & beans are always magnets for spider mite, so I need to spray water on them regularly - which just encourages blight on any tomatoes in there.

I've considered having a smaller, damper tunnel for aubergines within the larger one, but aubergines simply aren't worth that much trouble - you only get a crop when they are dirt cheap in the shops, and even more importantly they taste exactly the same as shop ones. I only do it for the challenge.

Cheers.

PS. Turkish orange aubergines seem to have no real trouble with spider mite - probably because their leaves are as smooth and hairless as a pepper's.
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

 

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