Ring Culture in practice

[MikeB]

As discussed earlier in the year at,

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,57/topic,16991.msg175128#msg175128

[MikeB]

[Niamh]

MikeB,

super pictures, very clearly demonstrates what ring culture is about. When I did it last year, couldn't find open ended pots anywhere, all the garden centres I contacted didn't even know what a ring culture pot was! I ended up cutting the bottoms out of large pots, 8" I think, then I put them through slits in growbags. I got monster plants, monster yields until blight got the toms.

Where did you get your ring culture pots from?

thanks,

Niamh

[supersprout]

Hi niamh, I got some bottomless ring culture pots from a garden cente in Downham Market, they were about £3.80 for 8 and are supposed to be compostable after. The brand is J. Arthur Bowers :)

[MikeB]

Where did you get your ring culture pots from?

The bottom ' pot ' is a plastic wastepaper bin, but I also use builders buckets the 99p version.  The top pots are ordinary flowerpots with the bottoms cut off.  I believe you can buy ring culture pots from Dolbies, but flowerpots are more than OK, so save your money.

[grawrc]

What are the advantages of ring culture?

[supersprout]

Ring culture in bags of spent hops - tomatoes on left, squash at the back. Thanks MikeB for making it clear what to do, and to tim for the idea of using bags of whatever as the base container ;D

[katynewbie]

;D

Nice to see you making good use of the greenhouse SS!!!!!

It all looks great!!

;)

[supersprout]

Thank you katie, I was very proud until no.1 son said it reminded him of the scene from alien (with all the pods) >:(

I noticed tim puts his sacks quite a bit further apart. Eek! Well, it's the first year, so part of the fun will be to See What Happens ;)

[MikeB]

Excellent work SS, I must admit it's better than mine.

[supersprout]

Thank you for the compliment mike (curtsy) ;) you still have the cutting edge with the parsnip planter :o ;D I haven't worked out how to set up supports in the greenhouse, but they can wait until the planting frenzy of May is over.

[MikeB]

Here's some pictures on how I'm supporting mine, hope it helps.

[supersprout]

Tried to post earlier to say thank you mike, pictures are brilliant! Will head to the bamboo grove next week ;)

[MikeB]

I would normally only use one bamboo pole per plant, pushed in next to the main stem and the main stem tied to it and removing any side shoots that developed, but Tim posted the following link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/uncovered/gardening/tomatoes.shtml

So this year I'm allowing the first side shoot to developed, hence the two bamboo canes, so that I will train each stem up its own individual cane.

[supersprout]

Great tip and sounds sooooo sensible! Thank you tim and mike :)