Growing your own - is it worth it?

[clive heath]

If you are growing tomatoes by the cordon method you don't need to sow/plant/buy as many as you have space for. At the first removal of the (what I call) "armpits" i.e. those secondary growths where the leaf joins the stem which need to be pinched out and thrown away, don't throw them away and.... assuming you have waited until they are about 3-4" long, having removed them you just tear off the lower two or three leaves, dip the stem in Hormone Rooting Jel/Powder, poke it in a 3" pot containing a suitable compost and cover to keep the moisture in. In a couple of weeks you'll have a second set of plants to supplement the original set. We have had success with "Gardeners Delight" ,already mentioned, and "Matina" which has a leaf like a potato plant but is nevertheless a good savory taste to complement the sweetness of the other variety.
We did lose the lot to blight after a weeks holiday last September, but enough was rescued to make a good green-tomato chutney!

[amateur51]

Many thanks for all your advice & suggestions - much appreciated.:biigrin:

[Flosshilde]

You might find this interesting

http://www.selections.com/tomato-and-vegetable-growbag-pots-6.html

(found via the 'Bargains' thread )

[amateur51]

You might find this interesting

http://www.selections.com/tomato-and-vegetable-growbag-pots-6.html

(found via the 'Bargains' thread )

Many thanks, Flossie

[Nick Armstrong]

Many thanks, Flossie

Perhaps Sir would like to give his inbox a spring clean before turning to tomato culture on an industrial scale in NW2...?

[amateur51]

Perhaps Sir would like to give his inbox a spring clean before turning to tomato culture on an industrial scale in NW2...?

Sorted now, innit. I thought it had gorn quiet

[Ferretfancy]

If you grow your own, doesn't it mean having blacked out bedrooms, powerful lamps and a way of by-passing the meter ?

[Flosshilde]

And a detached house, as the party wall in a semi will feel rather warmer than normal to your neighbour & they might get suspicious.

[umslopogaas]

Man, MAAN, you'se just worrin tu maas. Jus roll up de weed man and RELAXXXE! De night is jas fine and ah jas tripped on mah shoelaces ... DOT DOT DOT

[marthe]

After quickly checking through posts here, I've noticed the words 'potatoes' and 'compost' coming up from time to time. Yes, in the US of A one can and does buy bagged compost (composted veg matter). This is now quite mainstream but was once a countercultural hippie activity. However, my family, oddballs that they are, have always composted kitchen veg scraps. Our own compost pile, which is a mix of kitchen scraps such as potato peels/veg, grass clippings, and leaves, often yields a crop of potatoes from the potato peels! We sometimes get mystery veg growing from seed in the compost heap and have had Acorn Squash, Cantaloupes etc. Refresh my memory, but does UK 'compost'= US' potting soil'?

[Flosshilde]

Refresh my memory, but does UK 'compost'= US' potting soil'?

Possibly In the UK the bagged stuff is usually/often called 'potting compost', but it includes more than the decomposed matter one gets from compost heaps - usually peat & added fertiliser.

[marthe]

Thanks Flosshilde. The US stuff, called potting soil or potting mix, also has amendments such as time-release fertilizer (osmocote) and a wetting agent known as Soil Moist. The basic mix is made of peat moss and perlite. It's quite hard now to get basic potting soil that does not include extras. I prefer it plain because I like to add my own amendments.

[Dave2002]

perlite

Another non renewable substance - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perlite which will run out in 3-400 years at current consumption rates.

[umslopogaas]

Like many others with sufficient garden space, I have a compost heap for plant waste. Every year I dismantle it, extract the rotted stuff for adding to the veg plot and start again with the remains. I also have a plastic bin for compostable waste, including cardboard. The local council empties it once a fortnight if I wheel it out to the front gate. Into it goes all the kitchen waste, including veg stuff that could go onto the garden heap, simply because the bin is closer to the kitchen than the heap. Since the bin also gets meat waste (not that there is much, I'm economical with food) it must smell pretty bad in summer, but that doesnt bother me because I have almost no sense of smell. The neighbours are far enough away not to be bothered.

[marthe]

Dave, thank you for the link to the perlite article. Peat moss is also a resource that needs watching. The US nursery industry realies heavily on both to make up industrial strength potting mix. When I worked for a rather small-scale local nursery, we would make up 100 yards of potting soil at a time using large quantities of Canadian peat (compressed into bales) and bagged perlite+ clean sand. This was all mixed together using a large tractor/backhoe. At the time, no one was thinking about the long-term consequences of using peat and perlite in quantity.