General discussion regarding the techniques and methods used to successfully grow tomato plants in containers.
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#1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 150
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Over the weekend,HSN was selling Earthbox kits.They showed you how to start it and all, and showed various veggies and plants they grew in them.The Earthbox guy says "you can reuse the soil each year up to five years" . Come on,are you kidding me?
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#2 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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by then, and to an extent that is true. (Perlite will not decay to silt, of course.) One thing the Earthbox demonstrators do though is leave the roots in the soil. Instead of pulling up a plant,they just cut it off at soil level. This leaves a mass of more slowly decaying organic matter in the Earthbox container mix that maintains some of the drainage and large pore air space that would otherwise be lost to siltification of the original organic matter in the container mix. It probably depends a lot on exactly what mix you used to begin with, too, not to mention exactly what kind of plants you are growing in it (some veggies are more tolerant of soils that lack large pore air space than others).
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#3 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Nashville TN zone 6-B
Posts: 133
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I've been milling about in the earthbox forum lately and yes people do reuse the soil for several years and one benefit is a drop in BER after the first season ,, so actually he is not making that up
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#4 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 150
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Well I could see maybe adding in some new mix like half or so.Well he did say to add new fertilizer each year.Whatever works for people is good I guess.
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#5 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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I let it dry over the winter, screen out silt, and then mix in more
larger structured material (leaf mold, compost, peat moss, coir, perlite, pumice, etc; whatever is handy with appropriate size).
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