Pam Moore wrote:
On Sat, 07 Jun 2008 12:37:54 -0700, RF wrote:
Last year I grew about fifteen Lacinato or
Dinosaur kale plants in 16" pots and had a good
crop. I ate them regularly 3-4 times/week for
about 9 months.
This year I removed the plants from the pots and
it seems that the roots are only a
fraction the size of the pots - about 6-8"
diameter- suggesting that there are still lots of
nutrients in the old soil.
Last year I bought all the potting soil and now
I'm preparing to plant again and wondering if some
of the old soil could be re-used this year with
the new potting soil. Has anyone tried this before?
I now have a batch of 10 - week-old seedlings
ready for transplanting. The previous plants had
no diseases and the only bothersome things were
whitefiles and white butterflies. I live in north
California.
Comments appreciated.
This is a specific UK newsgroup and I don't think many people in UK
grow kale in pots. I'd love to try but we can't get that variety
over here. I looked on a web site and it was 3 dollars for the seed
and 6 dollars for postage!
I don't think you'll get such good results with old compost. Why not
try an experiment, grow some in old and some in new compost.
Pam in Bristol
The prices they quoted you seem ridiculous.
You should be able to Pam. Thompson and Morgan
(based in UK since about 1850) sells them. They
have a US base too and that's where I bought mine
recently.
In US:
http://www.tmseeds.com/ and
In UK:
http://www.tmseeds.co.uk/
Thompson & Morgan (UK) Ltd
Poplar Lane
Ipswich
Suffolk
United Kingdom
IP8 3BU
Customer Ca +44 (0)1473 - 688 821
Switchboard: +44 (0)1473 - 695 200
Fax: +44 (0)1473 - 680 199
Email:
Web Page: http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/uk
Vat no: 637 8510 20 GB
Company Registration: 358372 England
The following is the US URL for the Kale:
http://www.tmseeds.com/search.html?sterm=kale&x=8&y=6
I have one packet: Kale, Black Tuscany, Cat code 40,
Seed Origin UK, Packed in UK. Average No. seeds 250.
Price was around $3.
The other one is Italian but packed in UK. It
looks the same as the
Tuscany, costs $2.49 and, according the the packet
info, it has an
average of 2,500 seeds!!!
Have fun :-)
Before I had thought of posting here, I was
thinking of replacing 1/2
of last years soil. I'll try your suggestion. Thanks.