On Wed, 19 Sep 2012 19:47:42 +0100, "David WE Roberts"
wrote:


"Judith" wrote in message
.. .


I wonder if people go to any trouble in preparing a mix of compost etc for
putting their tomatoes in when they plant out in to 10" pots or whatever.

The reason that I ask is that I used that Verve rubbish compost this year
for
some of my pots and I noticed that some of them retained much more water
that
others. I have a dripper system and some were having standing water on
the
surface - others weren't. When I investigated it was the worst of the
Verve
which was retaining much more water.

Some of those are now developing the stalk splitting and cracking and the
yellow leaves which I understand can be caused indirectly by over
watering.

Of course I need not drip water them every day - but I would rather
prepare the
same compost/sand/vermiculite mixture or whatever others recommend this
next
year.


My standard mix for all pot vegetables was one of bagged manure, one of peat
(or peat free) compost and one of top soil (or JI3 depending on price).
This gives a good dose of organics, fine compost to encourage roots, and
soil base to encourage easy re-wetting when it all dries out.
I also added Growmore and chicken manure pellets.
Having had bad experiences with peat free compost I may go back to peat
based.
Generally does quite well with tomatoes and cucumbers.

Cheers

Dave R


Many thanks - appreciated