Tomato Ring Culture method

[todayiwillbemostlygrowing]

Hi, I was looking into the ring culture method of watering tomatoes where the tomatoes sit in compost in a bottomless pot in a trench of gravel. Then the gravel gets watered so the roots grow downwards to get the water and the feed gets applied to the compost.

Has anyone tried this method and is it any good for the tomatoes?

Any opinions would be great,
Thanks
Tracey

[terrier]

It's the method I always use in the greenhouse. The benefits are you need very little compost and watering is easy, even if you are away for a few days. the bigger the water reservoir the better. The fibrous feeding roots will fill the pot and the tap root will go straight down into the gravel to find the water. I use rose pots because they are deep and not too wide to encourage root growth from the stem to facilitate feed take up. The worst part is cleaning the pebbles at the end of the growing season and storing them for next year.

[slugcrusher]

I'm growing toms for the first time in a tiny greenhouse. I've put them in rings but put the rings onto bare soil.Should I have put gravel down first?

As far as I can remember my dad put the rings just on soil -but that was 30 years ago!