which takes more room?

[janeyo]

Tomatoes in the greenhouse borders or keeping them in pots?
I am thinking ahead and wondered which is the most economical space wise?

Thanks

[matthew2riches]

Pots are better as you can change the soil every year thus reducing the risk of blight and other soil borne diseases.

[Nicos]

Well....I'd say the other way round!!!

We used to change the soil to a depth of 9" and replace it with new bags of potting compost each year. Took about 12 bags - much cheaper from the allotment society.

You can plant 2 or 3 rows in a domino fashion and fit more plants in.
(We then used the old compost on the borders mixed in with the composted manure. Made it much lighter.)
1litre bottles inverted in the soil to help with watering- much easier than watering pots which seem to dry out so quickly IF we have a hot summer!

I agree with Matthew about diseases..but so far we've never had blight in the greenhouse ( touch wood)
(A thorough cleaning of the greenhouse should also help prevent other diseases)

[matthew2riches]

That is the only downside I have came across.....

Pots drying out :-(

[Galileo]

I would always plant in the Greenhouse border. Most books quote soil borne disease as a reason not to plant in the border. Bob Flowerdew covers this in depth in his books.

In a nutshell here is what he found after many years growing tomatos in his Greenhouse and Polytunnel borders.

It takes a long time for disease to build up in an amateurs Greenhouse soil as opposed to a commercial Greenhouse because the plants are in it for only about half the year giving the soil half a year to recover. He observed it took fifteen years before he had to change his border soil due to pest and disease build up.

Now consider the amount of watering and feeding you will need to do for tomato plants in pots or grow bags for fifteen years

It is much less work to change the border soil with a timescale like that than to do all that watering and feeding.

The choice is yours!

[pigletwillie]

In the borders for me, I add compost and manure every year so keeping the soil well fed. Blight isnt soil borne so no woriies from that soil wise.

The worst thing with pots is the drying out as Mathew says, with that you end up with blossom end rot or splitting tomatoes, in the border you can regulate so much more the watering, plus any rain will percolate into the border soil whereas the posts will not benefit from that.

Its my 4th year in the tunnels this year, and each crop does better as the soil content gets built up.

[Flummery]

I use the borders too. You can stagger the rows to get more plants in, but you do need to leave room for air circulation - same applies with the pots. I tend to change my soil every other year - so I do one border one year and the other the next. As I add lots of my own compost to the greenhouse soil, this means that I move the good stuff around the site. Good in terms of texture, that is, as it will have the nutrients depleted by the toms. If Bob Flowerdew is right (and he's likely to be), I could save meself a half day's digging and barrowing each spring!

[Alison]

I grow in pots in the greenhouse as I don't have borders but when I get my polytunnel (maybe next year.............) then I'll be using the borders instead. As already said, less watering problems being the main reason.