Ring culture tomatoes in sand/ballast?

[vegaholic]

Last year I grew some of my tomatoes using the ring culture method described by Terry Marshall, where the bottomless pots are seated on a bed of ballast/sand mix. This worked well and I intend to use the same method this year. But can I use the same ballast/sand mixture again, should I replace it with a new mix, or could I use a natural product like Growing Success Greenhouse Cleaner to disinfect it? Has anyone else used this method and what do you do? Thanks for any help!

[Sanjo]

Hello Vegholic, welcome to the vine. Sorry nobody has answered your question yet. Perhaps it might be better to move it to the tomato section under vegging out.
I personally can't help as I have only grown mine in a home made version, that is bottomless pots placed on top of a compost sack containing more compost. Try again in the other section. I am sure that somebody can answer for you.
Good luck!

[piskieinboots]

Welcome vegaholic - I did read your post yesterday but didn't notice it was your first post and as I couldn't answer your question I moved off.

Like Sanjo I use ring culture/bottomless pots but into compost - I can't say that I have ever heard of growing tomatoes in sand in fact, I'm struggling to see how it works - but I like to hear new ideas.

We have a section for Introductions, if you get a chance pop in there and tell us about yourself - I expect many others, like myself, didn't notice this was your first post.

[Bren In Pots]

Vegaholic when I started with my greenhouse last year I looked into using ring cultures and found a fair bit of info here on the vine have a look here :_

tomato-ring-culture

and here -tomato-ring-culture-method

hope you find your answers there, and welcome to the vine

[vegaholic]

Thanks for the replies folks, and for the links Bren, there was some info there which was useful. Basically the method we're using is a sort of raised bed half filled with a sand/ballast mix, onto which are placed bottomless pots filled with compost. We weren't sure whether we could just use the sand/ballast again or whether we should renew it, but the concensus of opinion seems to be that as it's an inert material it should be OK. We'll soon see....

[Snadger]

Thanks for the replies folks, and for the links Bren, there was some info there which was useful. Basically the method we're using is a sort of raised bed half filled with a sand/ballast mix, onto which are placed bottomless pots filled with compost. We weren't sure whether we could just use the sand/ballast again or whether we should renew it, but the concensus of opinion seems to be that as it's an inert material it should be OK. We'll soon see....

The principle of ring culture is that the plants form two different types of root. The finer feeder roots are confined to the ring so any feeding is done in or on the compost. The second set of roots are used purely for water uptake, hence the moist sand or gravel.

If I was you I would flood the old sand or gravel base to wash away any salts build up. I would then drench it with a path cleaner like ***** or Armillatox at least a month before planting out. This would get rid of any algea or fungal growth.
If you didn't feel comfortable using ***** or Armillatox then the drenching with water alone, along with a good raking would probably render the substrate useable.