Growing in Pots

Most of my gardening is done in pots, I seem to water them and more appear (joking, I’m a nightmare for buying pots) I do have some borders but these are limited. So normally I empty out my pots when the spring bulbs are done, put new compost in and then put summer bedding in, then come autumn I repeat this in reverse with new compost and spring bulbs going in. Each time this is done, I add a helping of Growmore or chicken pellets or something.

So wondering if it is necessary to change the compost, not only it is expensive, it isn’t that environmental and it is hard for me to dispose of old compost, so seeing my strawberries, cannas or other herbaceous plants in plants, I don’t generally change the compost on these and they survive, so is it really necessary to keep changing my compost? Or could I reinvigorate old compost? With my potato and tomato plants, these are very hungry plants so understandable I cannot use this compost again, but is summer bedding that hungry or the bulbs in the pot, do these get a lot of their nutrients from the bulb itself?

Also thinking of the buddleja (butterfly bush) that grows a massive shrub well out of a wall, where there is hardly any nutrients, but does it none the less.

So can I be a bit more frugal?

 

I have never changed the compost for bulbs, they just go into the existing. For bedding plants, I used to add a little new and some fish, blood and bone.

I say used to as I haven’t bought any compost in for a couple of years. I use garden soil for all my pots now as I have a mound from old lawn turves. When that runs out, I will just carry on re-using the soil in the pots, with some added fresh garden compost and BFF.

 

Okay is Growmore different from BFF? I don’t have garden soil or old lawn turfes, I just don’t have the room, my garden is small courtyard garden, it doesn’t help I’m a sucker for buying pots.

What I do have is Westland’s Garden Boost All Purpose Liquid Feed, Miracle All Purpose Feed, Chicken Pellets, Miracle Gro All Purpose Slow Release Pellets. All this I bought at 1/2 price in September.

Growmore, which I have bought 3 weeks ago to spread around my borders, on herbaceous plants.

I have compost from my slow release compost heap and also from my hot composter but this is limited, so tend to use these with my tomato’s and potato’s as these are very hungry plants I understand.

I also have some bags of Westmoreland Compost, With Added Nutrients, from B&M.

I am also making leaf mould in old compost bags, this will not be ready for a while.

 

Growmore is inorganic and gives a good quick boost to plants BFB is an organic fertiliser with a slower release.
Chicken pellets are similar to growmore in giving a quick hit but its organic.

Liquid feeds are similar but really need applying weekly in the growing season.

Slow release pellets are what they say on the pack, infact most of them tell you on the pack how much to use and when.

You can reuse compost but probably not forever, a couple of years and the texture changes without some kind of additions, pest and disease build up could be another problem.

Bulbs will grow first year in just water as they contain all they need in the bulb, for year one, after that they need nutrients to grow on if you want to grow them again.

 

Great to know.

With the ever increasing pots, it is getting hard work, but I will change the compost, but not as often as I did. As you know I have just repotted my Cannas.

 

Goodness, I have well over 100 pots, some very large, and I don;t continuously change the compost.

 

I've got more pots than I can count, it would be impossible to change the compost every year. I just buy new compost for tomatoes cucumber etc and annuals in pots. I don't reuse it, I spread it on the garden.

 

I also have an awful lot of pots. Shrubs and perennial things only get new compost if they need repotting because of growth. I admit that in the past I have used new compost for annuals and bulbs, but I may not in future, so thanks for that. One question; do dahlias in pots need new compost?

 

Big collection of pots here too. I often pot a size up each year so refresh with compost then. I have just scrapped the top layer back a bit on many and topped dressed with fresh compost so the goodness goes down with watering - not as good but seems to work well and less labour/expense.

 

The thing is shrubs in pots tend to reach a final pot size after which you just top dress each year.
Other plants like Cannas Dahlias are greedy short termers that make large amounts of growth in a short space of time so benefit from repotting and maybe dividing every spring.

Bedding plants in pots that are fibrous rooted tend to do ok a second time around if the compost gets reviving a bit in spring and feeding during the summer.

It varies IMO so depends on what you are growing in pots.

Bulbs can easily do well in old compost from the bedding plants of the previous summer.
As long as no vineweevil or similar root pests are present.

 

Now it is just a waiting game and seeing what herbaceous plants made the winter, I haven’t seen any dahlias yet, but these are in the back garden, which is north facing. Some cannas have came through but I have just repotted these in fresh compost. It is a difficult one, do I buy new herbaceous plants such as dahlias or cannas in case some didn’t come through and in the case some do come through the winter and I have also bought some, then I end up with too many.

 

Okay just seen Alan Tictmarsh suggest using BFB, as he says “it encourages bacteria in the soils”so wish I bought that now, but I have put Growmore around my herbaceous plants, can I get away with this or do I need to buy BFB and put that around my plants, or can I wait until next year now?

 

There is no definite answer to that question, its the kind of thing we all have to deal with most years.

You dont have to do anything, its all personal choice, but Fbf is a slower release organic fertiliser whereas growmore is short lived inorganic one.

 

I can't use BFB as the local foxes will dig up the plants - even in pots.

 

I spread some Vitax Q4 on the allotment and not had much fox activity, I normally do, as you say, with bonemeal.
I use the slow release granules in pots, I don't think that attracts foxes.