Partner has just put up a cool glass house and wondering what soil to put in? It is built up right around with wood and we want it to be as fertile soil as possible. I thought maybe getting in a trailor load of super dirt but what else to put in there? Also we are down in Central southland could we grow anything in winter months. Thanks for any advice in advance.
tygertung,
May 21, 12:09am
Maybe you can put compost in? You can probably get it in bulk from a landscaping supplies place.
I have heard that you can grow weed, and just grow tomatoes in there at the same time to disguise it. Might need a wee bit of heat during the winter perhaps, I don't know.
fendie,
May 21, 7:14am
Maybe don't throw stones, at anything !
whynot47,
May 21, 7:23am
tomatoes can be planted in October as well as cucumbers,but if you plant something now they must be ready to clear out by October as tomatoes need to be in then. My tomatoes have just finished now in May and I got my first ones ready beginning in Feb. I just get my weeds out and dig and compost and fertilize and wait until October to replant tomatoes.glass house ripened tomatoes are so tasty.
jezabell,
May 21, 7:22pm
Thanks guys. So Compost first then the super dirt?
jezabell,
May 21, 7:24pm
What sort of fertilizer and do you just get compost you made yourself? or buy it in? Is there anything that would grow in there now that could be ready for early spring?
jezabell,
May 21, 10:54pm
LOL it is looking pretty flash, maybe nice and warm to live in LOL.
strathview,
May 21, 11:39pm
use superdirt and no compost. The smell will be overwhelming. I'm on the coast and I planted celery, cabbages, and broccoli in my tunnel house.
macandrosie,
May 22, 7:56am
Was talking to someone recently, they just have a gravel base in their tunnelhouse & use PB40s each year with a new compost/soil mix. One per tomato plant or anything else they want to grow with great success. I also live in Southland & filled my tunnelhouse with lots of green veges that did really well over winter. Most can cope with the frost but get that extra protection being indoors. Changing the bags each year is easier than barrowing out the entire tunnelhouse!
autumnwinds,
May 22, 9:04am
We built a glasshouse in Ingill and filled the base boxes with a layer of damped down newspapers, then a layer of 2:1 hay to pea straw (plenty of places to buy it), then a thick layer of horse manure, chicky poo and sheep pellets, then topsoil/potting mix and compost 1:1 (bagged is fine). with a litre bottle of river sand per 2 bags of compost/topsoil/potting mix. The lower layers will add to the soil with both nutrients and some heat while breaking down (add a handful of tiger worms from someone's worm farm, if available, everything works. ). Grew plenty of veges over winters in St Andrew St, (mind you, we had experience of growing vege in Wanaka, where we didn't need a deepfreeze, just a pickaxe for the carrots grown outside!), starting the seedlings in autumn (but you can possibly order bundles from further north (eg Awapuni nurseries). Start tomatoes August/sept inside in warm window until a good size to transplant. Amazing what one can squeeze in, but keep things as sterile as you can to avoid infestations of nasties.
lythande1,
May 22, 6:24pm
The same as you would have in a normal garden. The only difference is you have some extra warmth.
trade4us2,
May 22, 9:21pm
My uncle had the biggest tomato business in town. Each year he would dig out all the soil and throw it away. Then he would replace it with leaf mould from a nearby forest. He would sterilise it with steam and grow tomatoes all winter that he would sell at a huge price.
jezabell,
May 25, 3:52am
Thanks everyone, we will try the pea straw, manure, sheep pellets and super dirt top soil for this year. Will start planting in perhaps August and see how it all goes. I might shift my blueberry bushes in there so as to get a better season out of them. Will have tomatoes and just not sure what else yet, perhaps underplant with strawberries as well.
chutza,
May 29, 8:56pm
care is needed with compost and potting mix in a confined space, as you may breathe in the spores. this might lead to a lung problem. i plant tomatoes and bok choy in my greenhouse. as long as the temperature is above 20 deg C during the day you can grow most veg. they will grow slower due to the diminished light for photosynthesis. to compare sunlight: summer =10 winter=4
brightlights60,
Jun 4, 6:44am
I don't know what "superdirt" is, but I use bioblend from our local garden centre. I have used pig manure too (not smelly, beautiful, black and ready to plant in). Compost bought either from garden centres or the warehouse etc is just a soil conditioner. It doesn't have a lot of nutrients. I would personally use either a bioblend or a mix of your own organic compost and screened soil. The troubles with a greenhouse are that you have to ventilate properly when you are putting down any sort of mix, or wear a mask to do so, as everything is concentrated, and you have heat in the mix as well. You need to irrigate regularly and you don't want bugs or poisons in there. So if you are using compost or your own compost, do not add any weeds or things you do not want growing in your greenhouse to your compost heap. We have a tumbler, in it goes all the peelings, no seeds, no cooked food, no meat scraps or bones. Just pure raw green scraps and that compost goes on my gross feeders, my rose garden, some pots and my temporary greenhouse.
tegretol,
Jun 4, 7:15am
Add a dash of dung from the Patagonian Guanaco and your tomatoes will be bigger than your local MP.
nzrose7,
Jul 21, 12:03pm
Don't throw stones?
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