Author Topic: Hanging baskets. (Read 2528 times)

sabrina · « **on:** July 22, 2018, 04:36:49 pm »

This was a trial this year to see if it would work. I have hung baskets in the pollytunnel and planted with lettuce. 3 in all and so far a great success. They grow very quickly and I just keep planting more seeds when one basket has all been picked. lettuce is slug free and clean. Do need to water twice a day with the heat but it saves so much work in weeding.

DavidandCollette · « **Reply #1 on:** July 22, 2018, 06:09:11 pm »

We grew strawberries in plastic pipe with holes cut in. Same result clean fruit. Not much of it made it out of the poly tunnel however

Fleecewife · « **Reply #2 on:** July 22, 2018, 06:24:43 pm »

Excellent idea - I hadn't thought of lettuce in hanging baskets, but no slugs sounds perfect. I didn't have much success with mini tomatoes in hanging baskets years ago, mainly because I couldn't keep them well enough watered or fed. lettuce should be so much easier. Thanks for sharing

cloddopper · « **Reply #3 on:** July 23, 2018, 12:52:54 am »

Another slug free way of growing slightly more in the poly tunnel….

Make a sloping back wards A framed rack out of wood fit on the proper gutter brackets & four 2 mtr lengths of 4 inch half moon guttering on either side , each a foot higher than the other ( bottom one is also a foot off the floor ). Put a stopped end on each end of the gutters
.
Cut some batts of rock mineral wool insulation with a sharp carving knife into four inch width strips so it sits well in the gutters ( angle the cuts to make a sort of chamfer rather than a right angled cut ) . Lay them in the gutters . Fill the gutter with a well diluted tomato feed..... put your plants in .

You can grow all manner of crops this way in or outside the poly tunnel such as radish , celery , cress coriander, parsley, other herbs , cabbages , peas & various flowers .

Because the walls of plants are not vertical but on the slope the plants don't interfere with each other too much . Strawberries are great grown as a wall of them if grown this way

Best of all …. you'll only need to top up the gutters ever other day or so with a new clean mix . Plus you don't get strawberry saw fly attacking the roots like happens when you use a soil based growth medium to grow them in .

Come winter when they stop producing & day light is short slow down with the watering , give them just enough water to keep them alive

Perris · « **Reply #4 on:** July 23, 2018, 06:46:26 am »

great ideas! thanks for sharing!

Part time dabbler · « **Reply #5 on:** July 23, 2018, 05:51:18 pm »

Clodhopper do you have a photo of your set up?

sabrina · « **Reply #6 on:** July 23, 2018, 07:31:10 pm »

Quote from: Fleecewife on July 22, 2018, 06:24:43 pm

Excellent idea - I hadn't thought of lettuce in hanging baskets, but no slugs sounds perfect. I didn't have much success with mini tomatoes in hanging baskets years ago, mainly because I couldn't keep them well enough watered or fed. lettuce should be so much easier. Thanks for sharing

I did try cherry tomatoes last year ad they worked fine.

Lesley Silvester · « **Reply #7 on:** July 23, 2018, 10:11:50 pm »

Quote from: sabrina on July 23, 2018, 07:31:10 pm

Quote from: Fleecewife on July 22, 2018, 06:24:43 pm
Excellent idea - I hadn't thought of lettuce in hanging baskets, but no slugs sounds perfect. I didn't have much success with mini tomatoes in hanging baskets years ago, mainly because I couldn't keep them well enough watered or fed. lettuce should be so much easier. Thanks for sharing
I did try cherry tomatoes last year ad they worked fine.

There is a variety of tomato called Tumbling Tom (I believe) that is intended for growing in hanging baskets.

pgkevet · « **Reply #8 on:** July 24, 2018, 09:31:50 am »

There's a heap of links re vertical gardening as easily as in 2L plastic drinks bottles. A family friend with a tiny garden towered them up 4-6 high with a top one as water reservoir because she worked away - grew all manner of stuff.
https://www.google.com/search?q=vertical+planting+in+pop+bottles&client=firefox-b-ab&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjC8LG3qLfcAhXICsAKHUA3BvMQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=938#imgrc=_

cloddopper · « **Reply #9 on:** July 24, 2018, 01:14:46 pm »

Quote from: Part time dabbler on July 23, 2018, 05:51:18 pm

Clodhopper do you have a photo of your set up?

Sorry no, 13 years ago I down sized from just under two acres to a fully landscaped 90 x 25 mtr plot with bungalow, 230 sq feet of 900 mm x 900 x 900 in groups of six -- high brick built raised beds, garage glasshouse & separate log cabin office . Had to leave them and the poly tunnel behind as part of the sale … I never thought to take pictures of them .

Check this out …
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=growing+strawberries+in+guttering

Have a look in the images for the uses of guttering . It's worth reading the down side of things as well in the first article on the page

Lesley Silvester · « **Reply #10 on:** July 24, 2018, 11:57:18 pm »

I went to visit someone on here whose name is Ben (haven't seem anything of him for ages) who showed me round his smallholding. To prevent slug damage, he grows strawberries in hessian bags fitted to the top of wooden railings and it seems to work. I have had two troughs attached to the side of my house and can comfortably get six strawberry plants in each. My biggest problem was with earwigs although the slugs got in them as well. They haven't fruited this year so next year will be the test - do slugs and earwigs climb brick walls?

pgkevet · « **Reply #11 on:** July 25, 2018, 01:50:35 pm »

Slugs and snails certainly climb brick walls...I;ve seen them all the way to the chimney to hide in shadow. Your only solution is either an overhang or hanging the troughs

cloddopper · « **Reply #12 on:** July 30, 2018, 10:37:14 pm »

Quote from: Mad Goatwoman of Madeley on July 24, 2018, 11:57:18 pm

I went to visit someone on here whose name is Ben (haven't seem anything of him for ages) who showed me round his smallholding. To prevent slug damage, he grows strawberries in hessian bags fitted to the top of wooden railings and it seems to work. I have had two troughs attached to the side of my house and can comfortably get six strawberry plants in each. My biggest problem was with earwigs although the slugs got in them as well. They haven't fruited this year so next year will be the test - do slugs and earwigs climb brick walls?

Earwigs fly too .

Slug eggs can be deposited on the straw long before you get it in the sacks if the straw has sat on the ground when it's been damp .
I though I'd solved the hanging basked slug problem by only using new " Verve "compost straight out the bag using a sterilized aluminium scoop and nothing else .
It took several month for the slugs to show themselves .
It took me a while to realise some slugs had been across the bags when it was rainy /damp leaving the odd egged in the breathing holes that had been punched in the wall of the compost bags prior to filing as the bags laid in my garsen waiting for me to sort out our 12 hanging baskets .
I had to use a big magnifying glass to prove my theory , it wasn't long before I found microscopic traces of slug trail linking most of the holes together .. they must have been seeking somewhere moist to squeeze into to hide away as daylight came.