UBV's Balcony Garden

[UrbanVegBoy]

Im just starting to grow my own plants and veg on a balcony(Area 2m sq) 2 storeys up.I have 3 Haxnicks Vegetable Patio Planters.
1x 40L (14"wide 18" deep) with 4 chitted seed potatoes
1x 35L (16" wide 12" deep)with 4 chitted seed potatoes (g/fs ones)
1x 38L (18" wide 10" deep) for Strawberries (I have 6 small El Santa strawberry plants from garden centre)
There are also some 10L plastic pots and 2 half moon shaped hanging Baskets we can use.

We got 168L (3x56L bags) of Levingtons MP with added John Innes and a bag of grit for drainage.Its not easy lugging all the stuff we got up those stairs and i wondered then if id bitten off too much with this veg growing lark
Anyways we put grit and smashed crock in the bottoms of 2 biggest planters and mixed some SEERS Centre Rockdust and calcified seaweed(2 handfulls of each per 20L) into 40L of soil before placing a 5" layer of slightly amended soil over the grit and crock in the 40L planter.4 tubers were placed evenly,shoots facing up and covered with another 5" of amended soil.
We're doing the same thing in the 35L planter but with no soil amendments to see if theres any difference.
They were planted on Sunday 26th April and watered in with Maxicrop Seaweed extract and some fish emulsion.When can we expect the first shoots to show?And do we just add more soil when the green shoots grow taller?Ive been told to "earth up" when the shoots reach 6" and leave 2" exposed?
Also will the potatoes even produce a crop as they were just planted on Sunday,which I thought was quite late for starting potatoes?

[2dogs]

hi
mine took 10 days or so to come through.
when they popped through the surface by about 3-4 inch,
i cover again so i can just see them.
also, give a bit of room between the side of the haxnicks planters
and the spud for a better crop.
good luck with the balcony grow.

[UrbanVegBoy]

Thanks for the tip 2Dogs This is how I planted them.

[2dogs]

looking good.
all round yours for chip butties when there ready then!

[UrbanVegBoy]

Mmmm Chip butties

Well today my better half was off work so we decided to hit the garden centre(again)
We went to check out Homebase for a change and there doing a "Grow Your Own" range like most of the garden centres are doing just now, so we picked up 2 Ailsa Craig baby tomato plants,2 Sonata(Fragaria x Ananassa) Strawberry plants which I was told are the same as the 6 El Santas we already have.
Ive ordered a canvas 12 pouch 50 Litre3' high Strawberry Tower online but il only use the top 8 pouches to keep the fruit high up.

I got a 50 Litre soil mixing tub with handles in Poundstretcher for £3.99 and a 2 plastic 30L planters (1 square, 1 round) for £3 each.

We put 30L of Levingtons MP+JI in the soil tub and mixed in 10L coco coir which came as a compressed 8"x4" brick and after soaking in 4L of water gave me 10L of really fluffy coconut coir.Its an inert medium so using it alone requires lots of nutrients but it adds drainage to Multi Purpose compost and holds a lot of oxygen in the root zone.After looking for the correct ratios:

To the 40L of Soil/Coco mix I added:
SEER Rockdust (2 handfuls/10L)
Calcified Seaweed (1 handful/10L)
Mycorrhizal Fungi/Rootgrow(Beneficial bacteria) (2 x 25ml scoops/10L)
Rootgrow Rootfood (2 x 50ml scoops/10L)

The Rootgrow rootfood gives the Rootgrow(Mycorrhizal) something to munch on in the Rhizosphere(rootzone).It "activates" the soil and provides humic and fluvic acids to the soil to feed the plants.Its like feeding the soil rather than feed the plants.In nature plant roots can stretch as far as they want for nutrients while in a container or pot,they have much less area in which to find those nutrients.Feeding and conditioning the soil before planting gives the microbes in the rootzone a head start.

SEER (Sustainable Ecological Earth Regeneration) is a Scottish charity who use Rockdust to regenerate the land which is almost sterile due to years of overuse of chemical fertilizers.I hope it ok to put the link up and for Friendly Fungi

We're doing a side by side potato grow.One planter containing potatoes with Rockdust,Seaweed and Fungi and another with just Levingtons MP+JI to see if we can see or taste any difference.The boosted soil mix will be used for the strawberries, tomatoes and to fill the coir hanging baskets.
Its been 11 days since the potatoes were planted and theres still no shoots.The weather has been wet and windy and although the planters are standing in trays of pebbles for good drainage I cant help think somethings gone wrong.
Should I have had some shoots above soil after 11 days?

[2dogs]

good idea to do a side by side taste test, if you need any assistance with strawberry tasting, im ya man!
be patient with the potatoes, they should be along shortly.

[UrbanVegBoy]

Hopefully we can grow some Dambusting Strawbs lol.My g/f got Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Fruit&Veg NPK-3-2-6 but Im wary of anything MG
Should we use the MG or stick with the Seaweed and fish mix on the Strawberries and taters?
Also can Tomorite be used for Strawbs?We want to keep this as organic as possible but if tomorite is the best feed then thats what we'll use.

For tomatoes,what is a truss?Is it the first set of fruit?And thats when we start to feed them?
They'll be in a 30L planter with the amended soil mix but are currently in their 3" baby pots.Should I pot them up a pot size before planting them in 30L tub or can I just move then into their final home as they are?