Product Test: Air-Pot Update


Back in June I introduced you to the Air-Pot, a product I'm testing to see how good it is for growing potatoes on the patio. I'm evaluating it against the compost bag trial I'd started a little earlier. I must admit I've not been too good at watering the pots and bags over the past month, but then I've had more than twice July's average rainfall according to my garden rain gauge. I'm hoping that'll be sufficient to negate the instructions about watering the Air-Pot even when it's rained.

As you can see there's plenty of foliage, though it's rather leggy in nature. I think this is my fault rather than a feature of this growing method because everything's on my shaded lower patio. I'd put them there so they were tucked away: I suspect I'll have to be a little more public with any future home veggie growing. Whilst the plants are raised off the ground, this hasn't stopped the slugs from finding lots of juicy foliage to nibble on. This happened before the foliage flopped to the ground, though of course that hasn't helped. I just hope they haven't gone further and bedded down in in the pots and bags for a good old feed on the tubers.

The foliage is beginning to die down, so it'll soon be time for the big reveal and crop assessment. Just as well as potato blight has just started to appear up at the allotment. The link has the best blight photos I've found including stem, leaf and tuber infection and also talks about a new, more aggressive blight strain recently found in Britain. It also has details of the blight watch scheme you can join for email updates on the disease status for your postcode area.

Comments

  1. easygardener4 August 2009 at 11:55

    I suspect I have tomato blight on two of the outdoor tomatoes in the garden. I hate that disease - especially as I love growing tomatoes so much. It is becoming an annual problem. This warm wet weather isn't helping either.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Monica the Garden Faerie4 August 2009 at 14:31

    I was surprised to find some potato plants had sprouted in my compost bin from a few old potatoes I cut up and threw in there. I'm definitely going to give growing them officially a try next year!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nutty Gnome4 August 2009 at 18:03

    Hi VP. Ive been catching up on your posts now I'm back from France - had a great time with Rob, so look out for the post soon!
    Thanks for that link on potato blight - I think I've got it .....well, my spuds, not me - obviously!!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. 3c4 August 2009 at 19:15

    One of the troubles with pots is that slugs which move in tend to make their home there - and with plants like potatoes, you can't re-pot them as you go along. It's a bit tantalising this . . . like waiting to see what's in a parcel.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Esther Montgomery5 August 2009 at 10:14

    Hope the mention on today's Esther's Boring Garden Blog is ok, VP. If you would like anything changed - let me know.

    Esther

    ReplyDelete
  6. VP16 August 2009 at 15:27

    EG - I now have tomato blight too :( I so nearly didn't grow them this year after the past couple of years' poor results...

    Monica - that's happened to me on the allotment as well!

    Nutty Gnome - I'm catching up too. Will be over to have a look sooooon :)

    3c - they certainly do 3c, but I thought the bumps on the airpots would put them off!

    Esther - it's fine - I thoroughly enjoyed your post :)

    ReplyDelete

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