I have got a strawberry barrel but unfortunately the instructions hav
got damaged. What should I fill it with ? A compost and grit mix ? I have ericareous and normal compost what is best ?
BTW I live in London, UK and our tap water is quite hard
-- davholla
It's been at least 20 years since I helped build a strawberry barrel and don't recall there any trick to filling it. We used black dirt and manure on top of a 1" (25mm) bed of gravel. You should cut and perforate a length of PVC pipe to put upright in the center of the barrel for watering. The pipe should at least 2" (50mm) in diameter and be cut to at least 1" (25mm) above the soil level. The perforations I drilled were 1/8" (3mm) and 4 holes per inch. The pipe was then filled with gravel.
I have never read or heard the word "ericareous" before. Please take a moment to explain it.
The barrel I helped build was in Chicago which gets colder than a mother-in-law's heart and was moved into a moderately heated garage to protect it from January nights at -20C to
-30C (that's not a typo). My father moved it with a tractor. But I have no idea of how cold a winter night in London can be.
As for the tap water: as long as it is outside, rain water should be ok unless you have severe taxic rain.
Dick
Hi All, Ericareous compost is for acid loving plants, such as bluberres e. t. c.
Richard M. Watkin.
This is a pretty detailed article.
Penelope
The answer is 'normal compost'.
I searched the web looking for 'ericareous' only to learn that the woed is 'ericaceous'. Even more of a downer is that it refers to a family of plants which include azaleas, blueberries, and huckleberries. I was hoping to find a specific compost mixture.
So what is the difference between compost used for acid loving plants and 'normal' compost?
Dick
The message from snipped-for-privacy@smart.net (Dick Adams) contains these words:
There's no lime/chalk added to ericaceous compost, and it usually contains some peat.
Janet
I add neither lime nor chalk to my compost and can't imagine anyone adding either. Does that make my compost 'all purpose'?
Dick
The message from snipped-for-privacy@smart.net (Dick Adams) contains these words:
Commercial manufacturers do. The composts they sell are a recipe of (say) loam, sand and grit, plus fertiliser. The lime element is in the fertilisers. Have a look at "John Innes" at
Some amateurs also sprinkle lime or chalk or potash (wood ash) as they fill up their compost heaps, to counteract the natural acidity of decomposing vegetation..
Not necessarily; it depends what goes into it and how you treat it. For instance I don't seive what comes out of my compost heaps, so it's much too coarse for seed sowing. In any case it doesn't contain enough loam or grit for sowing seeds or rooting cuttings.
Janet.
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