Page 25 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2023

2 parts dried blood
7 parts superphosphate
5 parts pure dissolved bones (does anyone know if this is still available?)
.5 part bone flour
2.5 parts sulphate of potash
This is applied when the first formed fruit are beginning to swell and applied at 5cwt per acre (635 kilo / ha, which is 63.5gms a square metre)
A higher nitrogen top dressing was made up of by weight:
1 part sulphate of ammonia
1 part nitrate of potash
3 parts superphosphate
5 parts dried blood.
This has a very high nitrogen level as 3 of these fertilisers supply nitrogen.
If you give this a go let me know how you get on – Ed
60 Pots
Instead of being referred to by size pots used to be sold by a cast number like a 60 or 48 pot, this was basically the number
of pots produced in each cast. The potter was given the clay to make into pots, he used a cast to produce the pots, the clay in the casts was placed in a kiln to produce the pots. So, a 3” (75mm) pot was called
a 60 and a 5” (125mm) pot was called a
48 as they were 48 pots produced in each cast. This became more complicated when some growers asked for slightly smaller or larger, so these were referred to as 60 small and 60 large.
Just in case you ever need to know some of the range of sizes are set out here, it could be a good quiz question!
Tomato trials
72 (thumbs)
60 small
60 medium
60 large
54 small
54 large
48 large
32 small
28 medium
24 large
16 small
12 large
2.5”
62.5mm
Number in cast
diameter in inches
diameter in mm
2.75” 68mm
3” 75mm
3.5” 87mm
4” 100mm
4.5” 112mm
5” 125mm
6.25” 156mm
7” 175mm
7.5” 187mm
8.5”
10”
The larger the pot the less can be made in the cast. The photograph shows a 60 small on the left and a 48 small on the right.
Tomato in hanging basket
Tomato Topsy Tom
Clay Pots
Simply Vegetables 25