Greenhousse sensation quad grow

I saw this product at the Chilli Festival at West Dean a couple of years ago and was very impressed so bought the Octogrow last year. It certainly solves the problem of holiday watering and makes watering/feeding very straighforward. Also it saves changing the greenhouse border soil every year, which is quite a big job for me (pests and diseases build up in greenhouse soil if you grow tomatoes year after year).

I'm not yet entirely convinced that my tomatoes taste as good from the Octogrow as those grown in the ground. I'm happy enough with it to use it again next year.

 

Well yes for holiday watering it does Kristen, but I’m a sucker for trying anything new and experimentation. Plus I worry that the drip feed irrigation system will block/fail when I’m away (although I suppose the Octogrow could also fail in some other way – perhaps I worry too much)


My other concern (apart from holiday watering) is the soil-borne diseases that build up growing tomatoes in the same soil. So the Octogrow is set up alongside some plants growing directly in the greenhouse soil as a comparison experiment. I didn’t change the greenhouse border soil this year.


For me the main drawback of the Octogrow system is that it raises the planting height, so the first truss is already 3 or 4 foot off the floor, whereas the soil grown plants have the first truss much lower down. Thus I’ve had to be a bit creative in training the Octogrow plants, the company does sell a training system but I rigged up my own.

The good thing about the Octogrow is that getting the correct amount of water and feed to the plants roots is very straightforward.


James if you have stayed with my rambling post so far, I would recommend the Octogrow. I know you are into Chilli plants and what I saw and heard at West Dean is that you can get very good results with them in an Octogrow (or quadgrow – it’s just the same system only half the size as I’m sure you know).

 

Yes a couple of drippers per plant would be better. I noticed at a nursery they used two seperate systems, two supply pipes and two drippers per pot.

I started to include my grafted plant permutations in the reply but found it was getting all too complicated to explain. I'll start a new thread towards the end of the new season about my grafted tomato plants. A quick summary is that the grafted plants are doing exceptionally well in the greenhouse soil, the non-grafted plants look weak and straggly in comparison.

Just as a further permutation I bought some Lidl self-watering containers for £3.99 in the spring and I've also been running these as another permuation, as a kind of ultra-cheap octogrow system. That will have to be another thread too sometime when I get chance to hang up my white lab coat.

 

That does sound like a professional set up James, it must be fairly high pressure? My water mains is only 2 bar, I don't think I could run anything like that with my poor pressure.