Hi,

 

I just bought 3 concrete ring without any base. Should i buy it ? What kind of soil should i fill in the concrete ring please ? Cheers ????

Hi. For me, planting in concrete rings, don't use a base. Eventually worms and other beneficial beasties will be able to make their way in.

 

I'd fill it with a mix of well-rotted chicken or cow manure (I have 12 month-old chicken manure which doesn't have the weed seeds that cow manure has), coconut coir, bagged compost, sand and soil in equal quantities. Mix it all up. 

 

When you plant, throw a good handful of wormcast in the planting hole.

 

After planting, mulch well with chopped leaves to 6" deep. A lawnmower is great for chopping leaves if you have one. You can also use straw or dried weeds, grass, etc. I tend to weed my beds and toss them in a row and leave for a month or two before using them as mulch.

 

Get as much organic material in as you can and forget about chemical fertilizer.

 

Good luck with it.

The Thais tend to use carbonised rice bran, as they do for many other plants. However as Mr Grollies says, we used matured cow manure mixed with our rubbishy soil + sand to keep it light. (Couldn't find any rice bran). Mulched with rice straw. After three years they are flourishing and fruiting well, no special pest problems apart from the cows occasionally. A neighbour told us that apart from keeping the roots out of a waterlogged soil, the rings enabled you to transplant easily when the time comes, and also that preventing rain getting into the rings promotes flowering, haven't tried that yet.

Carbonised rice hulls (husks) not bran I think? 

yes, very good for establishing any kind of tree.

You can make your own topsoil, or locally you can find potting soil for sale. I use chopped coconut and manure mixed in. I have a contact locally, and every province does where you can buy large sacks of these. Much cheaper and better quality then the small plastic bags they sell at most nurseries (these are resellers that sell to retailers)

I'm in south and pay a higher premium then other provinces. 60 dirt, 25 coconut, 55 manure. Make sure your dirt maker has a good base of dirt, preferably mountain dirt. Clayish dirts arent as as red dirt base no matter how much compost you add to them

Also word to wise with Thai soil anywhere, try to dig in deep where you are planting, preferably until you hit water. Be a big waste of time and money if the tree never reaches full potential because there is hard clay or rocks 12" under the topsoil


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Hi 

we planted a 10 x 10 grid of limes 4mtr apart in concrete rings around 3 years ago, some on bases some not. The mixture was 1 bag cow manure 1 bag rice husks and the rest soil (poor Isaan sand). 

Some mistakes.

1 not knowing the types of limes being purchased, they all look green and sticky to me.

2 Should have not used concrete bases.

3 Poor mixing of potting mixture, the first 10 were OK well maybe the first 5.

4 Buy decent quality rings, my locally made ones would collapse if you tried to roll them.

5 Not treating leaf curl the moment you see it.

6 Thinking this would be easy.

Having said that I'm a part timer in Thailand with no real knowledge of farming so to see 8ft high lime trees in the land is very satisfying. 

Things learnt.

1 Growing in rings needs good water/fertilizer management its very easy to over water and flush the nutrients out hence no concrete base (what happens when you over water with a base is water pisses out between the ring and base)

2 You get the opportunity to spend hours crouched down weeding said trees getting stung by fire ants and your bald head punctured by lime thorns

3 If mama sells your limes in the village she'll trouser the money???? 

 

You need a distraction to stop any thoughts of reaching for a beer at 9 in the morning.