Help with Soil!

[roxymusic2014]

Hi everyone..I'm trying to find some good quality potting soil in Bangkok somewhere...Or somewhere in Thailand who could post to BKK.. Me and my wife are trying to grow some tomatoes etc on our balcony...So far we have bought 2 types of soil from lotus...One was in a white bag and was just bits of wood and stuff..and the other was called green ant soil I believe...again really bad quality...We are planting seeds and they grow for a week or 2 then just die...The soil seems to have bugs and all kinds of living things crawling around inside...I've read all the threads on here and I've searched on google thoroughly but I can't find any soil at all that looks half decent...I realize that I probably won't be able to get anything out here of the same quality as back home...But does anyone know anywhere that sells any half decent stuff that actually looks like soil..Something we can actually grow in...I've looked at posting some from the UK but postage would make it mega expensive..I would love a bag of John Innes right now lol....Thanks to anybody that replies... I wonder if anyone will open a real garden center out here and import soils from the west...I'm sure there would be alot of interest....

[kickstart]

Hi Roxy

Have you tryed Jatujak market yet,they have a fair sized gardening area.

Reading posts about tomatoes they are not easy to grow here ,far to many bugs and gremlings, some TV members have had success with the" Black Russian" variety,Iam going to try them next year when I get some seed,it is like trying to grow spuds over here not easy.

Have you thought about making your own compost,plenty of recipes around.

Yours Regs

KS

[roxymusic2014]

Hi Roxy

Have you tryed Jatujak market yet,they have a fair sized gardening area.

Reading posts about tomatoes they are not easy to grow here ,far to many bugs and gremlings, some TV members have had success with the" Black Russian" variety,Iam going to try them next year when I get some seed,it is like trying to grow spuds over here not easy.

Have you thought about making your own compost,plenty of recipes around.

Yours Regs

KS

Hi..thanks for the reply...I'm going to check out jatujak next week...although I read on another forum that people had been there and just seen the same old stuff as what tesco sells...nothing good up there either apparently.. I have thought about making my own compost..I just thought that for the amount we need it would be alot easier to try and find some decent ready made stuff..if I cant I will have to look at making my own though...I really want to start growing some stuff on our balcony and make use of the sun here!!! thanks once again

[WatUp]

Jatujak is all the same stuff also. You need to amend the soil. I'm growing heirloom cherry tomatoes in pots here in bkk. I do the coconut soil, some of that buggy soil you described, a bunch of worm castings, a cup or so of bat fertilizer and close to 40% of that mix is perlite and vermiculite for draining. Then every 3 weeks or so add fish emulsion or compost tea with my watering. I don't know anything really about vegetable growing but this mixture has turned my tomatoes plants into little trees that just started firing about 3 weeks ago and getting good lettuce is smaller containers. All the above ingredients were bought at the nursery stores near jj.