Jeanette
I had a go last year and got pretty good yields, but not as good as Dan’s yields for Sarpo this year. He’s been increasing his yields the past 3 years so I think that it’s still an experimental situation (although the yields are still very good).
The issues are these:
1. How often does it rain where you live? If like me you are in the SE and it can be quite dry in summer, you end up watering every day, which is a right pain in the neck.
2. Does your yield increase sufficiently to justify the cost of pots and compost?? I can get 14lb in the equivalent space of 3 pots through growing in the soil, so I reckon you need pretty good yields if you look at it economically. If you’re space-limited and aren’t worried about cost, it’s probably the highest productivity per square metre around.
3. Choose strains right – most seem to work using the method but I found Blue Belle to be quite poor, actually. Desiree, Picasso, Sarpo Mira all worked well. Amour and Kestrel did fine as second earlies.
I think the key is the 15:15:15 fertiliser he used last year – I’m still trying to source one, as I used BFB last year and that is considerably less rich in NPK.