and I noticed that some of them retained much more water that others. I have a dripper system and some were having standing water on the surface - others weren't. When I investigated it was the worst of the Verve which was retaining much more water. Some of those are now developing the stalk splitting and cracking and the yellow leaves which I understand can be caused indirectly by over watering. Of course I need not drip water them every day - but I would rather prepare the same compost/sand/vermiculite mixture or whatever others recommend this next year. My standard mix for all pot vegetables was one of bagged manure, one of peat (or peat free) compost and one of top soil (or JI3 depending on price). This gives a good dose of organics, fine compost to encourage roots, and soil base to encourage easy re-wetting when it all dries out. I also added Growmore and chicken manure pellets. Having had bad experiences with peat free compost I may go back to peat based. Generally does quite well with tomatoes and cucumbers. I wonder if people go to any trouble in preparing a mix of compost etc for putting their tomatoes in when they plant out in to 10" pots or whatever. The reason that I ask is that I used that Verve rubbish compost this year for some of my pots and I noticed that some of them retained much more water that others. I have a dripper system