Nancy Reading

I'd be looking at opportunities for grey water use perhaps.

I wonder how you got on with this Michael? Other than the suggestions given, I'd be struggling with the criteria you have too.
The only other thing I would suggest that wouldn't get rid of the nettles, but does seem to like similar conditions with me are raspberries. They seem to form a happy polyculture. A nuisance when I want to harvest the berries, as the stings do not make it a pleasant experience! I'm hoping that mint will do a similar job where I haven't got nettles with my raspberries.

It sounds like a possibility... So the tank is 3 feet tall? That should have enough space in between layers for growing small plants. Are you keeping it indoors, so at a nice consistent temperature? What about lighting?

Steve Mendez wrote:The plants produce a tremendous amount of seeds but they are miniscule, maybe one fourth the size of poppy seeds.

That's tiny!
I found a seed mix from real seeds with a variety of early flowering plants of different colours that I think I will add to my basket from them this year:

mixed amaranth flowers

Always nice to try something new! As the leaves are also edible, it isn't a dead loss if the flowers don't come to much, although I'll need some to ripen if I want to grow it again!

I didn't know you could pop amaranth! To my mind that would make the small seeds rather more useful. I'm thinking of trying to grow it in my polytunnel next year. Has anyone else tried Amaranth for popping? Does the seed size make much difference?

Growing tomatoes again after a long break! The taste of a real fresh tomato just can't be compared to shop bought. They didn't do brilliantly - I hadn't realised quite how bad my soil there was - but hopefully I'll do much better next year now I know that.
What did do surprisingly well was the buckwheat, which I sowed in the polytunnel as a soil improver. I hoping to be able to process the seeds and get an edible harvest from them! I was hoping to get more sunflower flowers, but at least one has set seeds so I'll resow those next year and hpe for more. Calendula were pretty and colourful in the tunnel too, and Dahlia grown from seed were surprisingly vigorous. They're an experimental edible tuber for me, but so pretty!

Dahlia grown from seed in first year

Douglas. I can't remember where I read that blight spreads from overwintering tubers/plants rather than other diseased material. It's possible I have paraphrased my understanding, and it also seems to be location dependant. RHS potato blight information suggests it is possible for spores to form from infected material that can stay in the soil for years, but in the UK it is still mainly spread by airborne spores which infect growing plants under specific weather conditions. Ac Baker recently put a link to blight spy which I've bookmarked. I guess it might be possible to cover the plants when blight infection is likely, although that might be tricky.
The RHS suggests burying infected material deeply, rather than composting, as most home compost heaps don't get to be hot enough to kill the spores. So if I drown the tubers so they can't regrow, and then bury them in a hole where I'm not likely to grow potatoes (or tomatoes!) I guess I'll be fairly safe.

Thanks Andre - I'll try that with some of the damaged tubers. I have quite a few that just have peck marks, and as you say a few with fork damage. I'm not sure that my room temperature is warm enough, but if the tubers would be wated otherwise it's worth a try!