Topic: Grow bags

[Jeannine]

This is a funny kind of a question.

We don't get grow bags here as you do in the Uk there isn't such a thing.

I wanted to use them in my greenhouse but....

anyway do you think I could use bags of soil, seed mix or potting soil etc, they are sealed and I could lay them down and cut slits in, I just wonder of the mix would be OK. If I grow in pots I amend the stuff that comes from the  bags I use..

XX Jeannine

[goodlife]

Yes you can...grow bag is just a different shape bag of compost. Normal multipurpose compost that is fluffed up in bag before cutting holes in it serve just as well...if not better.
It is just convenient and 'cheaper' to use those 'just about big enough bags of compost' for growing..that's all.

[Jeannine]

But what is in them....we get bags of about a dozen or so different mixes here , I add lime and organic fertiliser to my mix when growing in pots, with the growbags I think they are complete..does it give any info on the bagsXX Jeannine

[goodlife]

No it don't really give much info what's in....but looking at the 'stuff' it tends to peat based stuff with added fertilizers depending of the crop it is intended to. We can buy grow bags for brassicas, strawberries, tomatoes, multi-use...
I suspect some of the more expensive bags may have some wetting agent and slow release fertilizer added..but as I haven't used those much..I didn't pay that much attention.
There don't seem to be much 'drainage' stuff in the mixes...and how the growing medium behave for watering or lack of it, I suspect peat content is quite high (oh it used to be..what ever they trying to replace it with now..who knows)..and that's why getting the 'stuff' wet again, if it should dry out, can take some effort to do.
I would say....keep just to very basic multipurpose mix and adjust lime and fertilizer as needed...like you would do for different plants in containers. Usually problem with growbags is to able to keep plants watered rather than any drainage issues.

[goodlife]

Me again...
I just dug out my old 'chempak' growing guide that says...
"growing bags can be bought in or made by filling empty bags with chempak multipurpose compost"...."or with made mixture using multipurpose compost base fertilizer and lime''.
I don't know if you are able to buy 'base fertilizer there' or as it is sold here as 'John Innes base'.
Multipurpose compost NPK ratio is around 6-8-10 and made of mix of sterilized loam, peat and sand in the ratio 7:3:2.
(I wish our compost would be still made of that recipe instead we get all rubbish shovelled in)

John Innes base consist of:
2 parts hoof & horn meal*
2 parts superphosphate (18%)
1 part sulphate of potash

*more up-to-date versions use slow release nitrogen fertilizer at the same rate as replacement for hoof and horn

Huh...feels a tad early for this kind of info...but here you are...

[Jeannine]

Thanks sweetie, I could work around that,the biggest trouble is that compost means something  different here, compost is literally that, something you make on a pile not something you buy in bags, I use a peat based mix with vermiculite in it for most of my needs but amend it with organic slow release  fertiliser and lime for tomato pots. I was hoping to buy something in ready made bags that would be similar but if I am mixing it I may as well use my huge pots as I have in the past.

I appreciate the formula though, very useful XX Jeannine

[phlips66]

hiya
i used some wicks multipurpose bags of compost as growbags last year
to plant some last minute chillies in,and got great results, and when they were finished
the whole lot went on the compost heap,and the plastic sacks went to line a friends
hanging baskets.
an all round great result

[Tee Gee]

Hi Jeannine

I go along with Goodlife on this one!

Here is my slant on the subject

http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Compost/Compost.htm

Forgot to mention check in the related links at the foot of the page, particularly the fertiliser one for more detail....Tg

[Jeannine]

Tee Gee if I have to mix it I can just use my large pots as I usually do, I wanted to know just what is in a commercial UK Growbag in the hope I could find something similar here that I could use as a grow bag as we don't have the real thing. It would have been nice to not have to mix if I could ffind a bag that had all I needed  and I could just use it but I have just been out to the centre and it seems no

XX Jeannine.

[Tee Gee]

I tend not to use grow bags simply because I am not always sure if they are up to the job at times, particularly the cheap ones!

If I were to use them I would empty them into rings (Ring culture) and throw in a bit of additional fertiliser.

At least this would save you mixing your compost as you could use what you can obtain in your neck of the woods!

There is a bit of a slide show here showing what I mean.


http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Ring%20Culture/Ring%20Culture.htm

[Jeannine]

When I was in the UK I grew my tomatoes, in my own mix, in 12 inch almost bottomless  pots which I sunk  into growbags. I found that worked very well for me . Here I can't get the growbags so I have been using 5 gallon buckets which I make into a self watering system. I wanted to use the bag and pot method again here but can't get the bags and wondered about using commercial bags of other stuff but I think I will carry on with my buckets, I was going to make some 10 gallon ones for this year  for some stuff which I think I might do anyway.

Tee Gee I like the ring culture method actually, thank you for the reminder.

XX Jeannine