Hi all.
My tomatoes are in 5inch pots and need to be moved on.Was going to put them in large pots.but have noticed on other threads the use of grow bags as a deep container and would be interested in other growers views on this method.
Is it one grow bag per plant?
This way suitable for all tomato varieties?
First year of growing tomatoes, and they will be grown in the greenhouse.
Thanks Anne
ps.All the photos on the site regarding tomatoes i have found to be most helpful. Keep up the good work.
Hi gorgiesgirl
I think Tim's and Ina's photos show the method fairly well (especially Tim's greenhouse full of toms). To my understanding (and correct me if I'm wrong) they are using growbags cut in half.
You fold the growbag in the middle and shake the compost to the ends and then cut. The edges of the bag can be folded down to make it more stable, and give it a good bashing on the ground/floor to make the bottom flat too.
Good luck
Ina uses a whole bag.
I haven't done it before, but it seems sound sense.
I'm topping up the bags as the plants grow. Just fell over a row & got covered in the shavings that we cover the floor with!
I envisage watering being more difficult to control - I shall be using my meter to check top & bottom of the bags. = Tim
We always grow our tomatoes in growbags but keep them flat (well, we plump them all up first), soak them thoroughly and put 2 or 3 tomatoes in each bag (there are usually shaopes ready marked on the top as a guide). Good feeding of course and it's essential to keep on top of the watering. We've always done it this way and have been pretty successful over the years (fingers crossed, fingers crossed). That "we" is not strictly true as the tomatoes are really Mr W's expertise not mine but I bow to his superior knowledge! ::) ;D
I am going to sit one growbag on top of another, with top cut out of bottom one, and bottom bit cut out of top one (if that makes sense!) to give them depth. Was going to grow 3 in each bag. I usually grow them straight into my greenhouse soil, but looking at this site has made me decide they probably need the depth to get a better crop, so we shall see! DP
Dottie its easier to grow them in a large bag of compost(i cut mine in half).The big square ones are best you can grow 3 in these no problem.I have never grown them in anything else and always get a good crop.Famous last words.
Or save yourself the trouble & buy Westland's 'Planter' bags - 65l (?) @ about £3.50. I know that it says 3 to a bag - but I think that they get a bit crowded. Only 2 these days.
Yes, Wicker - do as always did- but this year, after 50 or more on the flat, I see great sense in giving more depth. I know that the roots show after weeks of watering, & that can't be good? We'll see. = Tim
Tim, this is going to be complicated but bear with me! We do have an added "twist" to our grow bags in that a few years ago we bought a "growing system" from B&Q which consisted of very strong polystyrene troughs in each of which was placed a moulded plastic inner trough with two channels (all this about 12" deep) and these came with capillary "wicks" which were fed into the bottom of the grow bag by cutting a "wee" hole and the bags were therefore thoroughly and evenly soaked continuously so long as you remember to top up the water in the palstic trough and you don't have to water every day or two! Told you it sounds complicated but it is very simple and really works.
Trouble is they only seemed to be on sale for the one year I think and ours are now about six years old and we can't get replacements, in fact we make new wicks each year by stitching capillary material round 5" pieces of bamboo - necessity is the mother of invention. ;)
Sorry for the long story but hope someone may have seen them somewhere as we would like to get more.
Nothing complicated about that!
If you look at my propagating bench, you'll see exactly the same trough & wick supply. And no reason why you have to have anything more than some capillary matting & your buckets or whatever.
Remember that the wick will only lift water about 4".
Does mean, though, that you have to feed separately?? = Tim
To save space - another thought - if you double the quantity of compost, do you need twice the amount of water - for the same plant??
On the go early again then, Tim?! Meant my explanation would sound complicated (have you noticed I go on a bit ::)) not the system itself which is pretty basic.
We have never wanted deeper compost and I expect if you did double the amount you would need to top-up water more frequently tho not probably twice as often. Feed just gets added to the top-up water in the troughs. All very simple and easy to clean and stack up for storage over winter. We have trouble-free watering since we first used it, handy too when on holiday and some-one else is watering - they can't overwater as they just top-up troughs - they could forget all together tho but that hasn't happened so far!!
Forgot to say that you can get mini header tanks - if you have mains water - equals NO watering!
Just thrown 2 away - changed to a drip feed system. = Tim
or a header tank fed from your greenhouse guttering?
- just an idea?
Just a couple of thoughts about the 1/2 bag idea - came to me while watering this am.
Much better ventilation low down - & much less bending!! And you can walk through the row much more easily. = Tim
Agree with you, Tim, but our greenhouse is so small we can hardly turn never mind walk thru - we have 5 troughs with 2 or 3 plants in each!! The troughs do raise the bags up about 10" off the ground so I guess its eeksy-peeksy :D