Upended grow-bags - so much easier to water - no significant improvement in crop - much better ventilation & bottom trusses don't touch the ground.
But - as you can see in the cross-section - most of the compost was wasted. Why??
Presumably some fault in watering?? = Tim
tim, I suspect that it`s not a fault in the watering so much as the natural result of growing them in an upright growbag watered from above. Planted in a horizontal growbag, which is only a few inches deep, the roots simply spread out in all directions and use all the compost. However, in a deep bag watered from above the roots will still spread out sideways at shallow depth at first, and, having reached the sides (where the inside of the polythene will amost always remain moister than the compost in the middle), the roots will travel down them, keeping close to the plastic. Had the bags been watered from below the roots would have tended to go downwards for the moisture rather than outwards, which is, of course, the principle on which the ring culture system worked.
You can see a similar result with almost any pot plant which is greatly overpotted at first in a plastic pot - the roots tend to go out around the edges of the pot, the compost in the middle starts to stagnate and the plant roots will only use it when the plant is in danger of becoming potbpound. That is why you should only move up one or two sizes at a time when potting on pot plants.
Can't win 'em all, can you?? = Tim