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I noticed that Amazon is now offering "grow bags" - containers made of fabric which come in various sizes and which you can put out in your garden plot and plant your flowers and veggies in these containers instead of putting them into the soil of your garden. It sounds like a clever idea, especially for someone like me - I have bad bouts of arthritis and it can be very hard for me to overturn the soil every spring and add my standard soil amendments. Sounds too good to be true to me? Has anyone here tried using grow bags, and if so, what were your results? If you are familiar with this latest gardening technique I'd love to hear from you - the good, the bad, and the ugly! Many thanks to anyone who can reply and share your experiences.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I haven't seen that before, but I once tried the seed tape from Amazon. It was spinach seed and worked well, made it very easy to plant and they were pre-spaced.
We have 12 in use in addition to big pots. They hold a 64 quart bag of soil and two Jalapeno plants. I hope to have all pots when we redo the vegetable garden. They do not seem to hold moisture well.
For seed tape use toilet paper (pull it apart for single ply), moisten, add seeds, roll up.
We have 12 in use in addition to big pots. They hold a 64 quart bag of soil and two Jalapeno plants. I hope to have all pots when we redo the vegetable garden. They do not seem to hold moisture well.
Moisture retention and soil temperature would seem to be concerns. Depending on the weave/fabric of the bag, it may allow the soil to dry out faster than the plants in it might like. The soil in the bag may also absorb or lose heat faster because it isn't buffered by the surrounding earth (chilling, overheating). Also, unless the bag(s) are sitting above the ground you'd still need to squat/bend over in order to maintain what you planted in them. You'd still need to work the soil just as you would if the plants were potted or in a raised bed.
Moisture retention and soil temperature would seem to be concerns. Depending on the weave/fabric of the bag, it may allow the soil to dry out faster than the plants in it might like. The soil in the bag may also absorb or lose heat faster because it isn't buffered by the surrounding earth (chilling, overheating). Also, unless the bag(s) are sitting above the ground you'd still need to squat/bend over in order to maintain what you planted in them. You'd still need to work the soil just as you would if the plants were potted or in a raised bed.
I set one in a dishpan with water. It worked so-so. I like the old tire method better.
I bought (10) 25 gallon grow bags (Amazon) back in 2020 and still using them all. One needs a little sew-up so learn from my mistake and do not try and move a fully loaded bag lol.
My garden soil is heavy clay and I learned that it doesn't need to be amended much so I grow flowers in the garden soil and grow veggies in the grow bags with store bought mix: pole beans, bush beans, collards and kale, tomatoes and herbs: basil, parsley, cilantro, dill. Those are all growing right now in bags. Edit to add: giant artichoke survived winter in grow bag, 6 heads ready for picking now.
They do need daily watering in very hot weather so I put straw mulch down with some cardboard underneath the straw if I'm outta town a few days. So far so good.
Another suggestion (that I've tried and worked well) is straw bale gardening. There's a whole cult (OK strong advocates) around it. You skip buying bags of dirt and use the straw bale to grow veggies. Sounds crazy but it works fine. There's a book about it, check your library or online info "how to."
Good luck.
Hope you don't expect to save money, the first year you'll spend a bit getting set up.
It's great to grow things to eat, also a bit of work.
I have been growing a lot of stuff in buckets [beans, peas, potatoes, ginger, horseradish, etc], the biggest problem being the plants get rootbound.
I was given some fabric pots and I plan to use them this year.
Folks are saying that plants grown in fabric avoid getting rootbound.
Last year we had a very wet summer. At the end of June we had a foot of standing water in my veggie garden, it drowned most of my plants.
One neighbor told me that he grew his veggies last year in fabric pots set on pallets. So they were at least 4 inches up off the ground, and the rain did not bother his plants.
I made my own grow bags out of landscape cloth, the black stuff that comes in a roll. I double layered it and have successfully grown potatoes in it for 3 years straight. No luck on the melons in the other one. I'm going to try something else this year.
It's just about the same as growing in pots or buckets, except the bags are cheaper and they dry out quicker so you must pay attention to watering. Pretty much if you can grow in pots and planters, you shouldn't find the bags that much different.
Another suggestion (that I've tried and worked well) is straw bale gardening. There's a whole cult (OK strong advocates) around it. You skip buying bags of dirt and use the straw bale to grow veggies. Sounds crazy but it works fine. There's a book about it, check your library or online info "how to."
I have used straw bales for tomatoes. They work fine, but you do have to "Pre-condition" them for a couple weeks. Wheat straw bales have gotten so expensive (and smaller) over the years. I just plant them in the ground now.
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