Grow Bags

[alandavis]

Good Morning everyone!

I am looking at planting tomatoes and cucumbers in grow bags to place in a new high tunnel we are currently constructing.

Does anyone have experience with grow bags. I need to know what's the best type of growing media to use. I have been using Pro Mix 910 in hanging baskets and think this may be good for grow bag tomatoes. It consists of Spagnum peat, composted bark, lime and perlite.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Alan

[Doug9345]

I'm not a container grower so I can't answer you question. All the container growers must be off growing tomatoes or something.

[JamesL]

Alan,
I don't grow in bags, however this was a good thread. See Ami's post #18 for his mix.
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=21162

[mdvpc]

Alan

A good mix some of us have used consists of peat moss, vermiculite and perlite. The mix you mentioned is probably fine. Some of us have used grow bags for years. I think you will be fine. I would do a search here for grow bags and see what turns up.

[Father'sDaughter]

I used a mixture recommended somewhere on here by NCtomatoman (Craig). It's simply a combination of Miracle Grow Potting Mix (not potting soil, and not the Moisture Control stuff) and composted cow manure, both of which I get at the local Home Depot or Lowes. I don't remember what his exact "recipe" was, but I used about four parts potting mix to one part composted manure, give or take. I grew peppers, tomatoes and herbs in grow bags last year using this combination and had great results.

[alandavis]

Thanks everyone for the advise. Looks like I found a great forum.

Have a great day everybody!

[PaulF]

The nursery I work with uses lots of grow bags, especially for his trees. He does use a commercial potting mix and adds compost. I would suggest using the largest bag you have room for.

[lflemley]

I grow in smart pots. Check the website. They REALLY work well.

[KathyDC]

I've been using grow bags this year and they seem to be doing fine, though they don't drain nearly as well as my "bottomless" 5gal buckets. I used a pretty much equal mixture of potting soil, vermiculite, compost and peat moss.

Good luck! I got my bags from groworganic.com. Though they are advertised as I think it was 12gal bags, in reality I've found they only really hold about 5gal of growing medium.

[tlintx]

I'm totally confused about grow bags. There seem to be three types. Felt bags, woven polypropylene bags (like reusable shopping bags), and ones that look like solid plastic versions of a brown paper bag with drain holes.

The felt and woven polypropylene are porous, so they'd wick water and air prune the roots, if I'm understanding correctly. But I see people talking about how good the solid ones are too? What would the benefit be there over regular nursery pots?

[livinonfaith]

I'm using a bunch of the root pots this year and they are really great, so far. We haven't gotten into the heat of summer though, so we'll see how they do then.

I switched all of my plants to containers this year and had to have a LOT of potting mix to fill them. I nearly fainted at the thought of paying for Miracle Grow potting mix for 70 cubic feet of potting mix!

So I scaled down my plans a bit, reused some of the soil from previous containers and decided to mix my own for the rest. The 5-1-1 mix popped up a couple of times, so mine ended up being a slightly revised version of that.

Here's the recipe for each batch:

4 cubic ft. very fine pine bark mulch
1 cubic foot of peat
1 cubic foot vermiculite (the recipe calls for perlite, but it was too expensive)
1 cubic foot mushroom compost
1 small bag composted moo-nure
1 scoop lime (maybe a little over a cup)

So far, so good. It holds water well, but also drains pretty easily. No BER yet, either.

[crocee]

Originally Posted by livinonfaith

I'm using a bunch of the root pots this year and they are really great, so far. We haven't gotten into the heat of summer though, so we'll see how they do then.

I switched all of my plants to containers this year and had to have a LOT of potting mix to fill them. I nearly fainted at the thought of paying for Miracle Grow potting mix for 70 cubic feet of potting mix!

So I scaled down my plans a bit, reused some of the soil from previous containers and decided to mix my own for the rest. The 5-1-1 mix popped up a couple of times, so mine ended up being a slightly revised version of that.

Here's the recipe for each batch:

4 cubic ft. very fine pine bark mulch
1 cubic foot of peat
1 cubic foot vermiculite (the recipe calls for perlite, but it was too expensive)
1 cubic foot mushroom compost
1 small bag composted moo-nure
1 scoop lime (maybe a little over a cup)

So far, so good. It holds water well, but also drains pretty easily. No BER yet, either.

How many of what size grow bag does each batch fill?

[tlintx]

That recipe adds up to 8 cubic feet or so, so 60 gallons, more or less.

If you type "8 cubic feet in gallons" into google, it tells you. Now you know my secret, math is not my forte, to put it mildly!

I've never had luck with the 5:1:1, except perennials. I think the composts will help?

Btw, Home Depot has perlite and vermiculite for $20 in 2 cu ft bags right now. The lady I spoke to today said they only have them for a short time each summer. And they dropped the peat entirely in my area.

I am trying to decide which of the different grow bags to try this year. Might just go buy some reusable shopping bags and call it done!


Tl

[crocee]

I got a bag of perlite at my local nursery, 4cf@$24 so I should be able to make a lot of this stuff. Lowe's sells 3cf blocks of peat for $9. They also carry a 2cf bag of compost that's mostly bark fines for $3. Composted manure I can get for free from just about any cattle rancher around. The mushroom stuff I may have trouble with, I wonder if I could sub humus?

The grow bags I make from landscape fabric/weed barrier. $15 for a good size roll.

[tlintx]

Voice of painful experience here - making a soil mix is like baking a cake; if you throw in one of everything, you might get a cake but you'll probably get a mess. Unless you're a master baker, in which case, you're not really winging it, you're creating something new.

There are lots of proven recipes - the Cornell mixes, for example. Raybo's 3:2:1, for SWCs. The recipe Tanya uses, which I'm switching to tomorrow morning.

Btw, the 5:1:1 mix referenced above is technically:
5 parts pine bark fines
1 part sphagnum peat
1 part perlite
Plus lime and fertilizers.

No compost or manure or soil or humus. Not saying it won't work, and if it does, great! But if it doesn't, it will be hard to figure out why.

If you want a recipe with manure, Carolyn in the Just Showing Off thread uses half manure, I think.

I could be bitter since I have to repot twelve tomatoes that aren't thriving tomorrow.

Tl