white tomato planting bags

[coffee5150p]

the bags i see with the plants growing in them , i have never seen them , where do you pick them up at , maybe next year i could double my plants .

[carolyn137]

GrowOrganic: Easi-Lift Grow Bags (12 Gal) from GrowOrganic.com

Here's where I bought mine and I know some others have used the same source. Notice under the 12 gal ones, that I bought, that other sizes are also available.

[coffee5150p]

ty , this site has the most info , always ready to learn more. thanks again 8)

[nctomatoman]

You are probably referring to the 5 gallon ones, which are perfect for growing individual dwarf varieties. Alas, they have been out of stock now for nearly two years - Peaceful Valley doesn't indicate why, or when they will become available again! Apparently the manufacturer has discontinued them, and I've not found another source!

[OmahaJB]

Wormsway.com has 5-gallon Sunleaves grow bags right now priced at $6.50 for 10. They are white on the outside and black on the inside. I bought some last fall along with some of the 10-gallon size. So far I'm happy with them, but there are no handles which isn't that big a deal considering the price.

Jeff

[nctomatoman]

Good point, Jeff - Peaceful Valley has black grow bags with no handles, with holes in the bottom, that are much less expensive than the white ones with handles - not sure how reusable they would be, and of course, you can't move them. They have all sorts of sizes.

[OmahaJB]

I've been watching my potato plants growing in the 10-gallon size, trying to guess if I'll be able to re-use those bags. At this point I'm guessing I will. There aren't any tears on the bags - yet. But it could be too that tomato plant roots would be tougher on them.

As far as moving them goes, I only have 11 bags in use right now, and haven't had trouble moving them. But for an elderly person, or someone like you Craig who has at least 100's going I can definitely see where the handles would come in handy.

I know one thing - I'm going to try saving the soil after I harvest! I'll clean out the roots, take out any soil that doesn't look good, and mix in some container soil this fall. Eleven grow bags @ 10 gallons each, that's alot of dirt! Those taters better taste better than any I've ever had before - hah. I've been adding a total of between 2 - 2.5 cu./feet each weekend so far. The cost is worth it but it is starting to get a little expensive in total cost.

By the way 'coffee', the black on the inside of the grow bags helps insulate the roots in cool springs, and the white on the outside reflects the sun back onto the plants and helps protect the roots from cooking.

Jeff

[carolyn137]

I asked Craig and Michael what they used for Grow bags and asked Craig what he uses in them and asked Craig and others who use them whether they keep the artificial mix, etc., from season to season.

I now have 26 plants going, 20 in white 12 gal Grow bags with handles and 6 in permanent containers and all looks well. Since I can't take care of then Freda, the lady who cleans and gardens for me does.

Some folks reuse what's in the bags and some don't. I know bcday reuses the stuff and Craig doesn't.

But after spending I can't tell you how much for bags and composted cow manure with humus and Professional Pro-Mix, I'm not about to throw all that out each season and buy anew.

No systemic diseases to worry about here, and of course not in the Grow bag stuff, and foliage diseases can be taken care of if they appear.

The only problem I have right now is that Freda insists that the bags should be much closer together than I want them. She's planted five of her own tomatoes here and I don't care what she does with them but I want 3 ft between bags and 4 ft between rows.

It's a stalemate but I'm still hoping.

I have to tell you that all those white bags lined up in rows do remind me of a cemetery and let's just hope it's not the death knell for my tomato plants.

[OmahaJB]

Funny you mention spacing between grow bags, Carolyn, as just today I spread mine out into a row. Now that they each have a fair amount of soil they don't need to be clumped up together. I'm guessing my potatoes don't need 3 to 4 feet of space between each bag like ind. tomatoes do.

Any idea if re-using container soil after growing potatoes would be any riskier disease-wise than after growing tomatoes? I'm just thinking of the potato seed that must be getting rotted out towards the bottom part of the container. I'd think that might be harmful to the soil moreso than a tomato plant would be. Just a wild guess, of course.

BTW, you & Freda must have some interesting conversations!

Jeff

[mdvpc]

The only problem with reusing the soil in a grow bag is the same problem with any container-tomato plant roots take over a 5 gallon, even a 12 gallon container. You can dump the soil out, take as much of the roots out as possible, then top off. Another thing I can think of is making sure there are worms in the soil after you pull your plants-I have seen worms finish off the roots over a winter. What i do is when I pull my summer plants, I plant kale, chard, spinach, garlic, cutting lettuces, arugula, valeriana, etc in the same container, making sure there are worms. So I get 2 seasons of use out of the container soil. And i am growing mano in 2 containers (not grow bags) that I used last year for the summer tomatoes, then garlic in the fall, and now have about 4 plants in each container. I am out of town, but will post a photo soon. Last time I checked they are doing fine.

[dice]

With the containers for seed potatoes, you could let the
worms feast and put a container on top of the soil with
1/4" holes in the bottom, worm bedding (moist shredded
newspaper, for example), and some kitchen scraps, coffee
grounds, old oatmeal, etc in the top container (buried in
the worm bedding), covered with a piece of cardboard. A
top cover with tiny aeration holes in it is recommended,
too.

Once the worms run out of things to eat in the containers
where you had tomatoes or other veggies this year, they
will crawl up into the container above through the holes
in the bottom of it. Once you find the top container full
of worms, dump it into a worm bin, into another container
that is not going to have seed potatoes, or whatever.
The worms in it are still going to need something to eat
if they are to survive over the winter.

The top container can be anything that will sit in the top of
one of your containers or grow bags without falling over
(like a 2-gallon plastic ice cream container, or anything
like that.)

The document at the URL below describes a worm bin setup
and regular rotation using 2 identical plastic bins and the
system above:

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm

You would be duplicating part of this system, using your
growbags/containers with used container mix in place
of the bottom worm bin initially. (A little molasses might
help bacteria soften up the roots for the worms faster.)

The only real caveat with the system above as a simple
2-container worm bin rotation is that it requires patience
(waiting for the worms to migrate into the top container
before you use the worm castings in the bottom container).
I keep a shallow aluminum pastry pan under the bottom worm
bin to collect "worm tea" that regularly dribbles out of it, pouring it into containers or around recent transplants into the
garden.

[OmahaJB]

Good ideas 'outsiders' & 'dice'. After I harvest the potatoes in what will probably be early September, I'm going to figure out a way to use the worms to take care of the roots. Will probably dump all of the dirt out of each grow bag, 1 bag at at a time to harvest the potatoes, then put the soil in large clean buckets at which point I'll add the red worms. And I may take the time to separate out some of the cleaner soil from the heavily rooted soil, and store that separately until next spring. Then the worms will have less work to do find the roots to chomp on.

I'll have to read through the info on the proper forum for this, but I'm wondering if the worms would eat the vegetation from the potato plants. Some of the stalks are pretty darned thick. I'm guessing the answer is yes, which would be great - would end up with ALOT of worm castings from that.

[dice]

I'm wondering if the worms would eat the vegetation from the potato plants

Sure, they just have to rot a bit first. That happens naturally
in moist compost piles or soil.