Grow bags

[workhorse]

Please excuse such a silly question but I am new to greenhouse gardening, and gardening in general, but I wish to grow tomatoes and cucumbers, and am not sure if grow bags come in different sizes.

I would also like to grow some lettuce. Can these be grown in a greenhouse, if so, what type would you recommend, or must they be grown outside?

James

[Cutecumber]

Growbags only come in one size, which is about 40-45 litres of compost. You can grow two or three tomato plants or two or three cucumbers in one bag. They need regular watering and feeding through the growing season.

Lettuce is usually grown in greenhouses during the winter, but it is useful to be able to start it off in the greenhouse in early spring, to be transplanted outside as the weather warms up. Lettuces are a "cool weather" crop and may not head up properly (putting out a flower shoot instead) if they get too warm. Lettuce seed may not germinate if conditions are too warm, too.

One of the quickest and easiest lettuces to grow is Salad Bowl. It doesn't produce a firm head but lots of leaves which you pick when you like. For a headed lettuce, try Little Gem - I have had great success with these in pots.

[shirlthegirl43]

Hello and welcome to the vine workhorse.

I am sure I have seen extra deep growbags which are specially for tomatoes. I think Focus sell them as does my local garden centre. I usually just buy cheap ones to try new things in. Tomatoes and cucumbers can also be grown in 10 litre 'flower buckets' which can be bought cheaply (or obtained free) from your local supermarket (though many seem to recycle them now). Morrisons usually sell them at 99pence for 8, but I have had as many as 16 in the stack.

Enjoy your experiments with growing your own and remember to keep notes of what you plant and when you plant it so you can look back at successes and failures and learn what works best for you.

[bramble]

I buy the growbags as well but cut them in half and stand them on end. It gives the tomato plants more soil for the roots to grow down into as the growbags when they are flat are a bit shallow.

[Alison]

You can get various sized grow bags and various thickness too. I find that the standard sized ones will take 3 tom plants but I also add rings to give them a greater depth. The smaller ones can be handy and would probably be very well suited to the idea from Bramble, above.

Agree re the lettuce, I use old grow bags for winter lettuce in the greenhouse and start modules off there in the spring but you'll have no luck in summer as it'll be too hot, even in a rubbish summer!

[moggssue]

I got some thicker than usual growbags last year for my toms too - first planted the toms in ikkle plastic pots with the bottoms cut out, then sunk them into the grow bags. No idea whether it was the right think to do, but they certainly grew ... and grew ... and grew!!!

[Cutecumber]

well there you go, I've never seen different sized grow bags.

You learn something every day!

[workhorse]

Thank you so much everyone, your advice and guidance has given me hope and inspiration. Lets see if I can turn it to my advantage.

James

[sewer rat]

Hi workhorse.
Growbags can as has been pointed out come in differentlengths and thicknesses. The thickest (or deepest if you prefer) that I haver come across is produced by Levingtons especially for tomatoes - has pictures of toms printed all over it. It is a bit more expensive, but it does also cintain supplementary additives for the plants.
Ordinary6 growbags are fine though you might want to try different methods and see what suits you best.
1. As Birdiewife suggested, cut your growbag in half and stand upright - only two plants per growbag but loads of room for roots to develop.
2. Two narrow / standard growbags laid on top of each other - cut the top off the botton bag, the bottom off the top bag, plant your toms in the top bag. This gives the plant roots twice the depth and nutrients to get into.
3. Either with single bag or doubled up bags as per 2. above. cut your planting holes as per bag instructions but then insert pots with the bottoms removed into the planting holes and fill to within an inch and a half of the top with compost. Then plant your tomato plants in the pot. This gives extra depth for roots (and supporting canes) and makes watering and feeding easier.
I've used all three methods successfully but would opt for no. 3 now given a choice.

[workhorse]

Thanks Sewer Rat for your invaluable advice.

I think I'm going to enjoy this forum.

James

[shirlthegirl43]

I think I'm going to enjoy this forum.

James

Guarantee it!!!

[Protea]

HI James,

Just to add my advice (for what its worth!) i've given up with growbags - too difficult to water. I use large pots now (you can get black pots that are sometimes labelled as 'tomato pots', but any very large pot will do - at least 12" diameter) and plant one plant per pot - putting the plant on the very botom of the massive pot and filling up with soil up the stem to just below the rim (the stems of tomatoes will grow roots if in soil so you will encourage extra nutrients and water to be taken up, it also makes them more stable when they get big!). I also mix some of that water retaining gel into the compost as toms are so thirsty and also some of the feed granules to give them a boost early in the season, i then top up with tomato specific feed (high potassium) once flowering commences to encourage fruit formation.

Good luck, you can't go wrong with toms really, just remember to water them every day, they're really thirsty plants!

[workhorse]

Hi Protea

Thanks for the advice. I must say it seems a very unusual way of growing toms.You say to put the plant at the very bottom of the pot, which i presume means the plant must be quite tall when you plant it, which to me, means the roots are already at the bottom of the pot, or am I missing something. Please enlighten this sad novice.

James

[shirlthegirl43]

Fairly simple really, you plant the tomato in the bottom of the bucket in a little soil, as it grows taller, you put in more compost until you reach the top of the bucket. This gives the plant lots of root and good stability.

[workhorse]

Thank you Shirley. Now I understand.

James