Growpot Query

[eskymo]

Not been on this forum for years as I've not had a greenhouse or garden to plant stuff in. I now have a greenhouse and a timy patch in my garden, but most importantly I now have an allotment, so will hopefully be on here a lot more from now on.

I bought some of these the other day as I thought I'd give them a go for growing my tomatoes in growbags.

I have gravel trays and a gorw bag in each. I attached canes supports so that I can put in three bamboo canes in each grow bags, one for each tomato.

I followed the instructions on the growpot to the letter and was really disappointed - the serated edges are meant to easily cut through the plastic of the grow bag - you're meant to put on a little pressure and twist - after half an hour of using a great deal of pressure and a lot of twisting I didn't get any joy - so I had to get the scissors out and cut the circles out of the plastic.

I then pushed the growpots in, planted my tomato plants and then watered them in as instructed - you have to water in the outer water chamber and then leave them for two weeks to establlished roots. The water is meant to seep out of the water chamber slowly ensuring your plants always have the right amount of water.

Well - the water didn't seep slowly, it went really quickly and then all endedx up in the gravel trays - It's been a week now and the water is still in the gravel trays - what a waste of money! I have no means of getting the water out of the gravel trays unless I heft the grow bags out or drill a hole through the plastic.

So now I'm worried about damping off because the grow bags are surrounded by water.

Has anyone else use these growpot things and had any success with them - did you have the same problem? maybe I shouldn't have the growbags in gravel trays?

Any advice most welcome.

E

[ladylottie]

Hi Eskymo and welcome back to the Vine! Glad to hear you now have a lottie.

Sorry that you haven't had any luck with the grow pots, I have used them now for about 5 years running and have been really pleased with them. It was a bit harder to cut through the growbag with the serrated edges than I was expecting I must admit, but I didn't have to resort to cutting the hole out with scissors.
I've found that the water does seep slowly into the grow-bag, so I'm not sure what went wrong with yours. But I don't use gravel trays, I just cut a few slits into the side of the grow bag and place them on my patio.
Sorry I can't be of any more help, I will be using them again this year.

[Sanjo]

You could try putting part of an old towel in the gravel tray with the rest hanging over the edge so that the wick effect will drain some of the water off. Eventually the rest will get used by the Toms. I used the growpots last year and placed them onto my own made growbags (black sacks with a hole for the growpot) My water didn't seep slowly either BUT I also pierced holes in the bottom of the bag for excess water to drain away. Are the bags directly in the gravel tray or are they actually ON gravel in the gravel tray?

[VirginVegGrower]

I use them and I only ever plunge them so as to make the shape. I then use scissors to cut the hole. They are primarily used to help give more room for the plant's root system. So you add compost to the pot itself and plant the tomato in that. You feed at the top hole where the plant is as that's where the feeder roots are. In watering the reservoir it takes the water down to the root system and away from the stem hence no stem rot. The water doesn't stay in there indefinitely and you shouldn't worry about overflow. When the growbag dries out it will soak the water up again. Give it time and you will be pleased with the results I am sure!

[VirginVegGrower]

I forgot to add I use gravel trays too. How much/often are you watering at the moment?

[eskymo]

Thanks for all the replies. I forgot how amazing this forum is. I've only watered them once so far and worried that the water in the gravel trays will become stagnant. I've got some capillary matting and thinking of using that to soak water from the gravel trays and water other plants. Just not got much room in the greenhouse at the moment to do that as I lost a shed recently so got all my tools and pots in the greenhouse at the moment.

I'm also worried that the growbags are going be waterlogged all the time.

Maybe I've not sunk the growpots into growbags enough and that's why the water doesn't seep slowly.

[VirginVegGrower]

It will soak up if your growbags have holes poked in to let the water out. Capillary matting is good, I use it in my gravel trays under pots but not in my growbag trays. Nothing to stop you whilst your toms are tiny still!