Growbags - does it really matter?

[taff]

i've never bought them, I just get mpc and put into morrison type buckets, then compost anyway at the end of the season, let the roots and stems rot on the compost heap.

[zazen999]

I make my own mix and grow in Morrison's buckets. I sometimes buy a growbag for the contents if it is particularly cheap but it's not often. After last summer working in various schools, I found that a mix of manure and peat free MPC with a little comfrey chopped up and mixed in with the compost [and comfrey feeds regularly] resulted in very healthy plants indeed. I don't think growbags are really designed to house toms properly...hence not using them.

[mrbadexample]

I found a 99p growbag at Hollybush near Cannock. No volume marked on the bag, but looked to be about 20l. So I bought 240l of MPC for a tenner instead.

[oldie]

I did the exactly same as Zazen last year. Same again this.

[Hillwalker]

I never understand the logic of buying cheap growbags for tomatoes, as though it doesn't matter and they're some sort of second rate plant. No one here would do such a thing with anything else, so why tomatoes? If you plant them in something decent you're going to get much better results. You are going to eat them after all.

[taff]

chopped up comfrey, didn't think of that...haven't cut mine yet this year so it'll be the right time too when they're ready for the big bucket...thanks

[womble]

I too like the idea of chopped up comfrey, I can't believe I haven't thought of that before.
This year I put some "black gold" worm cast fertiliser in the tomato pots, I got given it, I wouldn't have bought it.

I normally find that a mixture of decent soil from a bed, mixed with garden compost and maybe a little BF&B (forgot this year) does a decent job. I do feed liquid comfrey feed, but they seem ok with or without tbh.

[mrbadexample]

I never understand the logic of buying cheap growbags for tomatoes, as though it doesn't matter and they're some sort of second rate plant. No one here would do such a thing with anything else, so why tomatoes? If you plant them in something decent you're going to get much better results. You are going to eat them after all.

It's a simple question of economics. If I have 20 tomato plants, and I decide to use half-bags stood on end then I need 10 growbags. If I buy Levingtons Tomorite Growbags from Mr Block & Mr Quayle, that'll cost me £52.80. If I buy 99p growbags that's £9.90; a saving of £42.90, or 14 pints of beer. At the end of the year am I going to see £42.90 worth of more or better tomatoes?

To be honest, I don't think so. By the time you've added your own nutrients (& comfrey is free), I doubt there's a whole lot of difference.

[Sylvan]

I use ultra-cheap growbags, if I can get them, mixed with topsoil, home-made compost and BFB (We make a John Innes No 3 mixture and then add extra compost, using growbags or cheap MPC instead of the *whispers peat:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JOHN INNES POTTING COMPOST No.3
7 Loam
3 Peat
2 Sand


each cubic metre of mix, add

0.6kg ground limestone
3.6kg hoof and horn meal
3.6kg superphosphate
1.8kg potassium sulphate

(we just use the BFB)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Earlier this year Homebase in Darlo were selling massive pallets of their own brand growbags as discontinued stock @99p each. We could only fit 9 in the car and when we went back for more a couple of weeks later they had raised the price to £1
We tried our (slightly more) "local" store but they said it was just a localised phenomenon

I used the expensive stuff once or twice when I first started, 30 years ago, but switched pretty quickly - and people keep telling me I get wonderful results, so it must be OK.

(TBH we only started making the adapted JI mix because our garden soil was like quarry waste - and full of lead to boot)

EDIT: We only have 6 of those grow pots (the ones you linked to) so we used some Morrisons bucket with and some without. I don't think it made a vast amount of difference.

[grenhouse]

I'm all for the morrisons bucket method. I also grow my toms very successfully by only filling the buckets about halfway up so get more than 6 per bag of wickes compost which I also use! Always had good results doing it this way.

Steve

[Hillwalker]

With respect to mrbadexample and Sylvan, I disagree. I have tried cheap growbags in the past and they are rubbish: because they contain rubbish! There is a reason why they are cheap. There are numerous anencdotes of people's dissatisfaction with them, including my own, from very poor yields to plants actually dying in them.

It's a simple question of economics. If I have 20 tomato plants, and I decide to use half-bags stood on end then I need 10 growbags. If I buy Levingtons Tomorite Growbags from Mr Block & Mr Quayle, that'll cost me £52.80. If I buy 99p growbags that's £9.90; a saving of £42.90, or 14 pints of beer. At the end of the year am I going to see £42.90 worth of more or better tomatoes?

To be honest, I don't think so. By the time you've added your own nutrients (& comfrey is free), I doubt there's a whole lot of difference.

In this instance buying cheap is false economy. I get far more and better quality tomatoes in decent compost than I do planting in a sub-standard type. Thereby, saving me time, space and compost. Additionally, at the end of the season I have a good quality medium to dig into my garden. As I said before, it baffles me - Why not use poor quality tomato compost everywhere else in the garden?

I use ultra-cheap growbags, if I can get them, mixed with topsoil, home-made compost and BFB (We make a John Innes No 3 mixture and then add extra compost, using growbags or cheap MPC

Then it becomes a completely different medium.

[mrbadexample]

With respect to mrbadexample and Sylvan, I disagree. I have tried cheap growbags in the past and they are rubbish: because they contain rubbish! There is a reason why they are cheap. There are numerous anecdotes of people's dissatisfaction with them, including my own, from very poor yields to plants actually dying in them.

This is why I started the thread - to hear how people have got on with different types. Last year I used expensive growbags. This year I've got three cheap growbags and a load of MPC. I'll only know at the end of the season whether I should have shelled out an extra £40. Personally, I don't think it'll make that much difference, but only time will tell. Last year I didn't have the benefit of comfrey, so fed with Tomorite when I remembered, which wasn't all that often. I still got good results - was that because I had good growbags?

[zazen999]

chopped up comfrey, didn't think of that...haven't cut mine yet this year so it'll be the right time too when they're ready for the big bucket...thanks

I too like the idea of chopped up comfrey, I can't believe I haven't thought of that before.

That's why we're here - to share all these techniques!

I first thought of it as - well, where do you put the remains from 'milk carton comfrey' when in a school greenhouse - erm, bury it in the tom pots of course.....and then I figured a slow release version would be just chopped comfrey so I've used it ever since....

[Arthur Pounder]

I think I've tried most now from both ends of the price bracket.

After having some disappointing qualities in some of the more expensive ones I just use B&Q MP compost, riddle it and add Perlite and use flower buckets or planter bags.

I don't like those little thin cheapo ones though - the contents look like it's all fast rotted MDF complete with bits of Formica.

[Sylvan]

Then it becomes a completely different medium.

Yup. A much better medium than growbags on their own. Better drainage, better water retention and heavier so the pots don't fall over as readily.

I used to use growbags on their own though. We've only been using the JI mix for veg for about 8 years. For over 20 years before that I just used the cheapest growbags I could find. I used them as MPC and "Seed and Cuttings" compost as well, 'cos they were cheaper than proper MPC and I'm dead tight! What you do with it is a lot more important than how much you spend on it.

(Besides, those expensive ones are full of artificial fertilisers. I'm not prepared to put that stuff in my children's bodies )