Alternatives to growbags
Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter
On another part of the forum, someone (apologies, I think it was Westi or Chantal) asked in passing about alternatives to growbags for use in a greenhouse with hard floors. Two years ago I bought some of Marshall's re-usable greenhouse border bags for use outside. The first season I was a bit disappointed because they sagged with the volume of compost, but then I found you can slip canes inside the top edges which greatly improves the rigidity. I've got one in use outside for leeks at the moment - an emergency solution because my broad beans were so late last summer I needed somewhere to put the young leek plants. I've also got one in use in my 6x6 greenhouse, giving me my best ever crop of mizuna, winter purslane and lambs' lettuce. There's space for at least three more of the bags in theory but in practice the greenhouse is pretty much full of over-wintering chrysanthemums in pots. Also, the greenhouse hasn't got a hard floor, but the soil is very poor (solid clay), so I've been digging in lots of organic matter ahead of the coming season.
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FelixLeiter
- KG Regular
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- Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:18 pm
- Location: East Yorkshire
Big pots. These ones are good value, and they last for years. Growbags are a particular bug-bear of mine, which I've espoused at length about elsewhere on this forum before so I won't go on about them again here. But to summarise: their volume is insufficient, they are difficult to water, the compost they contain is usually of poor quality. They were originally developed for commercial horticulture where they worked well with automated feeding and watering systems only a small remove from hydroponics. They are no longer in use by commercial growers, which is telling.
Allotment, but little achieved.
I wouldn't disagree with what you say, FL. The retailers and manufacturers between them ruined the growbag market through ruthless price competition, which forced the quality down. The Marshall's bags I wrote about are open-topped, and measure 34 x 22 inches, and 12 inches deep. Obviously you have to fill them with compost or soil, but there's no problem about boosting the quality of that either with garden compost or fertiliser. All I can say is that my experience has been good, once I solved the rigidity problem - dwarf French beans the first year, leeks the second, and winter salads currently.
Writing in favour of growbags: I can carry a growbag on my own but cannot move those Marshalls bags alone.
I use a growbag early in the year on the staging to grow salads. Later I grow tomatoes and sweet peppers in growbags, augmenting each plant with a separate bottomless pot. Until last year, I simply cut the bottom off an 8 inch pot but then bought some of those special pots which "screw" into the growbag and have deep watering rim. And they are really worth it. Not only do they increase the amount of potting compost per plant, of course, but they make watering really easy.
I can see your advantages in using Marshalls larger and deeper bags, Ken, but, as I said, growbags still have their uses.
I use a growbag early in the year on the staging to grow salads. Later I grow tomatoes and sweet peppers in growbags, augmenting each plant with a separate bottomless pot. Until last year, I simply cut the bottom off an 8 inch pot but then bought some of those special pots which "screw" into the growbag and have deep watering rim. And they are really worth it. Not only do they increase the amount of potting compost per plant, of course, but they make watering really easy.
I can see your advantages in using Marshalls larger and deeper bags, Ken, but, as I said, growbags still have their uses.
