Exactly why I have so many grow bags. I started with plastic pots but realized even a 40 gallon plastic pot would take up my entire car. Shipping was insane due to size and weight. I was looking at 300 dollars shipping 4 years ago when shipping was far lower. With 40 or even 100+ gallon grow bags free shipping and 23 dollars on Amazon and you may even get two for that price. Heck you get labels for the amount too. Like I said above not a bad deal if you are using them like a moveable raised bed. For pots to be moved just not a good idea. Like I said you could move them once to a few times but you are not getting away with moving them too many times. The entire point of them is they are a cheap pot that air prunes plants.
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Actually out of the group, Kevin I have one survivor!
The others may not make it as there is nothing green above ground but you never know when the live roots I planted may get ready to grow!
Meanwhile I am continuing to build variety of my wild thicket with Wild Goose, beech plums from PA an and Long Island, seeds from WI and MI, and some scions from Rio Grande valley. So I have a bit of everything so far among my three other local natives. Someday I may begin to see some cross breeding as they mix up pollens. Yes, do count on sendin me some of your best scions as much variety as you have this winter. I am fascinated by the prospect of so many millions of years of evolving species coming together in one spot! Here is my one survivor of your rootstock, a start! First mason trying to visit your flowers someday! Do you think yours are Chickasaw or some other variety?
Dennis
I think the grow bags are designed to degrade over a few years. some last longer than others. I bought some from A.M. Leonard and they are suppose to last 3-4 years. I bought them to put tomato plants in. I have horrible soil where I need to grow them. It is the only place that gets enough sun in my yard.
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I have container gardened for a long time, and have fabric pots that are years old (they’re pretty ugly looking though). They do root prune nicely, but they also will dry out very quickly in hot weather. The mix I use is light enough that I can move 25 gallon pots that are partially dried out pretty easy on my own (I’m female), so that’s an advantage. I have yet to have a handle snap. They will break down fast on the ground versus a hard surface like concrete or asphalt. My figs are currently in plastic pots because I wanted to be able to clean them off and bring them in my house, which I would not do with the fabric ones because they get so gross, at least in my climate. I hope that helps. I do feel plants grow really well in them.
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What type of soil or potting soil do you use in your fabric pots? I have not used mine yet and I am trying to figure what to use in them.
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@thecityman, it was most certainly not something that I had considered as being beneficial to increasing the fruit yield of my fig trees. It was reading the experiences of others that led me to consider the myriad possible benefits to myself. Here are a selection of those responses:
I use a mix I got off of gardenweb eons ago…5 parts pine bark fines, 1 part peat moss, 1 part perlite, and then garden lime unless you are potting an acid-loving plant, can add controlled release fertilizer, as well. It can be hard to source the pine bark fines although since you’re in Ohio like me I can suggest a few places if you decide to go that route. The advantages…light, extremely well-draining, roots just love it; everything I pull from it to up pot is beautiful…lasts a long while without compaction. Disadvantages…if you can’t source things easily it can be pricey and/or annoying, and it will dry out even faster especially in fabric pots in high heat. I honestly have not tried anything else, though, so I am not sure if it is the best or just something that works.
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@Buckeye, on the subject of pine fines, I’ve had an interesting theory that I’ve been considering: when I received the trees that I ordered online, I chose to repot them with my own blend of potting mix. Many of them had a large quantity of pine fines in the mix that the vendor had initially used. There were many fine roots, some of which were holding on to the pine fines. However, instead of thinking that this is a good sign, I am wondering if the presence of these fine roots is actually a cry for help, a signal that the soil is not providing what the tree is seeking. I have predicated this consideration partly on the large quantity of fine roots that I’ve seen developed when people post pictures of the fig cuttings that they have rooted in Optisorb or similar diatomaceous earth.
Maybe this is a good method for speeding the growth of many roots, then to be transplanted into better soil. Would anyone care to weigh in on this subject as well?
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Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have no clue as to what has worked for these type of grow bags.
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I can say that I have grow bags from 2020 when I first started growing in grow bags. They are a bit beaten up by animals but still in tact. The animals target the spots without soil to rip up. Tearing will not happen until you move it so my pots are not struggling that I had not moved. If moved I am sure there would be wear though. Most mixes will be very similar for pots. It will be a mix of peat moss or coco coir as a growing medium then perlite or vermiculite for drainage components, fertilizer for food then some will add things like worm castings or pine bark as they see fit. That is basically going to be everyone’s soil mix. In regards to pine bark being hard to find bark is really easy to find at least where I am. Home Depot sells bark as mulch.
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I am a big fan of grow bags since they air prune. This prevents root binding and root circling. This prevents the need for as frequent up potting.
They are definitely more prone to drying and a bit hard to move. Compared to a standard hard plastic pot.
Many of the new grow bags come with a shower cap type vinyl cover for the soil surface, with a hole in the middle for the plant. Cardboard and straw are what I like to use to act as a moisture barrier. I have found dragging them with a small 4x6 tarp folded in half seems to work pretty well. If there is an obstacle, 2 people can get on the corners and manage it pretty well. They lift pretty well this way. Letting dry back a few days is also very helpful as @Buckeye suggested.
For up potting I just get the next size up, or skip one size. Then fill the new pot up 3/4 the way full. Next I set the old pot, tree and all, onto the soil atop the new pot. Then I take a box cutter and place a few slits into the bottom plane of the old pot, as I gently lean it back to expose the bottom plane. So it’s the old pot slightly countersank into the new pot. Then I top the sides till the new pot is full. Like stacking a 2 tier wedding cake.
Then if you had to move a tree in for the winter just rock the top pot untill it pulls back. Slice off the extra roots, and tuck the whole old pot (cut bottom) into a new grow bag that is the same size as the old grow bag. Clean for spring.
Here is an annual plant I harvested and did this up pot method to. This was after I pulled it out of the second pot. Notice how small and fluffy the roots are. No binding or circling.
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That is so great. Can’t believe its blooming in its 1st year. I sent you a PM so we don’t hijack the thread.
VERY INTERESTING!!! Makes no sense to me, and CERTAINLY isn’t my experience, but I trust the people whose posts you showed, and I’m far from an expert. So who knows. I can only say that here in my area with my climate, soils, etc., there is no comparison between potted and in ground…not even close. In ground get 3 times larger (I said double earlier but as I think about it, that was an understatement) and produce 3 times more. But these people as well as Dennis who offered another explanation, could be right in their situation. Thanks for the education!
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@thecityman, it never would have occurred to me either. I trust the reported observations of others, and when I read repeatedly that yields were so strong I began to consider the additional benefits to keeping my many fig trees potted instead of growing in-ground.
I have a lot of my figs growing in those root pruning air pots. I just use the cheaper ones from HTG supply. If you could source sheets of that plastic material you could make a bunch at whatever size you want…you’d just need to drill a lot of holes out. I think HTG uses a hot nail-like probe that just melts a hole through one side. I’ve used the grow bags and they definitely become unsightly after a couple of years and I’ve even had the roots growing through the bottom. Those air pots can be reused many times and it’s easy to upsize.
Here’s a chicago hardy, some butternut, and pawpaws from last year and what the fig root mass looked like before I upsized.
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I agree, in the ground will give you bigger plants and higher yields. The roots can go down many feet vs just in the grow bag. I wish I could put my tomato plants in the actual ground. My yard is surrounded by huge trees so that is nearly impossible to give them enough sun unless I till up the middle of my back yard. That’s probably a big no. Too much work for a garden. IMO.
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Blueberry plants are not supposed to thrive in alkaline soil but when I first started gardening I planted blueberry in the ground. I dumped a bag of peat moss in a hole. I decided to dig up the blueberry at the end of the season. The blueberry had far surpassed the hole I dug despite my soil being alkaline. I keep my plants in pots because I want to bring them with me when I eventually move and I know in 1 gardening season if put in the ground the roots would make the trees and bushes unmovable.
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Agway and Ohio Mulch are usually my go to for ready to use pine bark fines. There might be other places, but a lot of them have a ton of sapwood or the size of pieces is incorrect. If you search for “tapla’s 5-1-1 mix” you’ll get a lot of information about it. I have a much abused blueberry that is 10 years old in this mix in a fabric pot sans lime and it still makes a good amount of fruit yearly. I keep meaning to repot it and then…
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I am down in the heat of 9B and I have had it happen, when my figs get to a certain size, they put out a lot of roots through the grow bags.
My favorite uses for them here has been very large ones for my tomatoes and a very wide (5 ft ish) and short one that I use as a strawberry patch.
I think it helps the tomatoes with the heat and keeps them to themselves well since they can carry things that trouble other things I grow.
With the strawberry patch I think the same with heat.
Those were also the better quality, thicker ones so have held up well. A lot of the little, thinner ones had the handles rip quick.
I actually moved the strawberry patch this year so it would get a little less summer scorching sun. It’s like 5ft wide so I had to think on it. What I did was I got large cylinders and rolled the patch along the top. When it passed over one completely I moved it to the front. The moving a patch seemed a unique thing about the fabric type I could mention.
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that sounds like a really good way to move a patch- like having a portable raised bed almost
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