Grow bags

[cochlear_nerve]

Partly because of space, I'm pondering growing some veg in grow bags. Would this work for various squash, pumpkin and courgettes? Or would it seem an extravagance?

[crowsashes]

i have courgettes in grow bags, i grew them last year too. my soil here is so rubbish i cant grow anything until it gets a good dose of compost. i had 2 plants per bag for courgettes lots of food and water and they were fine.

i have squashes in large pots, first time this year, so im thinking along the same lines for the courgettes. if it gets particularly hot though im considering dropping the pots in a hole in the ground.

[cochlear_nerve]

Thanks Crowashes.

And any thoughts on growing in bags horizontally (as is usual) to growing in the bags vertically - think I saw this being done by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, maybe someone else ... and it seemed to make sense?

[crowsashes]

ive cut the bags in half and used them to grow tomatoes before, i use pots now i have been given some. i guess if you wanted to you could grow the courgettes and squashes that way, but ive never tried it. i cant see how it would affect the plant.

[citizentwiglet]

Do you mean tipping the bag onto it's side and using it a bit like a potato planting sack kind of idea? To be honest, I can't see why that wouldn't work - in fact, it would benefit plants by allowing more room for the roots and hold more moisture, I would have thought. Plus, it would save space. I suppose the only downside is that you could only plant a max of 2 plants per sack (by cutting it in half like Crowsashes did). Saying that, I think grobags used normally suit 2 plants better than three anyway - three is a bit of a squeeze.

[cochlear_nerve]

Yes. Just realised my second post didn't make much sense. I actually meant "using grow bags vertically as opposed to horizontally"?

[citizentwiglet]

I just had visions of you training growbags up walls, all artistic like......

I'll be honest with you - I grow a lot in containers, and I tend to buy organic vegetable growbags, and tip them into the tubs. I have small kids (2 energetic and enthusiastic boys under 5), so I don't think they would last 5 minutes as actual grow-bags - particularly taller plants - they'd just get knocked to the ground if all they had holding their roots was a grow-bag. I would much prefer to use the gro-bag contents emptied into tubs than your normal organic compost - having done a few experiments, the potatoes, beans, courgettes, carrots and spring onions sown/transplanted into the gro-bag compost are doing much better than those in the general organic multipurpose. It's the Levingtons Organic 'Potato and Vegetable' growbags I use - they are SLIGHTLY more expensive, but the texture is wonderful - I've used it as seedling compost too, with no ill effects - in fact, the structure of the compost makes pricking out much more straightforward than some of the courser types of compost. The only downside I see is that I think that this stuff needs watering slightly more often than some of the courser stuff, so now I pot into the Levingtons, and use a coarser organic multi-purpose compost (it's quite woody, I think it's the Homebase stuff) as a mulch on the top, as it helps retain water.

[cochlear_nerve]

Have ended up with more tomato plants than anticipated.

Pondering just planting them around the garden (as opposed to in grow bags or raised beds). Should I have any reservations about this?