How many grow bags for tomatoes/ cucumbers

[Furby]

I have heard that you should always double up on grow bags. I.e. one on top
of the other (so the roots have more room to grow)

..

Is this true? If so how many tomatoes plants should I get in a double pair
of grow bags, I know it won't be 6, but would I put 4 in there?



Also is it me or have grow bags got thinner over the years , I seem to
remember them being the same size a 75L bag of compost.

[Jennifer Sparkes]

The message >
from "Furby" > contains these words:

> I have heard that you should always double up on grow bags. I.e. one on top
> of the other (so the roots have more room to grow)

Not very economical on bags but what my Mother always did was to
cut them in half and use each half as one would a flower pot.

> Also is it me or have grow bags got thinner over the years , I seem to
> remember them being the same size a 75L bag of compost.

I thought that when I saw some yesterday ...

Jennifer

[Pam Moore]

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 13:10:47 -0000, "Furby" >
wrote:

>Is this true? If so how many tomatoes plants should I get in a double pair
>of grow bags, I know it won't be 6, but would I put 4 in there?

I have some green plastic things like crowns, which you push into the
top of a growbag, giving about the capacity of a 2 litre pot above the
growbag. They have a reservoir for watering ino which lets the water
trickle into the compost Don't know if you can still get them.
I have used 3 to a bag, but 2 would be better. I'd not put more than 3
in a double height.
A couple of years ago Westland did some bigger, thicker bags with a
different name, but they were big growbags all the same.

Pam in Bristol

[Mike Lyle]

Jennifer Sparkes wrote:
> The message >
> from "Furby" > contains these words:
>
>> I have heard that you should always double up on grow bags. I.e.
one
>> on top of the other (so the roots have more room to grow)
>
> Not very economical on bags but what my Mother always did was to
> cut them in half and use each half as one would a flower pot.
>
>> Also is it me or have grow bags got thinner over the years , I
seem
>> to remember them being the same size a 75L bag of compost.
>
> I thought that when I saw some yesterday ...

I thought they'd always been about 25 litres. I used to grow tomatoes
in halved 25-litre plastic drums, one bag between two halves, one
plant each: much better than the growbag itself. (I think something
comes, or came, in 30-litre lots, though -- I suppose that could have
been earlier growbags.)

Mike.

[Miss Perspicacia Tick]

Furby wrote:
> I have heard that you should always double up on grow bags. I.e. one
> on top of the other (so the roots have more room to grow)
>
> .
>
> Is this true? If so how many tomatoes plants should I get in a
> double pair of grow bags, I know it won't be 6, but would I put 4 in
> there?

My father's never done so, and his toms have always done well - as for the
number, three to a bag seems to be right (the bags he buys have three 'cut
here' squares, so I would assume that the manufacturer is suggesting that
three is the maximum, and the ones he buys have tomatoes on them, so maybe
they're specifically for the purpose of growing, er, tomatoes). I don't
recall the variety he planted last year but it was a prolific cropper - so
much so that not only us, but our friends, relatives and neighbours were
kept supplied all summer!


>
>
> Also is it me or have grow bags got thinner over the years , I seem to
> remember them being the same size a 75L bag of compost.

They seem to have done. I recall my father saying the same thing last year.

Here's an idea to recycle an old barrow my father came up with last year
(while we're on the subject of toms) - plant cherries in it. It's easily
moved as the sun moves, so that they have the best chance to ripen. He did
it for the first time two years ago - and we were inundated; we used to eat
them straight off the vines. I believe we got at least 20lbs last season.


--
In memory of MS MVP Alex Nichol: http://www.dts-l.org/

[Rhiannon Macfie Miller]

Pam Moore wrote:

> I have some green plastic things like crowns, which you push into the
> top of a growbag, giving about the capacity of a 2 litre pot above the
> growbag. They have a reservoir for watering ino which lets the water
> trickle into the compost Don't know if you can still get them.

I'm sure I've seen some of those in a catalogue recently.

Aha, here they are:

http://www.ferndale-lodge.co.uk/index2.html?area=top.html&body=/wwwroot/detail.cfm&a=316&b=2&c=310&d=300&e=0

or

http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q409352BA


I was wondering about getting some of them. Are they any good?

Rhiannon

--

http://sciethics.blogspot.com/ -- the rights and wrongs of
science.