[hiccup]

 morning all

            I have just come across growbag halos in a catalogue, they look interesting
              but are they any good. or just an other gimmick. If anybody has used them I'd
              be grateful to hear. cheers. oh and happy new year.

[JayG]

Had to Gurgle that one! 

Looks like a variation on the ring culture method of growing tomatoes, so no reason they wouldn't work, although pretty expensive given that most people using the technique probably use cheap plastic pots with the bottoms cut out to get the same result (admittedly without the water 'reservoir'.)

[Goosegirl]

As JayG says, use cheap plastic pots and just insert a plastic bottle into its side for watering. I stay well clear of gimmicks.

[moose]

As JayG says, use cheap plastic pots and just insert a plastic bottle into its side for watering. I stay well clear of gimmicks.

+1

[Kristen]

I'm not those sorts of gadgets and stuff either, however in this case I've seen them over the years and thought they looked brilliant.  Never seen one at a  price that I would want to afford though ...

1) Earthing up the stem of a tomato plant is good. The plant will form roots from the stem, and they will enjoy being responsible for feeding the plant (lower roots in the bag will be happy gathering water - assuming no/little fertiliser there).

2) the outer ring for watering is excellent.  I presume that the water runs out "slowly-ish".  Watering a pot / bag tends to mean that excess water runs out of the bottom, taking nutrients with it.  Also when I grew tomatoes in pots they needed watering Morning, Noon and Night ... if those water-rings are able to trickle-out the water over several hours it would cut out the need for the mid-day watering. (and if they are too big / numerous you could put some lining in there to slow them down). 

3) watering into the outer-rings will mean that the leaves don't get splashed with water. That's very important as splashing the foliage can encourage diseases like blight.

So I'm very pro ... except for the price!

[Salmo]

I have used these for 3 years. They look as though they will do many years to come which means the initial investment is not much per year.

They do what it says on the box. Feed via the central pot and water into the bottom. Big root system filling the pot and grobag. Watering is very quick as you do not have to faff about trying to avoid washing compost off the roots.

[Nikkithefoot]

I have used these for the last few years as well. I bought a set of 3 initially (you can get them very cheaply if you hunt around at the end of the season) then experimented with bottomless pots, plant pots sunk in between the plants (for ease of watering) and also the growbag pots. By the end of the season, I had had much better cropping from the grow bag pot growbag than either of the others by about 50%. They also seem more stable in the growbag than bottomless pots as they have 'teeth'.

In terms of time saved alone when watering they are well worth the investment in my opinion. I have even found they can be left more than 48 hours between waterings without too much harm caused. It wasn't intentional, but the plants were still fine.

[hiccup]

         Evening All
         
                    Thanks for all your replies, I think i'll give them a try now.
                                                                                      Cheers.

[beesrus]

Just how technical can a plant pot get ? 
Can't wait for the chipped super pots.
I dib various watering holes with a big stick as and when needed. Works especially well with the cucumbers and their well known neck rot.

[Growster...]

We always use big 10" pots, and place four per watering tray, so we only feed the water in the tray, with the occasional splurge over the foliage, or into the pot if dry on top.

Last year we kept 20 plants going in the greenhouse, and they didn't seem to mind, with most going to six trusses, and one or two to seven.

A lot of this is about having the time to do everything, and probably the halo idea helps everyone in a hurry as well!

[Kristen]

We always use big 10" pots, and place four per watering tray, so we only feed the water in the tray, with the occasional splurge over the foliage, or into the pot if dry on top.

That raises two questions in my mind

Why occasionally into the pot if dry?  I'm thinking you could always do that (excess would drain into the tray and be reabsorbed, or evaporate increasing humidity / reducing temperature, both beneficial).  Or if you always water into the tray, only, capillary action would happily lift the water into the pots, and perhaps keep more air in the compost? (no idea on that one!), but I'm not seeing a situation where the compost is too dry for capillary action to work.  If you left it a week maybe, but I'm figuring if it ever got to that point the plants would be in dire straights!

Other question is "splurge over the foliage" - I try to keep water off the foliage of my Toms, curious what your thinking is on this one pls.

I am now wondering why, when I used to grow in containers I didn;t stand them in gravel trays. I watered them 2, sometimes 3, times a day!

The fancy watering pots are designed for grow bags ... but I saw an alterantive at Chelsea last year: a fancy gravel tray for a growbag!!! the Hozelock growbag waterer:



Bag is put onto tray which has "spikes" containing capillary matting strips which penetrate the bag and facilitates watering from the water reservoir in the tray (up to 14 days watering I read ... presumably only when the plants are tiny!, its a 15L reservoir per growbag).  Then you fill the tray through a poxy tiny little hole   Quick look on Amazon suggests they are £20-25 each

Wn35gnJEAX8

A lot of this is about having the time to do everything

Very true.

[JayG]

I'm not a fan of using the skinny growbags in any shape or form for tomatoes - they don't provide nearly enough of a root run when used to plant direct, and dry out very quickly too.

I accept we haven't had a really hot summer in the 4 years I've had my greenhouse, but using 60L bags of compost as growbags for the first 2 years, and home-made 1 foot deep planters for the last 2, I've never had to water more than every other day, and have no problem keeping the leaves dry when doing so (upturned drinks bottles with the bottoms cut off did make life easier when using growbags, but not necessary with the planters using a trigger hose attachment on 'shower' setting.)

[mumofstig]

I accept we haven't had a really hot summer in the 4 years I've had my greenhouse

Did you sleep though 2013? it was a lovely hot Summer 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23970253

[JayG]

Nah, that can't be right - only really hot summers were when I was a kid, and even they weren't as hot as wot they are in Borneo! 

[mumofstig]