[Anton]

Fellow Gardeners,

I was reading an article about growing tomatoes in growing bags and sinking the pots the tomatoes are in into the growing bag? As I have never seen any actual growing bags here in Belgium, I was wondering if I could just used a bag of compost instead? And do I need to cut the bottom out of the pot to allow the roots to grow?

All suggestions welcome.

Anton

[JayG]

Tomato growbags in the UK are of two basic types - skinny cheap ones which contain so little compost they are all but useless IMHO, and much deeper ones which can be nearly as deep as a standard compost bag laid flat.

Your article sounds like a variation of the ring culture method, although in this instance the aggregate layer (which mainly supplies just water) is replaced with the bag of compost.

I seem to remember posts on these forums about using the technique, and it certainly should ensure good root development, and yes, the pots do need to be bottomless, and the bags will need drainage holes to make sure the roots aren't waterlogged.

I grow my tomatoes in home-made planters so haven't tried the technique - hopefully someone who has will come along with more details - I'd be wondering whether the additional investment in compost was compensated for by increased yield... 

[Bigrich]

I'm giving this a whirl for some of my tomatoes as I had a spare growbag

Done as suggested and snipped the bottoms off 3 pots the tomatos (Moneymaker) were planted in, fluffed up the gowbag to get rid of any lumps, cut holes slightly larger than the pots, and embedded the pots about an inch into the compost

Never tried it so no idea how it'll go, but worth a punt

Of course if I'd thought about it I'd have swapped out one of the moneymakers for a gardeners delight (the other variety I'm doing) as the GD's are going in pots - that way it'd have given a proper comparison... Whoops

[Anton]

Thanks for the replies.
Up to now I have always put a pot right next to my tomato plants so when I water the water goes straight to the roots. I alway put a few fertiliser pellets in the pots every week to provide a liquid fertiliser.

Anton

[Hampshire Hog]

Hi Anton FYI in the UK you can buy special tomato rings that have a circular trough for water and serrated bottom so you can install them on a deep grow bag. Theory is you put water in outside ring and tomato fertiliser in middle.
I use them and they are convenient as you can put a good quantity of water in the outer ring when the weather is hot.

Cheers HH

[mjg000]

I've just searched online at A***** and found sets of 6 " tomato rings with circular trough for water and serrated bottom" and ordered them because they get very good reviews and seem like a great idea. So thank you  Anton for starting this thread, I had seen something like it in a photo but hadn't actually got round to thinking any more about it.  Planting up my tomatoes into growbags as soon as they arrive, I bought 4 deep growbags the other day.

[oldgrunge]

Used this method for a couple of years, and it gave better crops than just growing in grow bags. But having said that, I find it just as productive, and more economical to grow in pots.