[Totty]

I know there have been pots available for some time, in which to plant tomatoes and the like, the pots are pushed into the tops of grow bags to give the plants a deeper root run. All sounds good to me. But have you seen the price of them!
 Has anybody just cut the bottoms off of some large pots and pushed them into the growbags instead? A couple of 4in pots could also be pushed in alongside to water the bags through.
 Last year i grew all of our tomatoes in large pots and they did well, but i like the idea of the plants having more root space as the pots were absolutely rammed with roots come the end, and i will not spend out 15 quid for three little pots made specifically for the job.

Totty

[mattwragg94]

i thought i there was a thread on this already, but it must have been on another forum. anyway i think 4inch pots would be too small, however i have been thinking about doing it with a florist bucket - cut the bucket in half and put them inside each other.

[DD.]

It's here:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=89733.0

[Totty]

That seems like sense. And its good to know others have tried it.
My thoughts are as follows...
 Cut the bottoms off of my 10in pots, and sink them into the top of the grow bags, attach some leaky hose to a hole in a 4in beaker and push this up through the middle of the bag and sink the beaker into the growbag at one end to tidy it up. I could still water the pots as required but also give an even watering to the entire growbag. Does this sound feasible?

Totty

[mattwragg94]

sorry i dont follow your hosepipe and beaker idea      

[Totty]

Take a beaker, make a hole just big enough to fit the hose in right at the bottom on the side, then secure it there. You would now have a beaker with, say, 2ft of hose coming out of the bottom of the beaker sideways (90 degrees) make a hole at one end of the growbag and slide the pipe all the way up through the grow bag. When the beaker is filled with water, the leaky hose should distribute a steady flow throughout the hole bag.

[Dantheman]

you get a florish bucket, it will be wider at the top and narrower at the bottom.
you cut the bottom off the florist bucket and then about third way down from the top.
now you should have two rings, the biggest of the rings should be on the outside and the smallest on the inside, this will create a ring in which you put the water, you shouls then hae an inner - circle, this is where you plant your tom and earth it up as the season grows. you should then have something that resembles a grow-pot.

found a cheap site for them
http://www.easyfloristsupplies.co.uk/plastics/florist-buckets/c136.html

Edited to give credit to the original poster.

[mumofstig]

If you ask in the major supermarkets they usually only charge 99p for 8 of them, so it's really not worth buying on-line 

[DD.]

You don't have to pay that much for them. A lot of supermarkets will sell them cheaply, you may even be lucky and get some freebies.

[DD.]

Ser-nap!

[Totty]

All very helpful, if i can get some big pots for nothing all the better. Will try to experiment with the leaky hose though as i like the idea of gradual watering over a bigger area rather than it all going into one place.

Totty

[snowdrops]

Asda let you have them for free.

[JayG]

Best way of slow watering of growbags I've found so far is to use 2L pop bottles with the bottoms cut off inserted neck down into the compost between the plants.

The neck is first stuffed with plastic foam (ex old kitchen washing-up scourers!) and a thin cane is fed through from the top, through the foam into the compost to anchor each bottle upright.

The foam reduces the flow of the water so the compost is wetted slowly but evenly (equally good for liquid feeding of course.)

[mattwragg94]

i dont think the beaker would be big enough, but againg what about a florist bucket with the hose attached at the bottom?

[bigben]

As someone has hinted Morrisons sell them 8 for 99p. I cut the bottom of these and used them for the first time last year. It was better then just the growbag itself so I will be doing it again this year. I also half buried a coke bottle with the bottom chopped off, into the pot and watered into the bottle. Again something I will use next year.