container Grow bags vs. Pots.

[Marturo]

Hi everyone I'm new here, however not to growing peppers.
I have grown peppers forever mostly tropical countries or Fla. Just before my 70th birthday I finally got it.

I have used plastic & Clay pots pretty much for everything, yet lately & after coming here, I see the usefulness of the Dirt Bag LOL.

Here in the Mts. of NC we get Cooold & like me the peppers are creatures of the Summer too.
Last year for growing any peppers in ground that I want to keep, it's time to have pepper trees again.

Who has the best pepper seeds>? Who sells the dirt bags at a good price?
I plan on making my own soil for the bags.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[CraftyFox]

Greenhouse Megastore has a pretty good selection of reasonably priced grow bags.. I have 4 peppers that have lived for 3 years in them, 3 of them having never been repotted yet. I went to some cheap plastic pots this year and was sorely disappointed by the root masses.
I use the grey ones and can tell you the black ones are really thin.. You could make your own from landscape fabric (25-30 year) and a sealer. The grey ones are more like underlayment or something, fairly durable.
One thing I will add, if you've never grown with bags.. They get top heavy like no pot I've ever had. Something you'll have to consider if you have any wind in their location and they aren't buried up.
Here's an easy link..
Grey RootPouches at GHM

 

[Marturo]

Thanks for the link.
Three years in the same pot/bag that's amazing.
As for stability I see your point, they need some support & I can bury them 1/4 deep.

I would imagine they do not rot that easy. The only complaints I saw were due to sizing & what they thought it would be.

 

[Marturo]

PS I forgot to ask about the right size for peppers.

 

[thoroughburro]

If you’re in North Carolina, fabric pots are likely to work well. They work best when overwatering is more of a concern than underwatering, as excess water evaporates out of the pot quickly, That can be great in a humid environment and absolute death in a dry one. Not that they can’t work in a dry environment, just that you’d want to test them daily and expect to water very frequently. Similarly, plastic works in a humid environment if you water infrequently.

In practice, my pots change over time to match my watering habits.

 

[Marturo]

If you’re in North Carolina, fabric pots are likely to work well. They work best when overwatering is more of a concern than underwatering, as excess water evaporates out of the pot quickly, That can be great in a humid environment and absolute death in a dry one. Not that they can’t work in a dry environment, just that you’d want to test them daily and expect to water very frequently. Similarly, plastic works in a humid environment if you water infrequently.

In practice, my pots change over time to match my watering habits.

That was my nest question. How well do the bags hold water. I see that any fabric will dry out faster & that would be good in a wet year.
I like the storage part best, the bags will fold up & away when not on use.
As for preventing disease from being a problem I would think a 10% solution of Clorox would leave them clean & ready for use again.

 

[Tybo]

I have used the fabric pots for several years. You're right about the size. The 5 gallon ones are not 5 gallon. The 7's are not 7 gallon, etc. I grow in both the 5's and 7's and they both will successfully grow plants. The 7 'gallon' pots I have are tan color and I prefer them over the black ones. The black seems to get hot. I guess that's ok in a cool environment but when the sun is blazing the roots have to be getting too hot.
Also you mentioned burying 1/4 of the pots for better stability. Just be aware that fine roots will grow through the fabric where it is in contact with the ground. Not an issue unless you plan on moving them a lot.
I have found amazon has decent prices and I really like the vivosun bags. I bought some smart pots and while the fabric is thicker, they don't have handles. (makes it harder to move around)
As far as holding water......they don't. When its hot outside you will have to water frequently if mother nature don't.

 

[Marturo]

I have used the fabric pots for several years. You're right about the size. The 5 gallon ones are not 5 gallon. The 7's are not 7 gallon, etc. I grow in both the 5's and 7's and they both will successfully grow plants. The 7 'gallon' pots I have are tan color and I prefer them over the black ones. The black seems to get hot. I guess that's ok in a cool environment but when the sun is blazing the roots have to be getting too hot.
Also you mentioned burying 1/4 of the pots for better stability. Just be aware that fine roots will grow through the fabric where it is in contact with the ground. Not an issue unless you plan on moving them a lot.
I have found amazon has decent prices and I really like the vivosun bags. I bought some smart pots and while the fabric is thicker, they don't have handles. (makes it harder to move around)
As far as holding water......they don't. When its hot outside you will have to water frequently if mother nature don't.

So far I can see a drip watering setup will be needed for the bags.
As for color it seems they would offer the bags in white however Tan would be better than black.

Is cleaning them for reuse a problem? ABS pots clean up well for reuse can the fabric be cleaned as well?

 

[Tybo]

So far I can see a drip watering setup will be needed for the bags.
As for color it seems they would offer the bags in white however Tan would be better than black.

Is cleaning them for reuse a problem? ABS pots clean up well for reuse can the fabric be cleaned as well?

I just use a mild bleach solution and a good rinse. There will probably be some fine roots that have grown into the fabric. I just pick out what I can/feel like. Let them dry in the sunshine and reuse. I haven't had any issues.

Drip irrigation would be nice. I haven't done it but I do try to keep up with the hand watering. Sometimes I forget and find them really droopy but a good watering brings them back.

Ive never seen white grow bags. The black ones work but I just feel like the heat has to affect the plants some. I will say though that Ive gotten a lot of peppers from plants grown in the black ones!

 

[solid7]

If you’re in North Carolina, fabric pots are likely to work well. They work best when overwatering is more of a concern than underwatering, as excess water evaporates out of the pot quickly, That can be great in a humid environment and absolute death in a dry one. Not that they can’t work in a dry environment, just that you’d want to test them daily and expect to water very frequently. Similarly, plastic works in a humid environment if you water infrequently.

In practice, my pots change over time to match my watering habits.

I live in about as humid an environment as you can find, and I absolutely loathe cloth bags. Used to use them, and they worked great early on. But later, as the plants got bigger, and the weather got more hot/humid, there's something that changes in the whole dynamic. I also got some weird kind of mycelia growing in them, that took over the whole container, and prevented the media from retaining water.

On the flip side, I grew with them in the Pacific Northwest, where the summers were super dry. And they worked just fine.

In Florida, I now use the cloth bags to insulate my black pots in summer, and I use white containers for everything else. Hard to beat plastic...

 

[Marturo]

Hard to beat plastic...

I just scored 20 once fired 5 gallon Stucco buckets white & clean.
As I digested the experiences all of you had here, I realized that Clay at first then plastic posts have been the bigger part of my growing tools.

Cloth sounded interesting at first because of the storage part, however clean 5 gallon buckets stack nice and neat as well.
Have you seen the price for new 5 gallon buckets ? Free sounds just great to me, & we will fill them all next spring.

 

[solid7]

I just scored 20 once fired 5 gallon Stucco buckets white & clean.
As I digested the experiences all of you had here, I realized that Clay at first then plastic posts have been the bigger part of my growing tools.

Cloth sounded interesting at first because of the storage part, however clean 5 gallon buckets stack nice and neat as well.
Have you seen the price for new 5 gallon buckets ? Free sounds just great to me, & we will fill them all next spring.

I used to have a friend that was a restaurant owner, and he gave me as many free, food grade plastic pickle buckets, as I wanted. Even after all of my weird experiments and wack innovations, I think I still have about 30 or so stacked in the shed. And that is as good as it gets.

The terra cotta is kinda nice, because the container itself retains water (at first, before releasing it as the media dries out), and gives you a good clue when you need to think about watering - if you're not great with that. Also, keeps media well insulated, and therefore, roots nice and cool. But they are unfortunately, rather spendy these days.

 

[Kramer]

I grew exclusively in fabric pots for the first time this year. Totally agree with the watering/drying out issue. I had to water almost everyday when it hit upper 80's and didn't rain. The air pruning nature of them is really cool though, definitely builds an excellent root bulb, but I think it also stunted growth just because they so quickly dried out around the outside and could never access all of the space or nutrients. I'd also recommend at least the 5 gallon bags for this reason. Actually my best plants were putting 2 in single 10 gallon bags.

Cool concept, definitely works as intended, might not be the perfect pot for every climate. Just my .02.

 

[solid7]

The air pruning nature of them is really cool though, definitely builds an excellent root bulb, but I think it also stunted growth

I put forth the proposition here once, that the way the roots formed - and especially later in the grow - actually contribute to container drainage (and I maintain that notion). There were a few that thought I was crazy. But I'm quite certain that you'll find it to be true, over and over again. The only way to counteract it, might be to reduce drainage in the media. Although you would most likely sacrifice explosive growth, initially (or definitely).