Who has grown deep root vegetables in grow bags? (growing, containers, tomatoes)
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As I plan my 2022 vegetable garden, I am considering starting some carrots, potatoes, beets and tomatoes in 5 gallon grow bags. I have not tried this before and am curious to know if this will work in my garden.
I have a small garden, about 1/10th of an acre. About 100 square feet of it gets 8 hours of sunlight in the summer. I think I can make this work but I have a plethora of rodents - squirrels, mice, rats, voles, rabbits, chipmunks etc. (but no groundhogs) that burrowed under my previous five-sided net cages to wreak havoc on my vegetables. Can anyone advise if you were able to use grow bags successfully with a lot of rodents around?
I am considering laying out wirescreen mesh on the ground, lightly covering it with gravel, and setting the bags on top. However, I am not sure that the animals would not just go overground to climb up and gnaw into the bags.
I use containers, which are somewhat similar. I had one squirrel that was a bad actor, and a single 22 round resolved that problem. I still had squirrels around, but they left the containers alone until the foxes depleted the population.
What I have discovered is that anything that sits up away from the ground and surrounding earth gets a much hotter soil temperature, and the size of the vegetable is significantly reduced. When I grew carrots in Vermont in the cool soil, I had bunches of them that were fat and a foot long or more. Growing in containers (similar cultivars) I've never had anything more than a quarter of that size.
I suspect that tuber roots grow in size in anticipation of the energy needs to get through the next winter. Warmer soil would indicate that a small amount of storage would be better, as it would be less attractive to pests.
I grew carrots and beets last year in 25 gallon grow bags, they grew fine. Carrots were not super big type, they did take a while to grow to size, like all summer. Beets did well even with a fairly hot NC summer. I just seeded carrots for this year (bit late), may skip beets this year as the other half is not a lover of beets haha.
I especially love the height of the big grow bags to deter the hungry rabbits from eating green beans (family fave), we have no squirrels. The rabbits would bite the vine for climbing green beans therefore killing the whole harvest. Grrr. We now have a slingshot, road and neighbors too close for BB gun. Am sure rabbits would eat carrots if planted in-ground. They don't bother peppers, herbs, potatoes in-ground.
I also add some chicken wire to certain grow bags to 100% rabbit proof them. It worked great. Rabbits have denuded small holly bushes planted in fall, even though had wire around them :-( Most of my grow bags are on concrete bricks and we have voles further away in yard that are near in-ground garden, haven't seen them destroy much...yet
Thanks for the info about reduced yield harry chickpea. Squirrels do the most damage in my yard but discharging a weapon is illegal here and I don't have a dog.
twinkletwinkle22 - I hadn't considered a slingshot. Good idea, as well as the one about wrapping the growbag in chicken wire. I don't really want to kill/wound the animals but I want to discourage them. I bought some 5 gallon grow bags and intend to create a cinderblock raised bed for lettuces, herbs, brassicas, peas and beans. I successfully used aluminum pole and net crop cages for the past two years, but I didn't get around to taking them down this winter and an unexpected deep snow crushed them. I think I am going to try building some myself out of PVC.
As I plan my 2022 vegetable garden, I am considering starting some carrots, potatoes, beets and tomatoes in 5 gallon grow bags. I have not tried this before and am curious to know if this will work in my garden.
I wouldn't attempt to grow potatoes in only 5 gallon sized grow bags. Potato plants' leaves, stalks and roots and tubers get big and need space to spread out and downwards. I might try growing potatoes in 15 to 20+ gallon grow bags or bins.
ersatz
I don't wrap my growbags with wire, I cut roll wire to fit top of the soil in the growbag, like a fence they'd have to jump over, don't have any varmit digging up from ground...yet.
I also grew many other veggies in big growbags, tomatoes, pumpkins, collards. Because potting mx is so expensive in big bags I do a modified hugelkultur and put broken branches and clay soil in very bottom then top off with store mix. It's expensive the first year but am on year 3 with no more soil needed. Grow bags are low cost on amazon and have not deteriorated at all.
I also do some hay bale growing which is a good idea too. I love to grow things.
Last edited by twinkletwinkle22; 03-01-2022 at 08:57 PM..
I know just what you mean...Being of Sicilian heritage, I get this uncontrolable urge to plant tomatoes every spring-- just like Richard Dreyfus in "Close Encounters of the the Third Kind" was inexplicatley moved to keep painting and sculpting that butte. BUT-
The problem I have with container gardening for food plants is a matter of yield. Is it worth the time & effort to grow just a couple servings? How many containers can you set out?
I know just what you mean...Being of Sicilian heritage, I get this uncontrolable urge to plant tomatoes every spring-- just like Richard Dreyfus in "Close Encounters of the the Third Kind" was inexplicatley moved to keep painting and sculpting that butte. BUT-
The problem I have with container gardening for food plants is a matter of yield. Is it worth the time & effort to grow just a couple servings? How many containers can you set out?
Depends on your climate I guess and your enjoyment in gardening. I'm in North Carolina, long-ish warm season, I get plenty of production. Right now containers have greens in them, some of those will be swapped out for tomatoes in a couple months. I don't can anything, do freeze basil pesto to have for winter meals.
I did give up major veggie growing after years of fighting Florida's insects, not wanting to use pesticides.
It's a hobby, just like my painting.
I knew a busy doctor who came home to tend his roses. Contact with plants is relaxing, plus frustrating if things go badly. Some people drink, I plant seeds.
I have heard people had success with sweet potatoes in grow bags as well. Those like warm temperatures so the fact that the pots have warmer soil is a plus (less sure how carrots and beets would appreciate that as they're cool climate plants).
Last year I grew tomatoes, eggplants and peppers in pots. The eggplants and peppers did great, and were able to produce a lot more than the ones in in-ground beds, possibly because the pots warmed up more, although the pepper fruits were a bit smaller (eggplants were the same size). The tomatoes in pots produced early, but 5 gallons was less than ideal for them, they were productive but somewhat stunted. If you use small 3ft determinate tomato plants, 5 gallons might be fine, but the indeterminate tomato plants that tend to grow 6-7ft tall should get larger volumes of soil imo.
Thanks everybody. In addition to the 5 gal growbags I already bought, I got some 15 gal ones for tomatoes. I will use the 5 gal bags for pepper plants. I bought some hot pepper seeds again. Bird peppers, Pequillo, and some Guam Boonies this time. I have NEVER yet been able to sprout hot peppers from seeds despite trying so many times, but I live in hope. I can buy Habenero, Ghost Pepper, and Trinidad Scorpion plants from a big box store when the weather gets warmer.
My radish seeds are going in the ground this weekend. Collard, kale, spinach, garlic, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme all wintered over despite many nights in the twenties and even the teens. I hope to put in a raised bed for lettuce, peas and beans.
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