It's no secret that I love growing in grow bags.
Even though I've moved to a much larger space,
I still find them a really great way to cram in even more produce,
I'm surrounded by it right now, no matter where you live. So in today's video,
we're going to go over some of my best tips for growing in grow bags.
Kevin Espiritu here from Epic Gardening where it's my goal to help you grow a
greener thumb.
And the first question to answer is why not just use a normal container?
What's so special about a grow bag? Well,
let's take a look at this classic and pretty beautiful terracotta pot.
I have a great love of terracotta. I use it all the time.
What's going to happen in this pot compared to a grow bag?
And especially let's even pretend this might be a plastic pot. Well,
when you put a plant in here the roots are going to want to grow as they do,
but they will hit the side or the bottom at some point. And when they do that,
they are not going to receive a signal in the terracotta pot to stop growing
because there's still enough water and nutrients, right at the end,
to keep that plant root spiraling around the container. Whereas,
in a grow bag like this one I have here,
with a single lonely fall pea - so this probably has to get transplanted at
some point - is it's going to hit the side of the pot.
But it's so porous here that it's going to get attacked effectively by air.
And it's going to dry out, that root tip will die, which sounds bad.
But in fact what happens is it causes more branching on the interior structure
of the roots. So you get a more fibrous well-diversified, if you will,
root structure. So with that said, that's the biggest case for grow bags.
Now let's talk about some of the best ways to grow in them.
So without further ado,
cultivate that Like button and I will personally summon the Grow Bag Gods
and come down from the heavens and bless your garden.
And let's get into the video.
Tip number one is the sheer variety of plants that you can grow in them.
Much like any container - choose the right size,
choose the right soil and the options are limitless. You can see here,
I have three different varieties of pothos multi-planted into a grow bag that's
actually growing outdoors in this shadier spot of my backyard.
So this works really well for this particular plant.
I'll be doing some more videos on pothos soon on the channel.
I know you guys tend to like those ones, especially as we move into fall/winter.
Next, I've got these beautiful sort of firelike looking marigolds.
These also do fantastic.
Marigolds have some degree of pest prevention or deterrence in the garden.
It's not some massive effect, but with color like this, I really don't care.
I just think that they look nice.
You can also use grow bags for pollinator attractants.
Let's say you were to put lavender or bee balm or something in a bag like this,
and then locate it next to plants in your garden that need a little pollination
boost, like your squash plants.
Things like that can be a great way to pull the pollinators into a specific area
that you want to pollinate. Consequently,
you can also grow something like these peppers and you can build all sorts of
simple structures that fit really well in a grow bag,
especially this bamboo trellis,
which eventually I'll do a video on the many different trellis designs you can
achieve with just twine and bamboo.
One of the most versatile ways to build a DIY cheap trellis. But what's nice is,
when you put this in,
contrary to a terracotta pot or a more rigid-sided pot,
you can kind of squeeze this in, press it against the edges,
expand it a little bit and you get a nice tight seal here.
And so this is a simple trellis design. I don't even tie the peppers to it.
I just kind of lean them against the trellis.
It's a little windy sometimes here.
I have a coastal breeze and so I don't want these to get snapped or knocked
over, these black cobras are kind of tall.
And so you can modify your grow bags to grow pretty much whatever you want,
including trees. Contrary to popular belief,
you actually can grow fruit trees in containers,
and specifically you can grow them in grow bags. I've got this Meyer lemon here.
Now there are some issues on these leaves.
I've got to do a little bit of troubleshooting here,
it's just a nutrient deficiency, but it grows really well.
Citrus grows well because it likes drought conditions,
which leads us to one of the biggest problems that you you may run into when
growing in grow bags. And that is too much drainage.
We already know that grow bags have the beautiful air pruning benefit to them
where the roots will start to die at the edges and build out that nice root
structure.
But the downside is all strengths will become a weakness if they are pushed far
enough,
would be that they can tend to lose water a little quicker than the average pot.
Even faster than terracotta,
which loses water faster than something that's more solid like plastic pots.
So what do you do about that? You can water more. That's one thing you can do.
You can mulch more on the top, another things you can do,
and I would recommend doing both. But if you really want to guarantee,
especially if you have a more water hungry plant like these pothos here,
or perhaps let's say I was growing, I dunno, cucumbers,
watermelon in a grow bag.
You might want to do what I call the grow bag bathtub,
which is basically just two by six, framed up.
And I got some pond liner cut to size and stapled in here to create a watertight
seal.
And then I just place this on the ground and fill it up with about one or two
inches of water to subirrigate the grow bags. It's a beautiful method.
You use it all the time.
I've done a bunch of videos on self-watering pot designs or wicking style
designs and hydroponics. Same principle is at play.
Water will make its way UP the container rather than watering over the top and
it soaking its way DOWN the container. So you can have a little bit of a buffer.
Works great for going on a vacation, long weekend.
Just fill this up with a couple inches of water.
It'll suck it right up and you're good to go.
Another great tip is to not exclude the edges of the bag.
You can cram in a little bit more. So what I have here is some nice flowers,
but then I've thrown in some carrots and sprinkled those around the sides
because this is about the max that I want to keep the flower to.
And then I've got about three inches of a perimeter, around this entire bag,
that is effectively being wasted.
Now carrots are slightly sub-optimal I would say.
I would rather put in something like a radish or a turnip,
which isn't as sensitive to running into things in the soil as a carrot is,
but I still think these are doing pretty well.
It's a great way to squeeze in more space.
Which brings us to our next tip which is a themed bag.
Crouching down here to show you this one.
You can group a bag based on the kitchen result you want with it,
or the gardening result that you want with it.
So here's an example of a salsa garden.
I have got some cilantro here,
which really is the only plant in the world of salsa that doesn't like to grow
in the season that most of us want to eat salsa.
It has a hard time in hot temperatures.
So this sort of fall transition is actually a great time for it.
Now these other plants, not so much.
Peppers and tomatoes starting right now is not the best call,
but I planted it up as an example for you. So you've got pepper, tomato,
you've got cilantro, and then I've got a whole host of green onions back here.
Now salsa can be made in a million different ways. This would be one example,
but you can do a pollinator bag. You could do an herb garden bag,
a tea garden bag, a bok choy stir fry style bag.
So many different options to theme your bags and have a little bit more fun with
your containers. Another amazing thing about a grow bag is that,
especially if you're a renter,
you're in a temporary space or you just don't want to build or buy a raised bed,
then this is your raised bed.
This is in a hundred gallon grow bag and they go in up to I think 500 gallons if
you really wanted to get crazy. So this IS a mobile portable raised bed.
With two people you can actually pick this up. It's a little bit heavy,
a little bit of a chore, but it is possible.
So I just planted this out with some of my favorite fall stuff. You know,
you've got your mustards. This is sort of my stir fry style bed.
I've got Chinese cabbage, bok choy is coming up. I've sown it around here.
It's a fantastic way to get a bed up and running.
And if you were to move or want to change it, you could just empty it out,
pick it up, fold it up, bring it to your next place,
plop it down - and you have a bed ready to go. As you can see,
there are a ton of different benefits and creativity that comes with grow bags.
Everything you see around my face right now is in a grow bag and is doing pretty
darn awesome! So if you are interested in more grow bag stuff,
my second book is coming out in February, I think later in February,
and it IS available for preorder. It's called Grow Bag Gardening,
very simple name. So that link will be in the description,
but I just encourage you guys to experiment with it.
It's a super fun way to grow, especially if you're in a small space.
So until next time, good luck in the garden and keep on growing.