Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
kendraschmidt_gw

Growing Tomatoes in Containers/Bags

KendraSchmidt
12 years ago

I would like to try my hand again this year at container gardening with tomatoes. I would like to harvest enough so that I can can them for my family for sauces and general meals.

I've seen that people are using bags and such plant their tomatoes. I'm wondering how practical this is...does it make sense if I want a high yield? Or is that just a DIY solution that's an idea, but not really practical for gardeners who need vegetables to feed themselves?

Can I grow a full-size plant with such a method? I have plenty of these bags, though mine are slightly wider, but I'm wondering if I'll be able to get a nice high yield plant with this method. How tall could my plant get with this sort of bag? And how many plants could be planted in one bag? (I'm assuming only one plant per bag?)

I'm working with Black Krim and Arkansan Traveler tomatoes, if that's of any help in answering my questions. Here's the bag in question:

Comments (6)

  • suncitylinda
    12 years ago

    Staking tomatoes can be a challenge in any sort of a bag due to the lack of stability. I guess As long as you place it on dirt and drive something through the ground that would work. When I had good dirt and was younger I grew toms in the ground quite easily. Now I am older I use containers (earth boxes) Any thing you grow in a container is going to be more dependant on your efforts.

  • digdirt2
    12 years ago

    "Bags" can mean many things and with the right 'bag' it can work very well.

    Those particular bags in your pic I've never seen so can't even guess as to the size of them. 5 gallon buckets are very problematic and I'd guess those aren't 5 gallons in size (using the can of oatmeal as a reference point) so I wouldn't try either of your varieties in that particular bag. One of the bush or determinate types might work and 1 of the dwarf varieties should be ok.

    On the other hand there are any number of grow bags made specifically for gardening - Grow Bag is one such brand - and they work exceptionally well. They come in many different sizes, some with handles and some without and the bigger the size you get the better. You can also just buy the big bags of potting mix (minimum 32 qt. size) and plant directly in them as some hot house growers do. You just need to monitor the moisture levels carefully.

    JMO

    Dave

    Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Grow Bag examples and brands

  • missingtheobvious
    12 years ago

    KendraSchmidt, if you multiply the height, width, and depth of the bag in inches, that gives you the number of cubic inches the bag will hold (though of course you wouldn't plant it quite to the top).

    When you have the size of the bag in cubic inches, divide that by 231.

    That tells you how many gallons the bag will hold.

  • elight
    12 years ago

    Just a general conversion tip that has helped me a lot this season when converting between cubic feet, quarts and gallons... if you just type your desired conversion into Google, it will give you the answer.

    For example, my containers' capacities are all measured in gallons, but most grow media is in cubic feet. So type into Google: 2 cubic feet in gallons

    The search results page will tell you at the top: 2 (cubic feet) = 14.961039 US gallons

    This same syntax works to convert between pretty much any two measures that can be converted between.

  • KendraSchmidt
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanks elight, this is exactly what I was wondering. My containers are in liters, and I wasn't sure of how much each liter represented in cubic feet. This is great information to know, thank you!

  • capoman
    12 years ago

    3.78 Liters (litres) per US Gallon.