Yes, that method is widely used in greenhouses, hoophouses and outdoors. But how much does a bag of potting soil cost?

You can do the same thing by filling those white woven plastic sand bags with a landscape mix bought in bulk at a nursery center for anywhere from 25 to 45 dollars a cubic yard.

I use a mix of rotted bark and wood chip fines, rotted horse stall bedding, lime and a bit of native clay loam. A neighbor farmer makes the mix in huge stockpiles and sells it for 15 dollars per "scoop" (that fills my short bed F-150 about half full) or lets me fill 5-gallon buckets for 25c each.

I fill burlap sacks for tomato growbags because the burlap rots away over the season and forms the base for a new raised bed. Then the next season I just pile a new row of bags atop last season's rotted away bags. Eventually the roots grow down into the native base soil and I have a no-till bed. The rotted burlap becomes part of the mix and I don't have to clean up pieces of plastic bag.

If you're growing on a concrete slab or something, the plastic sand bags might be better.

I love that idea, Pennyrile. Where do you get the burlap bags?

I would have to pile on a very thick layer of mulcch to help hold in the moisture, but that's nothing unusual.

jan

Jan, I get the empty (recycled) burlap bags at a farm supply store. The bigger ones are empty 40 kilo coffee bean bags. Some of the smaller ones are about 2/3 that size and were used for various import goods.

The farm supply stores around here usually have quite a heap of them for rural folks to use to store squirrel corn or sundry other uses.

Never heard of it.

Hi timmy1,
2 Big Beef/sack - must be the Canadian bag or proprietary fertigation making it possible.
? Would you please share your nutrient ratios with the forum ?

"But how much does a bag of potting soil cost?"
I dunno! My brother in law is a multi-millionaire and cost isn't an issue, I'm sure. I just thought it was a cool way to do it.

Timmy1:

Nice tomatoes; that is just like my brother in law does it with the bags of potting soil!