Grow Bag Gardening Do’s and Don’ts

Grow bag gardening might be a new concept for you as a beginner gardener. If you are not familiar with growing in grow bags, it’s very similar to container gardening – your containers are simply grow bags. Some gardeners, like me, love using grow bags as a supplement to their existing garden.

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While I do enjoy grow bag gardening, it’s not without is challenges. Let’s dive in and discuss the do’s and don’ts of grow bag gardening so you can be most successful with it if you decide to give grow bag gardening a try. 

Before we begin, if you’d like to watch a podcast episode instead about the do’s and don’ts for grow bag gardening, you can watch it here: Grow Bag Gardening: DO’s & DON’Ts

How to Grow Successfully in Grow Bags

Let’s go over the do’s and don’ts of grow bag gardening with these topics:

• What Are Grow Bags?
• Benefits of Gardening in Grow Bags
• Drawbacks of Gardening in Grow Bags
• The Do’s of Grow Bag Gardening
• Buy The Right Size Grow Bag
• Select The Right Soil
• Location, Location, Location
• Be Prepared to Irrigate
• Fertilize Regularly
• The Don’ts of Grow Bag Gardening
• Don’t Plant Too Many
• Don’t Plant in Too Small of a Grow Bag
• Don’t Forget to Irrigate or Fertilize
• Don’t Let Plants Overstay Their Welcome
• Don’t Replace the Soil
• Don’t Forget Vertical Supports
• Key Tips for Successful Grow Bag Gardening

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What Are Grow Bags?

Grow bags are specifically created to grow crops and are made of a woven material with food grade/food safe plastics. I’ve used several types of grow bags over the years, and this year I’m using Epic Gardening’s Grow Bags.

Benefits of Grow Bags

There are many benefits to using grow bags. The grow bags are lightweight and portable and usually have handles. Grow bags are also inexpensive and easy to store in the off season. They drain extremely well, which is a plus. 

Drawbacks of Grow Bag Gardening

There are only a few drawbacks of grow bag gardening. Grow bags tend to drain water almost too well and the soil temperature can tend to rise in the heat. When the temperatures rise in your soil it can negatively affect the health of your crops.

But you can mitigate the drawbacks of growing in grow bags, while enjoying their benefits, by putting a few practices in place.

The Do’s of Grow Bag Gardening

Buy The Right Size Grow Bag

When you first start out growing crops in grow bags, first, you’ll want to buy the right size of grow bag for what you want to grow. 

Grow bags come in a variety of sizes: 5 gallon, 7 gallon, 10 gallon, 15 gallon, 50 gallon, and up. Small crops like carrots, lettuce, onions, and greens can grow in about any size grow bag you have; the only thing you need to consider is to adjust to the quantity you want to grow. 

Larger crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and potatoes need a larger size grow bag, a minimum of 7 gallons, but I’d strongly suggest at least 10 or 15 gallons — especially if you live in a hot area.  

When it comes to planting your crops in your grow bags, follow the general guidelines on the seed packet for spacing.

Overcrowding your crops in a grow bag is very easy to do, but you don’t want to do this! Your crops will compete with each other for the limited water and nutrients present in the bag, and in the end you will most likely harvest less than you would have, had you’d planted fewer plants to begin with. 

Select The Right Soil

When it comes to selecting the right soil mixture for grow bag gardening, I like to use a base of potting mix and compost at about a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio. I like this mixture because grow bags are still containers and they must be able to drain. But because they drain so well, I like using more compost than usual in a container in order to retain more of the water and nutrients. 

Just don’t use raised bed soil or garden soil — it’s too heavy for grow bag gardening.

Location, Location, Location

Before you set your bags in place, think through the location of your grow bags relative to your irrigation source. Place them so that you can easily water them. 

Because grow bags drain so well, you will end up watering them more often, and you don’t want them to be too far away from your watering source. 

Be Prepared To Irrigate

Irrigation is key with grow bag gardening, but you must be prepared. If you plan to hand water, then I’d suggest you try the water, wait, water method. With this method you would water a little bit, wait and allow the water to sink it, then water some more. That way your water won’t immediately seep out of the sides.

Another option is to put your grow bags in a tub and allow the water to seep out, but as it seeps out it will eventually be absorbed from the bottom up. 

You can also use drip lines. Epic Gardening has very nice lined grow bags that allow you to add a tidy drip line up the back.  Hook the drip lines to your gardening watering system and you won’t have to worry about hand watering. (You can view Epic Gardening’s grow bags at my affiliate link here.)

Fertilize Regularly

Fertilizing is a key component to successful grow bag gardening because the soil inside your grow bag is all that your plant has to feed it.  Because grow bags drain so well, nutrients from your potting soil will flush out with regular watering. 

Consider adding a slow release fertilizer to your soil before you even plant. As your growing season continues, add a liquid fertilizer every couple weeks. 

The Don’ts of Grow Bag Gardening

Don’t Plant Too Many

Remember it’s important not to plant too many plants inside one grow bag. The biggest mistake I see beginner gardeners make is planting too many crops in one grow bag. 

You’ll only want to plant one sweet potato slip in a 7 gallon grow bag, not 2 or 3. If you want to plant tomatoes, squash or cucumbers in a grow bag, I’d suggest just one plant and have at least a 10 gallon grow bag. 

Just keep in mind, the bigger mistake is over planting rather than under planting when using grow bags.

Don’t Plant in Too Small of a Grow Bag

When using grow bags, the size of your bag is a big concern. You don’t want your plant roots to outgrow your bag, because if they do, they will stop producing. 

One year I planted 1 tomato plant in a 7 gallon grow bag. It did great at first and produced a large crop. But as the growing season went on, it stopped producing altogether and I realized its roots had spread throughout the entire bag. If I had planted it in a larger bag, its roots would have had room to expand even more. This year, I’m going to try a 15 gallon grow bag instead. 

Using a larger grow bag is especially important in hot climates because your plants will have a longer season in which is grow.

Don’t Let Plants Overstay Their Welcome

Letting plants continue to grow too long is a struggle for anyone. If you planted a crop and it’s done well, but now it’s not producing as well as it had been, take it out and plant something new. You’ll be so happy you did instead of trying to coax your plant to produce more. 

Don’t Replace All The Soil

When you do take out a plant and then plant something else, don’t feel like you have to replace all the soil too. You don’t have to start all over with new soil every growing season. I’d suggest you keep about half of it and then add new potting soil for the other half. Mix a little bit old with a little bit of new.  

Don’t Forget Vertical Supports

Grow bags can still support vertical plants and if you plant something in your grow bag that needs support, you need to get these in place from the beginning. If you want to try growing tomatoes in your grow bags, you can add a tomato cage to the outside of your grow bag. 

You can also put a stake in the ground right next to your grow bag. Putting a stake inside your grow bag is hard to do because the soil inside your grow bag is potting soil and it doesn’t hold together well.

You could also add a cattle panel behind a grouping of grow bags for your plants to grab on to.

For growing cucumbers in grow bags, you’ll want to use a cage on the inside or the outside of the grow bag, cattle panel behind your grow bags, or you can simply do nothing and let your plant sprawl out. For growing beans you’ll want to add a cage or use the cattle panel. 

Key Tips for Successful Grow Bag Gardening

Grow bag gardening has its perks, but it’s important to follow the above tips to make sure your plants grow well and give you lots of veggies. Don’t forget to keep these do’s and don’ts in mind for a successful garden!