Pros and Cons of Fabric Grow Bags for Vegetables (2024)

I tried potatoes last year but had very little yield and a small size. Not sure what I did wrong, maybe not enough water?

I’ve been using fabric grow bags for several years in addition to using raised beds and only a very few crops in ground. I would never think about planting my tomatoes or peppers in the ground again. With blight a problem in my area the grow bags offer a little better protection from direct planting. I have been using wire hoops made from 4 foot welded wire with a few thin wood strips inserted through the wire a few inches from the ground to place my empty fabric bags in to allow them to dry out. This worked great until this year I discovered some rodents had decided to tear them apart to use as bedding material. Now I have several bags destroyed with big holes.

Grow bags are a great tool for urban/suburban growing. Most of these areas don’t have topsoil which makes growing a traditional garden impossible!

We garden exclusively with felt bags because we had no idea what chemicals the former owners had put on the yard, and we didn’t want our organic veggies contaminated. We have 68 large, medium, or small sizes. In +100 heat in Mississippi, we watered every other day this summer. The beds under our oak tree did much better than the ones in full sun. Even the corn perished. However, we attribute our losses to the heat, not the bags, and we think they are fantastic. Right now (January 2024) we have onions, garlic, mustard, carrots, saffron, lettuce, spinach, and chard doing beautifully.; and we have light frost just about every morning. All our beds are filled with organic soil, and they sit on landscape cloth, not on the ground.

I have 5 metal raised beds, several plastic pots, a few clay pots, and some grow beds/bags this year. Going to see how well the grow bag/beds do this year before I buy more.
I have potatoes, corn, squashes, bell peppers, eggplant, and watermelon planted in both metal & grow bags/ beds to compare the end results.
Wish me luck!!????

I’m new to growing food. I just rec’d about 20 grow bags in two sizes, along with 2 corrugated metal troughs with bottoms.
Rather than fill the tub, I placed grow bags in each for a buffer from the scorching metal sides, but also to contain the soil inside the bags, which can be easily rotated if needed. I put about an inch of water the base of the tub and put mosquito pellets in the water.
The bags wick up the water and keep plants evenly hydrated. Things seem to be thriving nicely so far. I like to be able to control what is in my troughs, by using the grow bags. That way, if any disease appears in one bag, I can quickly remove it, so it doesn’t spread or contaminate large sections of soil. I hope they last 4-5 years.

I’m just starting my first bags. Last frost won’t happen for awhile since snow is still coming down. What is my best planting material for potatoes and tomatoes since I may be late in the overall process.

My main con is now that we’ve used the bags a season, some of them are moldy. I’m trying to find more info about that, but I assume it happened because fabric bags were touching last year. I’ve tried washing them and it does nothing. For this reason, I’m not sold on the fabric bags, but we don’t have a lot of space, so we hang these bags on our fence and it works.

If you cover filled grow bags, you can leave them out during the winter. They may not last as long though. But it beats having to buy so much new soil every spring.

I have used them for several years now for potatoes. I will have to try them for other crops and flowers. I did not have any problems with cons, with the bags it was all pros.

The only thing to remember is that the plants in the grow bags will need a bit of fertilizing depending on the plants you grow in them. I’ve used mine for years and if you clean them they will last a long time. Don’t use the plastic ones though…

Thanks for the nice article. I will share it with our networks. I have been a proponent of grow bags for several years now as a tool to encourage gardening in Chicago as a way to mitigate soil quality and contamination issues. Our coalition Chicago Grows Food has distributed thousands of grow bags to students primarily in the public school system and this year we installed about 50 home garden systems utilizing mostly 5 gallon grow bags as the standard. Others that wanted raised beds were supplied with 100 gallon grow bags. We supplied soil, seedlings and/or seeds and organic fertilizer delivered to the site. We also host workshops and are available for technical assistance. We are already planning to expand the program next year with our overarching goal being to expand the home gardening and community garden networks in Chicago. Our coalition includes several organizations in Chicago anyone wanting more information, etc please email me.

I’m going to use one to grow a sacrificial pumpkin in to draw off squash vine borers. Lost all my zucchini this year. If I grow in the bag I won’t have to also use up valuable garden space. It will also contain the over wintering larvae of the pests which I can kill off .

I used them this year for extra veggies that take up room. It was a benefit. I grew squash, canary melons, Korean melons, watermelons, 2 tomato plants and potatoes. I was very pleased with the results!

where do you get plant stand 3 tiers and straight bench style

I love this idea. Where can you buy these bags? You said you can reuse them. Do you empty them out when growing is finished and was them?

I’m using bags for most everything including orange and lemon trees, tomatoes, onions, fig trees, cukes, radishes, mint, hydrangeas, hibiscus, radishes and chives. Avocado trees failed. Potatoes failed. Ground her is mostly sand with very little actual dirt so raised beds and grow bags are my only choice.

Has anybody tried making their own grow bags? If so, what sort of fabric did they use?

I am going to use the fabric grow bags for some of my vegetables this year. This was very helpful.

This is the first year I have used grow bags. My garden is on my large balcony and have grown 7 tomatoes plants, 3 cukes and have carrots and parsley. I have no complaints so far, the produce were abundant and grew very large. Watering wasn’t a problem, neither was keeping the soil moist, but not too wet.

I’m growing a variety of plants in bags on my patio. I like the bags better than the 5 gallon buckets. The plants are thriving and if I had to move, I can take my garden with me!

this is my first year using grow bags. so far the pros, no additions to the soil no rototiller no digging or crawling in my garden area no worry of over watering and now no limited space , sat in a chair while planting , easier using a good potting soil no PH testing, great mobility.
cons, none so far.
the bags allow me to have more plants and better variety. I am not limited to the size of my garden.
the sides of my is rock. so I’ve placed 2×4’s parallel on the rock and put the bags on them.
the only thing i have done was to raise the bags off of the ground so the fabric does not sit in the water unless there is any problem with the fabric rotting.

I’ve started using them to keep the mint and some other herbs like chives contained. Allows me to keep them in the keyhole garden, but I don’t have to worry about mint runners taking over. And at the end of the season, I can bring them inside or move them all to one bed and cover with a greenhouse top and keep growing a little longer in our winter time.

I have an entire garden on my deck in grow bags. It is working beautifully! I have potatoes, peas, beans, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, and onions. I am very happy with the results!

I used fabric bags for tomatoes last summer. It was great because I could make a garden in a sunny spot by the driveway without digging. I started my plants from seed in Jiffy pots, then put each one in its own 7 gallon fabric pot after the frost date and had a fantastic harvest all summer long.