Is there that big of a difference between 5 and 7 gallon grow bags? For an outdoor grow with FFOF. I've only done 1 girl outdoors. A Blueberry in a 7 gal bag. 6' tall and yielded great. But when I emptied the bag the root system was not as large as I thought it would be. It would have easily fit into a 5 gal bag. I'm doing 10-12 this time and am wondering if 7 gal. bags and 7 gal. soil is overkill? Would 5 gal bags accomplish the same thing? Price wise the bags are close enough that it doesn't really matter, but FFOF, castings, perlite, etc. can add up to some $$. If I can save 24 gal. worth of soil that'd be great. I'm hoping for gals in the 6 foot range +/- and if 5 gallons of soil will work I'll just do that. But if not I'll go with the 7's. Indoors I use the 5.6 gal Airpots or 5 gal bags. But indoor gals are short and bushy. I'm looking for tall and bushy. Any insight/experience would be appreciated.
I did a greenhouse grow a few years ago and used 7 gal bags. Like you I found the medium not as full as I'd thought it would be. I'd planned on going with 5gal the next year but had to move.
I also think the bigger the better but I bet if you used both size bags to grow out your plants, you couldn't tell by looking at the finished plants which were grown in 5 gallon and which were grown in the 7 gallon bags. Personally I prefer putting outside plants directly in the ground but there are circumstances I wouldn't, or didn't.
the bigger the better, the excess would be seen at least in Sweden as insulation, for either too hot Az type or too cold my place, besides my buddies always reuse FFOF by adding half a bag added each harvest, I can rec adding 25% perlite don't forget theirs NO Soil in FFOF its all 'shit' and some compost good luck
Mix 20% minimum to 40% maximum of top soil sand pea gravel , perlite to FFOF. For drainage and minerals .I am sold on using Silica Gold for plants too
I've found that how I was watering had this effect I now water from the outside in with very little water near the trunk. Got to give the roots a reason to reach, especially in the top/outside 1/3 of the pot.
The ground here is full of sandstone and not the best, Way out in the back of my property is beautiful rich black soil. It actually used to be a plant nursery back in the 50's. But that is now covered by shade most of the day. I'm stuck with a spot next to the house that has horrible soil. I'm also considering doing a raised bed grow, but leaning against it.
Last year I grew in 7 and 10 gal bags outside,on sip trays. The trays make moving,spinning it easier. Both sizes did great. But, the 10 gals did a little better. My 7's are getting old so I got 5 -15 gal bags,165 lbs of dirt each. We'll see if they do better.
I'll probably go with the 7's then rather than the fives. Better safe than sorry. A big problem for me is mixing the soil, castings, perlite etc. Bad arthritis in my hands. Do you have any tricks for mixing soil easily? I can fill about a third to half of a five gal bucket and mix without too much trouble but still kills my hands for days. And it takes a lot of 1/3 buckets to fill a 5 gal bag. By the time I'm done with 4 or 5 bags for tents my hands are toast. Filling 12 7 gallon bags might take me awhile.
When I would need to mix alot ,id put it all on the concrete floor in barn and mix with a hoe. But, timj said how he leaves the big bags alone , he just cuts the plant at dirt level ,next season he cuts a hole in dirt ,a little bigger than the transplant ( to add some fresh dirt around transplant). Then just top dress, it worked out really well, and without a lot of mixing.
I finally looked at some vids on youtube. I'm gonna just use a large plastic tote and a shovel. Never occurred to me before because I always grew, and mixed soil inside the house. Seems like a no brainer now that I think about it. I am prone to occasional brain farts here.
Yep, 100% agree. VOE I grow in 20-gallon holes, I water very little if at all up by the stem, and when I reamend my soil in the fall I have roots throughout the soil. I had the same problem when I first started growing outdoors. Once I started watering away from the stem, from a suggestion from a fellow grower and friend, my root system started to stretch throughout the soil.