Here's a review of tomato bags that lists all the pros and cons. Hope this helps!

Here is a link that might be useful: Do tomato bags grow healthy tomatoes?

I have 4 of the 10 gallon 'Grow Bag' and ordered 2 15 gallon ones for this year.

While determinates do great in them indeterminates will do ok with extra attention so I am upping them to the 15 gallon ones for the plants I grow on the deck. They work exceptionally well with my drip irrigation system and hold up well to the weather. 2 of them are going on their 4th season with no wear or tear. I find the Grow Bag brand to be much less expensive than the GS bags and are the same material only black. Especially if you shop around you can find good prices on them from the greenhouse suppliers and with research on them you'll find pics of whole gardens done in them exclusively.

They are filled with any good quality potting mix - not soil - and I use only ProMix BX in mine. I replace 1/3 to 1/2 of the mix with new mix each year. That isn't required but I prefer the boost I get from the fresh mix.

Support is either a cage tied off to the deck rail for determinates or a full CRW tomato cage around the container and all for indeterminates.

Before investing in the GS bags I strongly recommend some Google research into 'tomato grow bags' for lots of good info on all the various brands available.

Dave

Thanks, Dave, I did and got confused with all the options. I don't have a deck, just a cement patio so tying them off to posts, while it sounds like a great solution, won't work for me. I will look up that brand. The GS ones I think are 18 gallon, and going by the idea that bigger is better with indeterminates, it was one reason I thought those might be best. I have never grown determinates but I have considered it because I would like to can some. I don't have any determinate seeds, I would have to research some good tasty varieties. Do you get a large yield from the determinates even in bags? So maybe indeterminates don't work well in bags?

I was mostly looking for personal experiences of the people here who may have used various bags and what worked and what didn't for them.

Are smart pots different than grow bags, and is one better than the other?

Just one of the brand names. Same fabric-type bags are sold under several different names.

Dave

You can get the plastic grow bags really cheap. I think they last
2 season's. I'm trying them for the first time this year. You can
get 7 gal black grow bags for .37 cents each.

Hmmm, I wonder if the roots will do as well. It would be great if you post back with how those plastic ones fared for you. I am looking at 18-20 gallon fabric ones right now. I can get 30 gallon but I am not sure its necessary and the cost of soil mix has to be factored in. I want as large as I need to get really good productivity but no larger than I need due to the cost of filling them. I have not heard from many who actually use these for indeterminates. So I may only try 2.

My reply is about two years late, but I have also been doing research on the fabric grow bags and will try them this year in my condo garden, 2014 in zone 4 previously know as zone 5 based on winder 2013/2014 in mid-west- -20 to -30 F. Nothing zone 5 survived in S. Wi this spring.

I have selected a determinate (early girl) based on the staking challenges with indeterminants,. As far as availability, look up hydroponics suppliers in your area, they will have many options in the store for you to view and consider. I have big hopes based on my research that the grow bags will be successful. Kind regards and hopes for your success. Barb

Thank you, I did end up purchasing some from a hydroponics store. They were half the cost or less of the smart pots. When I needed a few more, I did buy three smart pots so I could compare them and I was equally satisfied with both. I have replanted all of them this year.

So how did the pots come out? I got 10 boxer brown longest lasting root pouch 25 gallons and 10 of the 30 gallon pots this year. I am growing potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash, pumpkins, watermelons, eggplant, and peppers. These are very large pots. It costs a fortune to fill them. I mixed wholly cow, peat, a ton of perlite, and some homemade compost. A few of the pots have a small amount of pine bark. Most all of my plants are doing well. I ordered these pots from greenhouse mega store two separate times paying 10.00 shipping each time, since they ship from Illinois I also paid sales tax. The pots were a fortune too. I want to order about 20 more pots in a 15 gallon size for some strawberries that are getting eaten by slugs and other things in the ground. I like the root pouch longest lasting the brown, they seem like they will hold up for a long time. I have had a few yield pots last year and they didn't even hold up the whole season. Looking for strong pots that I can maybe buy cheaper. Dave you still use those grow pots? I seen them very cheap online maybe too cheap to believe. Thank you so much.

I have done it in 90 nents grocery store bags. They did better than plastic pots. Also they did not rot or fall apart. But they were like 4 gallon capacity.I strictly used them for hot pepper plant. If you want an 8 or 10 gallon, you have to take the expensive rout; buy commercial bags.
For medium , I blended/made my own 5-1-1 mix

Sey

Has anyone used this potato grow bags? Are they as good as the reviews?

bwambugi - if the

ASOON 2-Pack 7 Gallon Garden Potato Grow Bag Vegetables Planter Bags with Handles and Access Flap for Potato, Carrot & Onion are the ones in that article you are asking about then my answer would be NO. They are too small for potatoes, that photo is very misleading in number of plants and the huge amount of potatoes they show stuffed in the side, and the big hole in the side is only going to cause problems. You'd do better with the Aeration Fabric Pots w/Handles (Black) pictured above them.

Dave

I like Root Pouch too. I've got 4 different brands (all on Amazon) and found the Root Pouches (Brown "best" quality) to be the strongest. I've only used them one season so far, but I'm guessing I'll get about 5 years out of most of them.

I've had mine for several years, I try to treat them gently and have no problems with them falling apart except you can't get anywhere near them with the mower. I have the brown and the Grey. I have the brown in 30 gallon and they are so nice. Takes alot of soil mix to fill them. Now I get the wood chips from the city on my garden and I bury mine down to hold in the moisture as well as put straw mulch on top. They will dry out fast. But if you have too much rain they drain good. The pots can be moved they aren't that heavy if they are dry, but the roots will grow through the bottom into the soil. Oh carrots love them. I grow the biggest carrots ever in these. Sweet potatoes do well too.

Oh and they are much smaller than you would think. A 5 gallon is not even close to the size of a 5 gallon bucket. I wouldn't recommend using anything smaller than the 15 or 20 gallon. The 15 is great for herbs. I actually overwintered some sage in mine last year and it had beautiful flowers on it.