Post by Laura_in_FL on Jul 2, 2012 11:54:53 GMT -5
So, I saw in the "What's going on in your garden today" thread that Stratcat is trying a zucchini in a bag.
I thought that this might be a good time to give an update.
I originally described the "bag trick" in the welcome thread. Since it's sort of buried in that thread, I thought I'd copy the relevant part of that post here:
This has pretty much worked out as planned. I have only had weeds in a couple of spots where I didn't overlap the cardboard enough. That's a victory right there! I have gotten an average of three melons per bag so far, and I have three more watermelons and ten cantaloupes coming along right now. Plenty of season left for more if I can keep the vines happy.
However, with my original set up I eventually had watering and heat issues. I found it was slooooow going keeping the bags hand-watered through the small planting "X" holes. They needed watering at least daily as the plants got large and the weather heated up. Also, the soil in the bags was getting really hot. I mulched over the bags, but it kept sliding off the smooth plastic.
So:
1. First, I tried putting a 2 gph drip emitter right over the X, but that didn't provide enough water, and it only watered the soil in the center of the bag. Plants were still showing signs of water stress.
2. Next, I added a few more 2 gph emitters per bag, working them through the X and along the top of the dirt in the bag until I had emitters distributed around the bags. This helped for a while, but as it got even hotter, the plants again seemed to need that sloooooow supplemental hand watering.
3. On June 23 (just before TS Debby's rains started!) I slit open the tops of the bags, forming two lengthwise flaps (like french doors) which I peeled back and tucked into the bag. This exposed the soil over the entire top surface of each bag. I saw that large sections of the soil in the bags had been staying dry. Only small areas directly under each emitter had been getting watered. I'm amazed I got watermelons at all since so much of the soil had been staying dry...no wonder they were kind of small!
Since the bags had been in use since March, I sprinkled on a little fertilizer, covered the soil with a thick layer of shredded newspaper mulch, and Debby was kind enough to give the melons a thorough watering. I have only needed to hand water once since then. Now I can use a hose sprayer on "shower" mode and water each bag thoroughly in just a minute or two. Big improvement! Even better, since I am finally able to water all of the soil in each bag, and since the newspaper mulch is keeping the soil a lot cooler, I don't think I will have to hand water very often. If we can get some rain once or twice a week (a good bet in July and August here), I may not have to hand water at all. The plants seem a lot happier, and are in a growth spurt now.
Ideally, I don't want to hand water, ever. Both because I get bored standing around with a hose and because I don't like to wet the leaves in our humid, disease-promoting summers.
What I think will work for future years is opening up the tops of bags, generously looping 1/4" dripline (the kind with emitters every 6" along the hose) or 1/4" soaker hose all over the tops of the bags, and then deeply mulching. That should allow me to water the bags properly with my drip irrigation system when needed.
I've been really amazed at how much cooler the soil has been since I removed the tops of the bags and replaced them with mulch. Where I live it warms up fast in the spring, so getting the soil warm enough to plant is never a problem. However, if I lived in a cool spring area and cool soil was a problem, I would probably want to keep the bags closed and water through the "x" holes in the plastic until consistent hot weather arrived. Or, open the bags, put in the drip irrigation, and then cover the whole setup with dark plastic until the weather warmed enough to replace the dark plastic with mulch.
I thought that this might be a good time to give an update.
I originally described the "bag trick" in the welcome thread. Since it's sort of buried in that thread, I thought I'd copy the relevant part of that post here:
The "bag trick" is something I read about online, can't remember where, unfortunately. It's really simple:
1. Get a big bag (2 cu ft) of good quality potting soil.
2. Lay it flat where you want to grow your melons.
3. Cut several small slits just at ground level, being sure to put some on each side. (These are for drainage.)
4. Cut an "X" in the top center of the bag.
5. Plant your melon seeds or transplants through the "X".
6. Water through the "X" as needed. (I snaked a 1/4" drip line from my raised beds over to my row of bags and put a drip emitter over each "X".)
The web site where I read it talked about doing this in the middle of the lawn, but I know I don't want tall grass and weeds mixed in with my melons. So I laid down cardboard (from old shipping boxes) over the whole area and covered it with pine straw. Then I put down the bags. The melons can now run all over the pine straw and (hopefully!) there will be no weeding and no melons rotting from sitting on damp soil. I am also going to put more mulch over the bags to moderate the soil temperatures, since it's already getting hot this year.
This is my first time trying the "bag trick," so I can't say for sure how it will work over the whole season. So far, though, the melons are going gangbusters. I seeded the bags on March 16. The cantaloupes are running; , I have one cantaloupe set (it's marble-sized) and pollinated another one yesterday. Male blooms are everywhere on the cantaloupes. Watermelons aren't blooming yet, but they are running and look very healthy. I just hope they can make it the whole summer.
I suspect they will exhaust the nutrients in the bags before the season is out, and I will need to foliar feed. If it works, it still beats weeding between vines, though. ;D
This has pretty much worked out as planned. I have only had weeds in a couple of spots where I didn't overlap the cardboard enough. That's a victory right there! I have gotten an average of three melons per bag so far, and I have three more watermelons and ten cantaloupes coming along right now. Plenty of season left for more if I can keep the vines happy.
However, with my original set up I eventually had watering and heat issues. I found it was slooooow going keeping the bags hand-watered through the small planting "X" holes. They needed watering at least daily as the plants got large and the weather heated up. Also, the soil in the bags was getting really hot. I mulched over the bags, but it kept sliding off the smooth plastic.
So:
1. First, I tried putting a 2 gph drip emitter right over the X, but that didn't provide enough water, and it only watered the soil in the center of the bag. Plants were still showing signs of water stress.
2. Next, I added a few more 2 gph emitters per bag, working them through the X and along the top of the dirt in the bag until I had emitters distributed around the bags. This helped for a while, but as it got even hotter, the plants again seemed to need that sloooooow supplemental hand watering.
3. On June 23 (just before TS Debby's rains started!) I slit open the tops of the bags, forming two lengthwise flaps (like french doors) which I peeled back and tucked into the bag. This exposed the soil over the entire top surface of each bag. I saw that large sections of the soil in the bags had been staying dry. Only small areas directly under each emitter had been getting watered. I'm amazed I got watermelons at all since so much of the soil had been staying dry...no wonder they were kind of small!
Since the bags had been in use since March, I sprinkled on a little fertilizer, covered the soil with a thick layer of shredded newspaper mulch, and Debby was kind enough to give the melons a thorough watering. I have only needed to hand water once since then. Now I can use a hose sprayer on "shower" mode and water each bag thoroughly in just a minute or two. Big improvement! Even better, since I am finally able to water all of the soil in each bag, and since the newspaper mulch is keeping the soil a lot cooler, I don't think I will have to hand water very often. If we can get some rain once or twice a week (a good bet in July and August here), I may not have to hand water at all. The plants seem a lot happier, and are in a growth spurt now.
Ideally, I don't want to hand water, ever. Both because I get bored standing around with a hose and because I don't like to wet the leaves in our humid, disease-promoting summers.
What I think will work for future years is opening up the tops of bags, generously looping 1/4" dripline (the kind with emitters every 6" along the hose) or 1/4" soaker hose all over the tops of the bags, and then deeply mulching. That should allow me to water the bags properly with my drip irrigation system when needed.
I've been really amazed at how much cooler the soil has been since I removed the tops of the bags and replaced them with mulch. Where I live it warms up fast in the spring, so getting the soil warm enough to plant is never a problem. However, if I lived in a cool spring area and cool soil was a problem, I would probably want to keep the bags closed and water through the "x" holes in the plastic until consistent hot weather arrived. Or, open the bags, put in the drip irrigation, and then cover the whole setup with dark plastic until the weather warmed enough to replace the dark plastic with mulch.