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I've seen this, but my question is about grow bags like these: enter image description here

There are just 4 holes punched at the sides.

Questions:
1. Don't they need holes at the bottom too? I'm suspecting water might be pooling at the bottom, since the tomato plant's leaves are warping.
2. Since it's a plastic bag, would making more holes just make the bag tear apart easily? How to make holes safely?
3. An earthen pot allows breathability, so to simulate a similar effect for a grow bag, would it help to take a pin and poke tiny holes all over the sides of the bag? (not too many that it'd make the bag tear, but just enough to allow some aeration)

Nav
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2 Answers2

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Those holes look fine to me.

You don't want to have the drainage holes in direct contact with the ground, otherwise the bag will become a luxury hotel for earthworms, slugs, and other soil-dwelling critters that you don't want disturbing your tomato roots.

If you have water pooling at the bottom, either you are giving too much water, or your watering is too uneven. Depending on what the compost in the bag is, (and "cheap bags" are often worse in this respect) if it ever dries out it can be very hard to re-wet properly, so you get rock-hard dry "compost" sitting in a pool of water - which are not the conditions to make most plants grow well.

BTW looking at your link, I would be very dubious that a company which claims its bags will last 5 years is selling anything other than 100% pure trash and snake oil. Grow-bags from any reputable supplier (at least in the UK) are one-season-use-only products. By all means use the compost as soil conditioner for your garden after they have been used, but don't waste your time trying to re-use the bag for another season's crop.

alephzero
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The bag is made from UV stabilised polyethylene so it probably will last 5 years. Does it need holes at the bottom? Probably not since this product is for India and presumably they want to create a water reservoir at the bottom. And it's coloured white to reflect the heat.

So why are your tomato plant leaves curling? The most likely reason is that there is insufficient water in the potting mix. You need to water deeply until water comes out of those holes. And then wait until the soil dries up a bit before watering again.

If you want an air pruning grow bag you should buy something different. They might not be suitable for your climates as they dry out quickly.

Graham Chiu
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