Crown Growbag Frame: Product Review


Those of you who read my Testing Times post at the end of April may recall I'm trialling Crown's Growbag Frame in my garden, courtesy of Fuel My Blog. I'm using it as a support for some of my tomatoes and comparing it with my usual method of using large terracotta long tom pots plus canes.

The picture shows the situation a month ago. I've chosen it over today's because the tomato plants have grown so well, they're obscuring most of the frame. Click to enlarge the picture if you'd like a better look at the construction.

The frame was incredibly easy to put together: the lower horizontal rod is threaded through the growbag I'm using, which in turn forms the weight needed to support the rest of the structure. I prefer the straps used as plant supports - which are attached to the horizontals - over my usual bamboo canes as my plants seem to be happily using them without me having to tie them in.

You'll see the growbag is used on its side. This makes perfect sense as it gives a greater planting depth and removes the need to add a pot on top filled with extra growing media to get better results. Inside each hole I've 'planted' a 3" pot which I use for watering as it means I can get more down to where it's best utilised: around the roots. I rolled the growbag around to break up any lumps before planting. I can report that a month later these tomato plants are taller and much more healthier looking than their pot grown counterparts, though the latter have started to fruit.

So on the whole it's a big thumbs up for this product, particularly as I'll be able to take it apart and stow away in a much smaller space at the end of the tomato season. The only downsides I can see are its relatively expensive price (compared to 3 long tom pots + canes), though it does compare very favourably with other gadgets on the market designed for patio growing. There's also a dependency on using growbags which I'm a little uneasy about, especially as there's usually much more choice available in the larger 50 litre bags of growing media for the same price or cheaper.

However, I'll certainly be using this handy gadget in seasons to come and seeing whether I can adapt it for use with a bag of growing media instead.

Comments

  1. My Dirty Life26 June 2011 at 08:48

    Looks sturdy. I was looking at these as well this year, Seen some metal ones on the market but have yet to buy. Good to see them in action. I have always wondered about the depth of soil, but placing bag on side is a brilliant idea.

    Let me know how the plants do in the following months.

    ReplyDelete
  2. VP26 June 2011 at 09:32

    My Dirty Life - welcome! Using the growbag on its side is so much better and my tomato plants are so much happier than when I've used growbags the usual way up. I'm planning on a follow up report at cropping time :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Esther Montgomery26 June 2011 at 16:57

    I'm a bit thrown by this because, in my eyes, it is ugly. If I had a big garden, I'd want a greenhouse rather than a contraption and, in a small garden, I'd rather have something that looks good - and terracotta pots with bamboo canes do. I suppose they take up more storage space than the frame - but they don't need to be packed away for the winter so . . .

    About which plants have tomatoes on - it touches on something I've been wondering. I have plants in pots for passing on and plants in pots for keeping. The 'passing on' has dragged out for longer than anticipated so those plants, though still healthy, are in pots a bit too small for them. They have the first tomatoes. I've been trying to decide which is likely - that stress is good for them or whether stress gives them an early start but a short season.

    Esther

    WV is 'ablessed'. I expect that his a hint to wish you a wonderful week!

    ReplyDelete
  4. VP26 June 2011 at 19:27

    Esther - interesting points.

    Is it the frame and/or the growbag that's ugly? I was a little concerned when I put the frame together that I would miss seeing it on my way to my garden steps as it blends in so well.

    However, I do find the bag is ugly and I'm sure that's why there's also growbag 'disguises' for sale e.g. wicker baskets to make everything seem nice and rustic.

    I'm sure my potted tomatoes are fruiting because they're stressed (stress = plant hurries up to get reproducing as a survival strategy in my view). I didn't water them enough when we had that dry weather and I'd forgotten to line the terracotta pots first to stop them drying out so quickly.

    I went to a food bloggers get together at Oxford Botanic Garden in 2008 where I was surprised to find their (OBG not the food bloggers) tomatoes were growing in quite small pots. Tomatoes don't need a very big root run apparently, though of course a smaller pot does mean more watering and feeding is required to get a good crop.

    Here's to a good week for you and yours too :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. PreppyGardenGal27 June 2011 at 04:39

    This is great for people who have limited space.

    I'm a follower from now on.. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. VP27 June 2011 at 08:28

    Preppygardengal - hi and thanks for Following :)

    Absolutely - something more people will be thinking about as our gardens get ever smaller and the desire to grow your own food gets stronger.

    ReplyDelete

New comments are not allowed.

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it ...
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl...
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape...
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing ...
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the...
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee...
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi...
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso...
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter, ...
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener...
Read more