I have used fabric pots before. When I tried to use them in Spring in the deep South, I ended up having to wrap the sides with plastic or set them in buckets because they were using too much water so it kind of defeated the purpose. Secondly, I have noticed that with things such as vegetables, the plants are usually finished by the time they would otherwise become rootbound, so again, air pruning was somewhat of a wash in that regard.
I could see where they would work better in cooler climates perhaps, or where trying to use a dense potting soil that stays wet too long, but down here in the South, our systems tend to favor notions of actually slowing transpiration rates down, instead of increasing them.
Open, raised bed, or raised crop gardening in hotter climates with sandy soils is not efficient with regard to water usage. Even in commercial agriculture, when they use raised rows, they will often cover them with plastic mulch covers, especially when growing plants that have higher transpiration rates. That's why I often tell people who want to build a garden here, from an idea they saw from some other region of the country, and with growing things that are not native to here, to look to commercial agriculture to see how they are managing it and to design their gardens accordingly.
I am glad you posted this. Someone gave my neighbor one of these and I planted her lone jalapeno in it. Have known no one who has used these. I, too, am in zone 9. She has a brown thumb, so I'm helping her out. The plant is doing well, so far. I overwintered it in my greenhouse, and it is already producing peppers. So according to the info you have posted we will most likely have to put it inside another pot, which may prove difficult, because it is a 10+ gallon container. Thanks.
I hope my post does not seem negative towards fabric pots, or air pruning, for that matter. Some plants here in the South zone 9-10, plants that transpire too much in the summer, can also transpire too slowly in the cooler months so aerating pots may work if you can adjust them, perhaps by covering them in Summer, and exposing them in the cooler months. In zone 9 in Florida, we can garden year round, so our garden practices are subjected to more variables. With people promoting new types of products, they can often either not be aware of the variables, or tend perhaps to generalize and perhaps offer solutions after the fact.
My gardening ethic/style comes from the perspective of saving water. I drilled and serviced private/agricultural water wells for 15 years and what I experienced with the changes I saw with regard to the natural supply just in that short time, was somewhat alarming to the point that it kind of haunts me with regard to conservation. Also, I use municipal water, so cost has to be considered.
My post is mostly concerning certain regionl considerations, or that there may need to be a certain amount of tuning with new methods. I have seen some fabric pots do very well, with photo evidence of great results, yet I may also notice that the plants are sitting in an open pool of water, or some other self regulating, continuous supply and that is not a convenience that many areas of the country enjoy. We are currently under a permanent water restriction code. When you get your water bill, if the water dept notices your usage is higher than average for say a family of 3, they will begin suggesting some conservation guidelines included with your monthly statement.
There are situations where fabric pots work perfectly. Some areas need more air and some plants can benefit by air pruning or quicker drying cycles. I just noticed that here that my irrigation timers had to be set to double the frequency in the warmer months with almost any open system of gardening, with air/fabric pots and raised beds being the biggest consumers. With raised beds, I was having to remove all of the soil and mulch the bottom of the frames just below ground level with a layer of matted oak leaves, as well as mulching above, and with the bottom mulch needing to be redone every two years.
As it stands now, I have my water usage at about 1/3 of that of conventional, or other exposed methods, and nutrient leeching or runoff at a practical minimum. If you were to leave fabric pots open to our heavy seasonal rains, you would notice that your nutrient requirements increase accordingly with this continuous flushing that occurs by default.
Just some things to consider outside of the immediate and obvious benefits of some systems.
I used grow bags once. I only had one size it was about a three gallon container. I grew a pepper in it. It is nice that it folds for storage, but it is nice to have a second pair of hands around when filling it otherwise the container doesn't stay open very nicely. It had handles on the side, but it really wasn't anything you want to try to move much because it is still floppy and and my pepper ended up lopsided.
I also experimented with grow bags several years back and they are hard to fill and to me it seemed much harder to control moisture levels in them that standard containers of the same size. They are more easily knocked over as a found out when a large cat knocked some of them over but not the standard containers, as indicated in the above post they are floppy even filled. So, far every home gardener I have talked to has pretty much given up on them. No doubt someone has figured out how to make them work for them.
