Tomatoes are the plant that pretty much every gardener wants to grow. They're great for salads, sandwiches, or just popping in your mouth, and they're one vegetable that definitely taste better home grown than from the grocery store. Once you've grown your own tomatoes, it's hard to go back.

But not everyone has the space for a big garden full of tomato plants. Not everyone has space for a garden at all! Luckily, it's totally possible to grow tomatoes in containers. And the cheapest, most convenient container to grow them in is also the best one.

Meet the grow bag!

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The Benefits of Grow Bags

Fabric grow bags are ideal for container gardening because there's virtually no way to overwater them. Since the entire thing is permeable, water can evaporate out easily, even without a drainage hole. The fabric is also breathable and less likely than plastic to be baked by the summer heat, so roots stay nice and cool.

They also take up next to no space. Once you're done growing for the season, they collapse down flat and can be tucked away in the corner of a shed.

Root Pruning

But maybe the best benefit of fabric grow bags is the way they help plants adjust to container life.

A constant hazard of container gardening is the plant becoming root bound. When a plant's roots hit the wall of a pot, they turn and start growing along it. Unless something is done those roots will just grow around and around, choking themselves and getting less and less capable of taking up water and nutrients. You could pot the plant up into an even bigger container, but when space is of the essence that might just not be possible.

Instead, grow bags perform a natural process called "air pruning." As roots reach the edge of the container, they're exposed to the air that flows freely through the fabric. Roots don't like to grow into air, so this signals to them that it's time to stop growing in that direction, opting to sprout new, healthy feeder roots from the center.

This is a game changer for growing tomatoes, because they put out lots and lots of roots, and over the course of the summer they just get bigger and bigger. You can't go repotting a huge tomato plant in the middle of July. You'll lose all the fruit, and maybe even lose the plant.

With root pruning, though, the plant focuses its root production on the soil it has, staying a manageable size while taking up extra water and nutrients. It's a win-win!

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