Planting Tomatoes & Peppers in Grow Bags | Container Gardening

Hello! My name is Bethany and I grow things in my rooftop container garden in Chicago, zone 6a. I’ve been container gardening for four years and am by no means an expert, just someone who enjoys sharing their garden journey.
In this video, I'm planting two tomato plants and one pepper plant in grow bags in my garden. I've grown my tomatoes in these 30-gallon grow bags for the last three years.
5,7, and 10 gallon bags: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...
30 gallon bags: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07...
For daily updates, follow me on Instagram @chicagogardener

[@TheeJoieDeVivreGarden]

New sub here, Zone 8A, and I absolutely love composting in place! I take kitchen scraps and dig them right into my grow bags and end up with the most luscious soil every year! Looking forward to more of your videos! 🫶🏽

[@ChicagoGardener]

I do that too!! It’s so easy and I Iove it.

[@misspeachesthomas]

Southsiderrrrrr! Finally a Chicago Vlogger I can follow!

[@ChicagoGardener]

Yay!! I’m glad you’re here!

[@alice_rabbit8345]

I put in my tomatoes 2 weeks ago when we had a warm spell (Zone 6b PA). Like you, I put in a red and a yellow cherry variety! Planting cucumber seeds this weekend- stay cool!

[@ChicagoGardener]

I’m excited for the yellow variety, everyone has said they’re really good! Trying our best to stay cool here, I think we’re about to have a drop in temperature again.

[@promiserodriguez7553]

I planted my tomatoes last week and started to see some growth. I planted my pepper seedlings today. This Chicago weather keeps on changing. I like those grow bags.

[@ChicagoGardener]

The weather in Chicago has been so inconsistent this year!

[@seetheforest]

I chop up logs and bark and coconuts in my bags. That fine mix makes a solid cake and kills my roots after a season. I run my pepoers for at least 4 to 5 years if yhey dont get killed by a hurricane.

[@yesidtac7863]

Gran labor con tus plantas

[@ChicagoGardener]

Thank you!!

[@dollycaldwell4938]

excellent explanation

[@ChicagoGardener]

Thank you!

[@MichaelJosephJr934]

Bethany try Toms Better Boy tomatoes. They're good for limited sun. And smaller like Campari tomato's. Super tasty.

[@ChicagoGardener]

I’ll add that to my list. I think we’re going to another garden center this weekend…

[@lovingchange2761]

Thanks for sharing 👍🏾 I was looking for the tomato sucker video you mentioned. I'm so confused as to which stems ate suckers🤔

[@ChicagoGardener]

Search for “how to prune tomato plants Chicago gardener” and it should come up! The suckers will be between the main stem and one of the branches.

[@michellejames5953]

Yeah that’s a good idea with your planting timing, doesn’t stress the plants out as much. Do you cover your plants at all when there’s tons of rain? I live in Michigan, about 40 min from your home town (I remember you saying that you used to live in Chesterton 😁) We’ve had so much rain recently that my plants that I had outside in pots were drowning. Lol

[@ChicagoGardener]

I’ve been moving the smaller pots under the raised beds when there’s a lot of rain, although not as often now that temps are in the 80s 🥵 but I definitely am going to keep them covered for longer next Spring bc I lost way too many to overwatering from the rain.

[@michellejames5953]

@@ChicagoGardener yeah it sure has been a hot Spring. I heard of people using beach umbrellas over their plants, especially people that have a photo shoot or special party and don’t want their big blooms blown out beforehand. I need to plant in my huge poolside planters and they’ve been so waterlogged. I went and put large pieces of cardboard and plastic drop cloth to try and keep them dry tonight because we’re getting a big storm and I want to plant some Dahlias in them tomorrow.

[@staciaallison5638]

Love that hat. Would you share where its from? Looks like it would nicely in my garden bag.

[@ChicagoGardener]

It’s from Asos! I got it I think 4 years ago so I’m not sure if it’s still in stock might they might have similar hats!

[@leaelizabeth23]

It was 96 here in GA today. I cant even imagine how summer is going to be this year. Im worried the heat loving plants may even suffer

[@shawnee9325]

Same here in central texas, been in mid 90’s for two weeks already, so far so good, but I have doubts too for later on this summer🤷‍♀️

[@ChicagoGardener]

Everything I’ve read has said we’re in for a hotter than average summer and I am not looking forward to it 😫 I just want 70 degrees all year!

[@leaelizabeth23]

@@ChicagoGardener ehhh that’s not good. My friend in wyoming isn’t bothered yet. It was 75 there yesterday but there still been cool. I know a lot of places are already getting miserably hot though! August is going to be like living in Satans lair. 😅😂

[@leaelizabeth23]

@@shawnee9325 this weather is rough. Its hard to make sure the plants stay watered when the water evaporates in 10 minutes 😂

[@srad-oq7cb]

I find that shade cloth really helps during periods of extended high temps.

[@aspiringviolinist5732]

Great job! Enjoy the great weather! The tomatoes and peppers are going to explode! Do you have issues with bugs eating your plants or dahlia leaves? If so how do you handle it? Thanks Genevieve

[@ChicagoGardener]

The pest I deal with the most is budworms on petunias. I do usually get hornworms on my tomatoes too but spot them before they do too much damage. I also had squash bugs in my dahlias last year, more on the flowers than the leaves. I use captain jacks dead bug brew or pick the worms off with my fingers.

[@michellejames5953]

Slugs love Dahlia’s, Sluggo Plus is what you need to use if it’s ever a problem. I don’t plant them without putting it around my young plants. It’s what’s recommended by professional Dahlia growers

[@shawn35jac]

Hi, I just watched your video because I am thinking of using a 30 gallon grow bag to plant a Jubilation gardenia in the center and then have annuals cascading around the sides. Do you think a dwarf shrub will grow well in the grow bag? And how many bags of dirt does it take to fill up a 30 gallon?

[@ChicagoGardener]

I think a dwarf shrub would grow well in a grow bag! One thing to keep in mind is overwintering. I’m not sure how cold it gets where you live but there’s essentially no insulation in growbags since the material is so thin, so if it gets cold over winter you might want to add extra insulation around the bag.

[@shawn35jac]

@@ChicagoGardener thank you. I will give it a try. I’m in zone 8a in Georgia. The coldest it gets here is in the upper 20’s and it’s rarely gets that cold. I look forward to watching more of your videos. I’m planting my tomatoes and peppers in grow bags this year and I’m looking forward to it.

[@StephanieFung]

No need to prune suckers on cherry tomatoes if you want the best yield. Just prune for airflow and tidiness.

[@ChicagoGardener]

That’s good to know! I think they’d be too congested if I didn’t. But I also tend to get lazier as the gardening season goes on so we’ll see how they turn out 😆

[@Joey-vw1id]

When you were trimming the lower leaves on the second plant I noticed that you ripped the stem a little, You might have problems with that in the future. Your garden is looking lovely though 😊

[@ChicagoGardener]

Oh no!! I’ll have to keep an eye on it.

[@michellejames5953]

@@ChicagoGardener I would’nt worry about it. I zoomed in and watched it over again, I didn’t see that you did anything but take the leaves off. Great video!

[@cathyscreationandvlog4224]

There are two different types of tomatoes, determinate and indeterminate I grow all of my tomatoes in pots and I have to purchase the determinate tomatoes because the indeterminate tomatoes do horrible and just do not have enough space for roots to develop properly which makes the plant very poorly.

[@ChicagoGardener]

I’ve only grown indeterminate and they’ve done well in my 30 gallon bags, not so well in the 8 inch pot I tried the first year gardening 😂

[@ChicagoGardener]

If it doesn’t say on the tag you can Google the variety and it should tell you!

[@ryangerlach5036]

ANY pepper can be a green pepper, just don’t let it ripen 😊

[@ChicagoGardener]

So cool! If you have a green pepper plant will they eventually turn a color if you leave it on the plant?

[@ryangerlach5036]

@@ChicagoGardener it’s very possible they would. It depends on the seed the nursery uses, but I’m 85% sure all peppers turn a ripe color. Just takes a long time in our climate to actually ripen bells.. (NWI here 😊)

[@waynespringer501]

Tomatoes should be a minimum of 2 feet apart

[@ChicagoGardener]

Nothing in my garden is as far apart as it should be 😂 but this worked for me a couple years ago so 🤞 it works again!

[@leaelizabeth23]

We grow ours 18 inches apart and they do great.