Grow Bags & Fabric Pots

Fabric pots air-prune roots at the wall instead of letting them circle, which produces a denser root mass and a plant that transplants without being root-bound. They also shed heat, which matters on a paved patio in July.

Size by crop: five gallons for peppers and bush beans, ten for a determinate tomato, fifteen to twenty for potatoes and larger indeterminate varieties, and thirty-plus for dwarf fruit trees.

The trade-off is water. Fabric dries out considerably faster than plastic, so plan on daily watering in midsummer heat, and consider a saucer or a drip emitter per bag rather than hand-watering a dozen of them.