Hie all i was wanting to transplant all my fig trees and tropicals while they are not actively growing this winter (Australia) and i was wondering which type of planter bag woven/non woven will suffice for growing my trees while allowing for air pruning of roots. 

The 3 types of bags i have found suitable for the job are:

non Woven bags 113L $42 for a pack of 5 (received good reviews)

 

Woven 150L option  $40.99 for a pack of 2
 


Non Woven (170L) $57 incl postage  for a pack of 2


Which ones of these bags is the best? Both are U.V stabilized and will last for years and years (except for the Biodegradable black non woven variety). Any suggestions welcome
Thank you

Keeping in mind everyone has different experiences.....but for me, fabric pots werent the best. The fabric pots averaged about 5 degrees celcius cooler than plastic in the winter (not so good for cacao lol), and I found keeping them moist in summer was challenging. Also I HATED moving the larger ones cause I'd have to brace the pot against my hip cause of the weight, and it would soak my pants! Plus it seems like the roots get more disturbed when you move/drag them around then in plastic. But take this all with a grain of salt cause this is just one chicks experience in Canada :)

Thanks for your input. I have grown plants in non woven shopping bags and they worked wonders with air pruning but they deteriorated badly in a month or so due to lack of U.V protection. I know what you mean by moving them and such as roots get torn and moved about. :)  My idea was to sit my air pots in a small tray slightly larger than the air pot base and use that as a resevoir and it worked with the shopping bags and the potting mix wicks up the water as the plant needed it. something like the image below but for each air pot

see below 
    


I also am putting the tropical plants on a small Dolley with castor wheels to move them in the garage in winter. (see image below)

I have used the root pouch type and a couple other brands.  I don't think I've used a woven but maybe.  In my experience over about 4 years they never rip or tear or develop holes due to normal use.  However, rodents (or some sort of animal) will chew them up sometimes.  Even when this happens they usually do not fail completely.

So I wouldn't advise paying a lot of extra money for woven fabric, or for something that is supposed to be sturdier, etc.

The main problem with these things is that it's very difficult to remove large trees from these large fabric pots.  The roots will grow into the fabric just enough that they won't slide out at all, so you've got to beat the holy heck out of the rootball to loosen it up.  Then you have to sort of peel the pot away.  For a 25 gallon pot I'd say the difficulty level is similar to taking an old tire off a rim with a crowbar. 

But the root growth is great (very little circling) so you can leave them in the pot a good long time. 

I made the mistake of buying them without handles.  Very difficult to get a grip in that situation.  Was trying to save a couple bucks.  Not sure if it was worth it.  But probably once you get to 30 gallons you need to devise a better way to move them than by just grabbing by the handles anyway.

Thanks for the replies everyone. i was able to get into contact with the seller of the bags and they said that the material is not breathable so no air pruning. I'll just have to purchase the more expensive non woven bags.

I use them too, the root pouches because here in the USA they are dirt cheap (excuse the pun). I like them a lot and just move with a dolly, it couldn't be easier.
I don't find them any harder to move than a plastic pot. (these are 2nd leaf figs-10 gallon bags)

Yeah 10 gallon fabric pots are no problem.  You can just grab them and pick them up, even if you don't have a dolly.  I think when you get to 20, 30, 40 gallons the lack of rigid sides poses some challenges.  If there are no handles, well obviously that's a challenge.  And if there are handles, there's some chance they might rip off depending on various factors.  If you have a really nice dolly, then again you can skip over those issues.

But the challenges of moving a loaded fabric pot do not compare to difficulty of removing a fig tree from a 30 gallon fabric pot without destroying one or both. 

Whether the wicking will work depends on the potting mix.  Yours looks like a peat based mix so it should work.  Might be heavy for the large pots, but wicking will work.  My potting mix is mostly pine back fines, which doesn't wick, but is lighter.  So I use drip irrigation to water from above.

Nice setup drew51. im going to be using 10 gallon containers for my figs and guavas and 40+ gallons for my papaya and Black and white sapotes.

The larger 40 gallon containers will be permanently sat on small diy movable dolleys so that i don't need someone to help me lift it risking ripping the bags/handles off.

I prefer the wicking method as our summers here in Melbourne australia can get up to 40 degrees (104F) and just putting water in a tray just eliminates the need to set up a drip irrigation system!

Whats the recipe for your pine bark based mix? 

You can do a search here for details on the 5-1-1 mix or pine bark mix.  That would be 5 parts pine bark fines, 1 part peat moss, 1 part perlite.

I am never so precise.  Also I have come to the conclusion that perlite is not useful for my setup, just adds expense.

So I throw a bunch of pine bark fines in there, throw some slow release fertilizer, throw in some peat or professional potting mix, throw in some lime to raise the pH.  Mix it up and call it a day. 

But like I say pine bark doesn't really wick.  You could probably go up to 30-50% pine bark and still get wicking action, but higher than that you might have issues.