My perspective is that of a 73-year old woman who's never done any container gardening beyond a couple hanging baskets of purple Petunias on my back porch every year. I started my adventure with no preconceived ideas about how things should work, and only vague ideas about what constitutes an appropriate pot to grow things in. Out of touch with the gardening scene, and with local "garden centers" still stocked with Christmas left-overs, I turned to one of my most reliable sources of information... Amazon.com, and it's legion of customers willing to write reviews and share their experiences with the many products available. Thank you all for the education! After 5 months "experience", my observations about these Fabric Aeration Pots are below.SIZE: Come on, folks! It didn't take me that long to understand the difference between a "trade gallon" and a "fluid gallon", or to realize that ALL nursery containers are measured in "trade gallons". Yes, even the black plastic ones similar to those you buy your plants in. It might be interesting to someday trace how this confusing measurement and terminology came about, but in the meantime, those of you with a bee in your bonnet about the labeled size of any garden container need to learn the language of the country you're traveling in. A 3 gal aeration bag is going to hold less than 3 gallons of potting soil, as is a 3 gal pot of any other material...plastic, wood, ceramic, etc. It's time to quit slandering the sellers for your lack of understanding.COST: These bags are relatively inexpensive, compared to "hard" containers. Even the "plastics" cost considerably more. Unless you have the time and energy to shop garage sales, you won't find another type of container for this kind of price. You can add the fancy containers along the way, but until you find something you love, here's a way to get started planting without breaking the bank.DURABILITY: I can't speak in terms of years of use. I can, however, say that mine have stood up to some pretty heavy wear and tear and still look as good as new. I've had to move mine around quite a bit... chasing either sun or shade in an ever-changing light pattern in a confined space. On "good days" I can lift by the handles and carry them... and on less than good days I drag them. I did get a bunch of cheap, clear plastic sauces to put under each one to prevent staining the wood deck they're sitting on, in response to several readers comments on this issue. All the stitching and handles have held up to repeated tugging and moving. I've noticed no fading of the black color so far.MOISTURE RETENTION & WATERING: I read conflicting experience on this issue from other users. My personal experience with these bags has been that they hold the moisture better than plastic pots also in use in the same environment. It's hard to assess all the factors that could be contributing to this, from type of plants growing in them, to time in the sun, etc. Even with these smaller, 3-gal size bags, I don't find them drying out any faster than the plastic planters also in use. When given the gardener's "finger test", the soil in the bags feels both damper and cooler than the soil in the larger plastic "urns" behind them.ROOT HEALTH: So yes, I bought into the IDEA behind the "air pruning" of the roots for healthier plants. It made sense when I first read it, and it still does. At this point I still don't know if it really works to the benefit of the plant or not. That will have to wait for a time when I need to repot, or remove something toward the end of this growing season. There are a lot of factors that effect the overall health of a plant and it's hard to do any kind of controlled experimenting in a confined space.My container garden started with the idea of growing one cherry tomato and one cucumber for myself and my disabled husband. It quickly got out of hand and now includes two cherry tomatoes, plus a slicing variety, two cucumbers, a pot of Summer squash, a pot of okra, a dwarf peach tree, a thornless blackberry bush, and a couple dozen ornamentals, both annual and perennial, most of which are in one size or another of these bags. It's my hope to have a garden to look at from my kitchen window all year long, so it remains to be seen how these growing bags hold up to winter. I'm in central South Carolina, for those of you who need to consider the impact of climate, since for me, snow and prolonged sub-freezing temperatures should not be part of the experience. We are, however, already setting records for extreme Summer heat and it's just the end of June.Hope some of you find this helpful!