Modified smart pots

[Blackvalor]

A little background information before my actual question... Bare with me.

So last year I decided to put in the extra work of digging large holes, hauling in soil ect ect with the thought that my plants would do best if the roots were able to grow unrestricted. Unfortunately June of last season was exceptionally wet and rainy which caused the soil to stay constantly damp. I noticed minimal growth which I'm attributing to lack of oxygen to the roots....(ones above ground in buckets did much better)

Anyway, this year I'm contemplating smart pots. My idea is to buy or make 20 gallon pots and remove the bottoms so that the roots can grow unrestricted. This way I can get the benefits of air pruning from the pots, but the roots can still grow down into last years soil. The underlying soil should stay cool and damp when compared to the soil in the smart pot above, which hopefully will cut down on watering.

Does anyone see any flaws or have any advice for me. I'm leaning more towards making my own pots out of landscaping fabric because its cheaper and I wouldn't have to cut the bottoms out of perfectly good pots.

Sorry about the lengthy read

 

[bouncin b]

Great question. It would probably work fine. I am going to use the 20 gallon smart pots myself this year. If you want to make your own containers out of landscape fabric, look at lining milk crates or something like that. These milk crates hold about 15 gallons of soil each and work good for my raised bed veggies.

 

[TWS]

roots will get thru the bottom of a smart pot fine.

 

[BWG707]

I've heard the same thing. If you just sit the Smartpot directly on top of soil, roots will easily grow through the pot down into the soil.

 

[doublejj]

I've heard the same thing. If you just sit the Smartpot directly on top of soil, roots will easily grow through the pot down into the soil.

^^^^^^^^true^^^^

 

[Blackvalor]

Thanks for all the replies.

The milk crate idea seems like a good one, I'll have to look into that. I'm going to leave the bottoms intact and let the roots grow through. It would have been a shame for last years holes to go to waste.

 

[petert]

I made my own DIY Maina pots. It's easy and you can made them any size you want.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=201016

Mine were actually way cheaper than he listed his costs. I found 2'X50 foot green wire fencing with I cut in half (12" X100') for $21 and found this extra thick breathable felt ground cover (I've also seen it used as a filter over strorm drains) enough to make three 1'X 8" long (32" across) cirlces and two 18" X 8 foot long (32" across) circles and I still have a ton of fencing and material left to make more. Last year I only used one 18" about 100 gallon pot and left the bottom out. Based on how that did last year...which was great, I decided not to make the extra ones this year as tall.

That said..I've done a lot of reading on the subject of amending soil for holes in the ground and found that even if you are digging say a 2x2x 2foot hole in the ground and amending that soil...When/if the root system hits the native non amended soil it will start ti circle the hole just like rootbound plants in a pot.

Based ion that I plan on amending the soil under my bottomless pots, but not going crazy deep.

 

[Blackvalor]

I made my own DIY Maina pots. It's easy and you can made them any size you want.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=201016

Mine were actually way cheaper than he listed his costs. I found 2'X50 foot green wire fencing with I cut in half (12" X100') for $21 and found this extra thick breathable felt ground cover (I've also seen it used as a filter over strorm drains) enough to make three 1'X 8" long (32" across) cirlces and two 18" X 8 foot long (32" across) circles and I still have a ton of fencing and material left to make more. Last year I only used one 18" about 100 gallon pot and left the bottom out. Based on how that did last year...which was great, I decided not to make the extra ones this year as tall.

That said..I've done a lot of reading on the subject of amending soil for holes in the ground and found that even if you are digging say a 2x2x 2foot hole in the ground and amending that soil...When/if the root system hits the native non amended soil it will start ti circle the hole just like rootbound plants in a pot.

Based ion that I plan on amending the soil under my bottomless pots, but not going crazy deep.

Thanks for posting that link. Lots of really good information. I never even thought about reinforcing the fabric with fence, but it makes sense if you're doing big pots and need them to be sturdy.

I'm leaning towards making my own after reading all the positive DIY threads. The ones I was initially going to buy we're 18" wide x 12" deep. I think I'll stick by those dimensions considering that's about how wide last years holes are.

I'm excited to see how my plants perform in smart pots vs in ground. Like I stated in my first post, last years plants in buckets did much better and I can pretty confidently contribute that to more air to the root mass.

I still have lots of time (unfortunately) until growing season starts. Plenty of time to gather supplies and plan for the upcoming season