Smart Pots

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bob stine

Member
i've used the smart pots 5 gallon , but with coco it seemed to raise humidity to much ...i do think their the best for soil though but thats just an opinion....i'll tell you one thing though....a 20 gallon smart pot is the best way to hydrate a brick of coco ..i strain my coco this way and use my meter to test the salt content its great for that:)
 
matthebrute

matthebrute

Well-Known Member
Brick Top said:
But that is not the designed function of air root pruning pots.


How the Air-Pot works

Please click on the play button to see the DVD

Air-Pot containers have unusual cuspated walls, sort of an egg box configuration, made up of closed inward pointing cones and open ended outward pointing cones. There are no flat surfaces on the inside of the container to deflect roots and start the spiralling process.
The inward pointing cones direct the roots further outward to the open ended cones where, because the air density in the soil is too great, the roots dehydrate and are effectively pruned.
The plant responds to this "air-pruning" by sending out more roots to compensate for the loss which leads to a dense root system with a vast number of active white tipped roots.
The porosity of the Air-Pot wall also creates better conditions for bacterial activity and thus increases the amount of nutrients available to the plant. With so much root right back to the stem, the root system is very efficient in its use of all the available water and nutrient.
Plant vigour and health is therefore guaranteed.


Since roots dehydrate and push out more roots when the soil air density is to great how would you expect roots to ignore the soil air density and grow through the holes in pots out of soil and into nothing but air?


Maybe you are seeing the use of the pots as being when re-potting is needed you can just set one smaller pot containing a plant inside a larger pot and fill in soil between the two and then roots from the smaller inner pot should grow through the holes and into the soil in the larger outer pot. I have no idea if that would or would not occur. I would think it to be possible though. But then that is not the purpose of the pot design. It would be using the pots in a totally different way than they were intended to be used.



But using the same logic there would be no reason to actually re-pot plants in regular pots. Hole could be cut or drilled in the pots that have become to small and they could be set inside larger pots or the bottom two or three inches of the small pot could be cut off and it then set into a larger deeper pot and the roots could grow out of the small pot into the larger deeper pot without needing to fully remove the plant from the smaller pot.



Either could be done, but then an entire lawn can be cut with a weed eater. But just because it could be done would not make it the right way or the best way of doing so. And it would be the same with putting one smaller pot inside a larger pot.



Like any plant, one should be in a pot that is large enough to allow a healthy plant to grow and air root pruning pots are designed to create a healthier more efficient root structure for the above soil portion of plants to rely on and be healthier because of.


Plants will try to maintain as equal as possible a 50/50 mass ratio between above ground growth and below ground growth. Of course a main stem, branches, leaves, flowers/buds look very different than roots, but the overall mass/volume of each, if given a proper amount of soil to grow in, will at all times be very close to a 50/50 ratio if a plant is healthy. When you deprive a plant of adequate below ground grown space it will negatively effect the above ground growth.
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i understand how they work. i was talking in regards to putting a smaller one into a bigger one for transplant. like i said if the pot is designed so that the root grows to the outside and dehydrates from the air, it will grow to the outside and if it is in soil will continue to grow till it hits the outer layer of the bigger pot then the "air pruning" will take place. all im saying is i dont see why putting the smart pot into another smart pot would have any ill side effects or prevent the pots from working the way they are intended to.
 
matthebrute

matthebrute

Well-Known Member
Brick Top said:
I think the reason the belief that you need to start plants in small containers, sometimes party cups or even smaller containers, is because of what people see many ornamental plants in when they are sold.
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i started my grow in party cups because i only intend on keeping 1 out of 8 germinated and planted. would not make much sense to put all 8 into 10" pots just to get rid of 7 of them later down the line. so i guess it all depends on what your doing and what system and plans you have for your grow.

also from what i understand about root growth is the taproot from a seed shoots down till it reaches the bottom of the container then starts to branch off. while the root is shooting down how much plant growth do you see? im really not sure but im asuming when they are young and dont have alot of energy production alot of what they are able to produce goes to the root growth and not to the plant. so by planting in a large deep pot that plant expends alot of energy to reach the bottom before it starts using that energy to grow upward. using a small pot the root will hit bottom in a day or so and then the plant can focus on growing up and not down.

anyways just a theory, im by no means an expert
 
Brick Top

Brick Top

New Member
Uncle Ben said:
BT, I have found that small seedlings confined to a large pot from the get-go are stunted or at least don't have near the vigor starting off in a small pot and upcanning as needed. A container grown plant experiences totally different dynamics than one in the ground. I think it is an issue of air exchange at the root zone. Do you not use pure pine bark mulch as potting medium?
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I use something similar to pine bark mulch, but not the typical mulch you find in bags to spread in gardens. It is more like a mix of small chips nickle sized down to tiny bits and some has been composted to the point of being dirt. It is a light mix with tremendous drainage and roots cut through it like a hot knife through warm butter on a hot Texas afternoon. Since finding out about it everything we grow has grown better and faster.

Where I came to try starting plants in larger pots was when we began planting small trees at our nursery in large pots, 25-gallon to 50-gallon pots, and were going to grow them to a large caliper size before selling them. They grew more rapidly and evenly and were healthier than the same types of trees that we started out in 3-gallon pots and then up-canned repeatedly until they reached the size we sold them at.

I tried the same thing with cannabis plants and saw the very same response. My plants grew faster, fuller and were healthier.

While it is only an assumption I half believe that what makes plants started in small containers appear more vigorous is they quickly fill the area they have for roots and then they get something of a stretch, like can happen to root-bound plants. To me it is an artificial growth spurt that the roots will later have to catch up with after re-potting, and I believe that is what some people call the slight stunting of growth that can at times be seen after re-potting. The plants are trying to regain that rough 50/50 ratio of above ground and below ground growth.

What is Root-Bound?
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Root-bound is where the roots of your plant outgrow the container they are contained in.

The following symptoms may be observed if you allow your plants to become root-bound:

1. Stunted Growth.

2. Stretching.

3. Smaller and slower bud production.

4. Needs watering too often.

5. Easy to burn with low % nutrient solution mixtures.

6. Wilting.

A small plant uses up it's root space and it stretches. Ever notice how tall and gangly and straggly the last plants in trays are like at places like Lowes etc? The roots ran out of space and the plants shot up.

Before becoming very tall and gangly it would just appear to be a vigorous growth spurt. So, it appears there is a vigorous growth spurt, but it is not really caused by vigor, it's artificial due to growing environment/conditions forcing it.

If not re-potted soon after that is seen the plants would grow tall and gangly, stretched.

I never see that. I see a consistent rate of growth from seedling until flowering, and then the natural growth spurt occurs.
 
Uncle Ben

Uncle Ben

Well-Known Member
Brick Top said:
I use something similar to pine bark mulch, but not the typical mulch you find in bags to spread in gardens. It is more like a mix of small chips nickle sized down to tiny bits and some has been composted to the point of being dirt. It is a light mix with tremendous drainage and roots cut through it like a hot knife through warm butter on a hot Texas afternoon. Since finding out about it everything we grow has grown better and faster.
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Got a brand name for me? The stuff I bought was cheap but not clean and uniform.

Where I came to try starting plants in larger pots was when we began planting small trees at our nursery in large pots, 25-gallon to 50-gallon pots, and were going to grow them to a large caliper size before selling them. They grew more rapidly and evenly and were healthier than the same types of trees that we started out in 3-gallon pots and then up-canned repeatedly until they reached the size we sold them at.
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I can see that working with a loose mix but most here have trouble keeping a root system healthy even in a small pot. I recently followed your drill but potting tropicals in very large pots, sandy mix, and they are doing really well.

The nursery biz, those that do perennials such as trees and shrubs, still do a stepped up drill - from a liner to a 1 gal. to a 3-5 gal., and then stepped up to a 10, 15, 30, 50. Being that that is rather labor intensive, there must be a good reason this practice is still followed the main one being the integrity, the structure of the organics. If you put a seedling in a 15 gal. pot, by the time it's ready for market I guarantee you the soil will be mush and you won't have a tree any more due to root rot.

UB
 
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smokey mcsmokester

Well-Known Member
Where can one find this griffin's spin out? I found a 2 1/2 gallon container of SePro's spin out for $225 bucks but I don't feel like spending that much and don't need that much for that matter. Would like to find a small 1/2 gallon size.. Thanks...
 
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