chairroller
Active Member
(This article is originally from here: https://www.rollitup.org/blogs/blog13753-torture-pots.html )
There is an RIU thread about these pots Air Pot Club. Be warned, these guys are loyal devotees. When I voiced my skepticism in that thread I got some sharp words in reply!
No problem. That's how people are when they get enthusiastic about an idea.
Nursery pots are changing! The last time I was growing all the innovations were in hydro. Now there is serious development in soil containers, smart pots, air pots root pots etc. As an engineer I am drawn to such ideas. "If it ain't broke fix it till it is!" is my motto. But, from experience, I know that many ideas that make a lot of sense and sound great, don't work out in practice. So I am going to try Air Pots.
I must say I am very impressed with the way they are manufactured. The parts are all simple, cheap and easy to manufacture. All the elements work very well together. The end result is something that costs little to make but is not 'cheap'. A very cool piece of engineering.
I think these are the ugliest things I have ever seen. In fact, so ugly they are kind of cool. They look like torture devices - something that might have been dreamed up by the Head Gardener for the Spanish Inquisition! The walls are just a sheet of eggbox shaped material which is wrapped around the circular base to make a cylinder. They ship disassembled.
The traditional plastic nursery pot has some serious problems:
When the roots reach the side, they behave as if they had found a rock in the soil and try to grow around it. In a plastic pot this means the circle around against the inside of the pot and go nowhere. This is entirely wasted growth and can lead to root problems if the circling is excessive. Even transplanting may not fix this. Some growers will prune the circling roots when transplanting.
Plastic pots are an impermeable barrier. In natural conditions the plants root ball is surrounded by more soil and it can exchange oxygen and water with the soil around it. Plastic pots tend to deprive the soil of oxygen and keep the soil too wet. Actually I now realize that I have been overwatering my plants. During the hiatus between my growing efforts, I seem to have forgotten quite a bit. These pots should help.
As I understand it, the two main advantages of Air Pots are:
The soil is well aerated by the holes.
The roots grow towards the holes and self prune when they reach the air. This is the biggie. Pruning roots has the same effect as pruning the top of the plant, it causes bushy thick root growth inside the pot and doesn't waste energy circling the inside wall of the container. The roots' natural response to stop growing when it finds air means the pruning is done without shock. The result is a dense efficient root ball with no circling.
At this point I have my four vegging plants in air pots. The aren't much more expensive than good quality nursery pots. I find them a little difficult to pack with soil so that the little pockets fill. I must do some reading about that. There is no problem with soil or water running out the holes in the sides and the bottom. I put a layer of styrofoam chips on the bottom screen before adding soil
Some other bennies to this design are:
Compact storage. Just unroll them and store the walls as sheets.
Lots of convenient tie points for LST.
Adjustability. The volume can be reduced by setting the base higher or by cutting the walls to a different size. You can buy the base plates separately.
Easily adapted to hydro or automatic flood watering. I haven't tried this, but it seems it would work.
They are totally cool and funky. You will amaze everyone with this cutting edge technology. Women will just melt and fall into your arms (This last claim is, as yet, untested)
Added later: Some nice pix posted by WOWgrow in the Air Pots Club thread
There is an RIU thread about these pots Air Pot Club. Be warned, these guys are loyal devotees. When I voiced my skepticism in that thread I got some sharp words in reply!
Nursery pots are changing! The last time I was growing all the innovations were in hydro. Now there is serious development in soil containers, smart pots, air pots root pots etc. As an engineer I am drawn to such ideas. "If it ain't broke fix it till it is!" is my motto. But, from experience, I know that many ideas that make a lot of sense and sound great, don't work out in practice. So I am going to try Air Pots.
I must say I am very impressed with the way they are manufactured. The parts are all simple, cheap and easy to manufacture. All the elements work very well together. The end result is something that costs little to make but is not 'cheap'. A very cool piece of engineering.
I think these are the ugliest things I have ever seen. In fact, so ugly they are kind of cool. They look like torture devices - something that might have been dreamed up by the Head Gardener for the Spanish Inquisition! The walls are just a sheet of eggbox shaped material which is wrapped around the circular base to make a cylinder. They ship disassembled.
The traditional plastic nursery pot has some serious problems:
When the roots reach the side, they behave as if they had found a rock in the soil and try to grow around it. In a plastic pot this means the circle around against the inside of the pot and go nowhere. This is entirely wasted growth and can lead to root problems if the circling is excessive. Even transplanting may not fix this. Some growers will prune the circling roots when transplanting.
Plastic pots are an impermeable barrier. In natural conditions the plants root ball is surrounded by more soil and it can exchange oxygen and water with the soil around it. Plastic pots tend to deprive the soil of oxygen and keep the soil too wet. Actually I now realize that I have been overwatering my plants. During the hiatus between my growing efforts, I seem to have forgotten quite a bit. These pots should help.
As I understand it, the two main advantages of Air Pots are:
The soil is well aerated by the holes.
The roots grow towards the holes and self prune when they reach the air. This is the biggie. Pruning roots has the same effect as pruning the top of the plant, it causes bushy thick root growth inside the pot and doesn't waste energy circling the inside wall of the container. The roots' natural response to stop growing when it finds air means the pruning is done without shock. The result is a dense efficient root ball with no circling.
At this point I have my four vegging plants in air pots. The aren't much more expensive than good quality nursery pots. I find them a little difficult to pack with soil so that the little pockets fill. I must do some reading about that. There is no problem with soil or water running out the holes in the sides and the bottom. I put a layer of styrofoam chips on the bottom screen before adding soil
Some other bennies to this design are:
Compact storage. Just unroll them and store the walls as sheets.
Lots of convenient tie points for LST.
Adjustability. The volume can be reduced by setting the base higher or by cutting the walls to a different size. You can buy the base plates separately.
Easily adapted to hydro or automatic flood watering. I haven't tried this, but it seems it would work.
They are totally cool and funky. You will amaze everyone with this cutting edge technology. Women will just melt and fall into your arms (This last claim is, as yet, untested)
Added later: Some nice pix posted by WOWgrow in the Air Pots Club thread
