I grow all my plants in a 3 inch net pot start to finish but I use buckets (now switched to one 35 gallon container) and they work fine, the only suggestion is that with this last one (white satin) it got so heavy the net cup pulled out of the hole so I just put it back and tied the biggest buds up along with a support for the trunk and everything is fine now no harm no foul ( oh yeah I did not top or train this one so it is about 3 1/2 feet by 2 feet wide not huge but big)