ROOTS!

You will not get anywhere near the same benefit that the above air pot provides by drilling holes into a traditional pot. It is the funneling channels on the above pot that make all the difference. Similar pots with ''lots of holes'' exist but they lack the funneling so are not as good.

If you can find a way to diy mimic the funnel effect then power to you. Just don't let your cheap/lazy side convince you the funneling isn't a big deal, it truly is.

The air pot above can be moved with less worry of compressing the medium and damaging roots/microbes, compared to fabric based pots.

The con is they must be watered very slowly.

They also cost an arm and leg

Flowki said:

You will not get anywhere near the same benefit that the above air pot provides by drilling holes into a traditional pot. It is the funneling channels on the above pot that make all the difference. Similar pots with ''lots of holes'' exist but they lack the funneling so are not as good.

If you can find a way to diy mimic the funnel effect then power to you. Just don't let your cheap/lazy side convince you the funneling isn't a big deal, it truly is.

The air pot above can be moved with less worry of compressing the medium and damaging roots/microbes, compared to fabric based pots.

The con is they must be watered very slowly.

Click to expand...

You would think that. but in order for the roots to go down those holes, they need to change direction and then clump together towards the holes.
Using a simple plastic grow bag punched full of holes, makes the hole surface and air pruning zone. The roots literally explode out evenly from the tap root in all directions like a dandelion seed ball.
My opinion is that it is superior to clumping together roots in channels. When I punch my bags I try and visualise a root tip arriving close by, I want to be sure it gets cauterised right there, I do NOT want roots changing direction. Nor do I want only a few strands no matter how well they are growing in different directions. I want a Uniform root ball that doesn't just consist of a skin of roots, but the roots have to spread out uniformly through the whole pot (part of why we step the bag sizes up).

It is only an illusion that you have to water them slower. The substrate in an ordinary pot shrinks as it dries out. This leaves a gap between the pot and substrate. When we water it after, most of the water finds its way down this gap, it sure feels like we are watering them well though.


It makes all the difference to the plant. it can store a lot of water in the root zone where it is not as exposed as moisture in green parts above the soil. Stems are more robust and the plants are nearly twice the size of the control group I used and 3 times the size of the soil group.
The photos above are nothing compared to how the rootball looked that came out of the larger bag. It is so good I nearly laughed. I tried rinsing off the coco on one plant to see the insides.... I think I would need a pressure washer. It is one solid root plug.

I do admit that my bags was a direct attempt at working with the pots @Flowki posted. I think those are even better than giant smart pots.

Johnei said:

...and maybe drill more holes up the entire pot, and not so small this time, and line the inside with mesh of some kind, and make 'hats' like from the top of a cardboard file box type thing? I read about what Sedan said poly mesh warms too much, got that part. ANy suggestions is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
(just to make sure.. you do see the pic in previous post right? ..it's not red x is it?)

Click to expand...

I prefer cloth pots but if I went back to plastic, I would drill holes in them.

If you have easy access to cloth pots in all the sizes I would use those. You can still use them and just use the plastic bags as the stepping stones for the sizes you don't have in cloth.

A common paper punch works easiest.

Just thought of it, to improve performance, you can use one of those pot in a pot setups that use wicks to draw up water from a reservoir underneath. Think I might try that with tomatoes.

TurboTokes said:

They also cost an arm and leg

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Unless you are a commercial grower, cost isn't that bad and they last for years. You don't have to use the largest size, starting in a smaller size and upcanning to a regular pot will work, by the time they start root circling they are done.

TurboTokes said:

They also cost an arm and leg

Click to expand...

With all due respect I could only laugh at this comment. People spend stupid amounts on nutrients and over kill on lighting/setup that after a certain level only add a fraction to the end product. They are not able to justify spending money on a pot because it's ''just a pot'', even though the pot houses the gas tank that will dictate how far your plants can go regardless of the thousands you spent on everything else.

Imo roots come first. Everything else is a tool to create them or a reward from them.

ANC said:

You would think that. but in order for the roots to go down those holes, they need to change direction and then clump together towards the holes.
Using a simple plastic grow bag punched full of holes, makes the hole surface and air pruning zone. The roots literally explode out evenly from the tap root in all directions like a dandelion seed ball.
My opinion is that it is superior to clumping together roots in channels. When I punch my bags I try and visualise a root tip arriving close by, I want to be sure it gets cauterised right there, I do NOT want roots changing direction. Nor do I want only a few strands no matter how well they are growing in different directions. I want a Uniform root ball that doesn't just consist of a skin of roots, but the roots have to spread out uniformly through the whole pot (part of why we step the bag sizes up).

Click to expand...

I suppose it's a compromise. The foam idea is a good one but it will come with it's own set of cons I am sure.

ANC said:

It is only an illusion that you have to water them slower. The substrate in an ordinary pot shrinks as it dries out. This leaves a gap between the pot and substrate. When we water it after, most of the water finds its way down this gap, it sure feels like we are watering them well though.

Click to expand...

I don't believe it is an illusion. The slower you water the more time the roots have to take up that water and then you fill the medium like a battery, going too fast you flood and end up with over flow run off. If you are sitting pots in trays then they can wick back up but a few situations exist where this is not possible. This in itself has pros and cons. Pots sitting in trays make watering due to wick more convenient but you likely run more risk of exposing low end roots to excess salt that drys on the tray along with possible slight anaerobic conditions in that zone. Also when root balls get very dense it will take more time for water to seep into it. If you water too fast it will flow around and out.

This is why I believe that it gets to a point where too many holes become a bad thing for manual watering. You need to keep some water in long enough for roots to soak up and then battery store water in the medium itself. So it favors a drip system (gravity or mechanical) as to avoid the highly tedious, border line insanity of watering air/fabric pots of almost any sort.

This does not mean a continues drip system, but simply a drip system that can feed your normal manual amount of water at a far slower pace than you can remain sane doing.

ANC said:

It makes all the difference to the plant. it can store a lot of water in the root zone where it is not as exposed as moisture in green parts above the soil. Stems are more robust and the plants are nearly twice the size of the control group I used and 3 times the size of the soil group.
The photos above are nothing compared to how the rootball looked that came out of the larger bag. It is so good I nearly laughed. I tried rinsing off the coco on one plant to see the insides.... I think I would need a pressure washer. It is one solid root plug.

Click to expand...

I don't doubt this ;p.

I have not seen the many holes being a problem, the coco grabs on to water quite well if kept slightly moist. There is very little runoff through the sides. I make sure to put lots of holes underneath also.
I have not encountered any problems with the foam, but currently, I am using only the holes, no foam.

ANC said:

Just thought of it, to improve performance, you can use one of those pot in a pot setups that use wicks to draw up water from a reservoir underneath. Think I might try that with tomatoes.

Click to expand...

How would you do it, have a piece of wicking cloth shoved up inside the bottom of the pot? then sitting in another pot with a little water and overflow drain? just interested that's all, never did that style

You could look up earthbuckets, it is the same concept.

Good video man, visually explains it well. I think i will also try this for some tomato plants outside . Always have trouble keeping up with their water needs. This looks good.

ANC said:

I have not seen the many holes being a problem, the coco grabs on to water quite well if kept slightly moist. There is very little runoff through the sides. I make sure to put lots of holes underneath also.
I have not encountered any problems with the foam, but currently, I am using only the holes, no foam.

Click to expand...

Yeah I get the feeling we are on the verge of splitting hairs now but we are on the same page.