Pots & Trays — Fabric Pots

In a solid plastic pot a root grows until it meets the wall and then circles: the plant keeps making root without gaining anything from it. A fabric pot solves that with air pruning. At the wall the root tip meets dry air and stops, and the plant branches instead, so the result is a dense divided root mass rather than a coiled one.

Eleven sizes in one line

Gronest Aqua Breathe covers the whole range, from 1 litre for seedlings to 75 litres for monster plants, with 2, 4, 8, 11, 15, 19, 25, 39 and 55 in between. Those are enough steps to find a size that fits at every potting-on. Many growers treat the 8 litre as the size for a full cycle in a mid-sized room, and the 4 litre is the usual choice for Sea of Green. Alongside them are Wall Planters at 1.5, 4.5 and 10 litres for using wall space rather than floor.

Heavier versions

Root Pouch Boxer Brown runs from 3.8 to 56 litres, with reinforced handles you only appreciate once a 45 litre pot is full and wet. The Garden Highpro Propot comes at 4 and 30 litres, and from AC Infinity there is a heavy duty 19 litre pot plus a self-watering base in packs of four: saucers that feed the pot from below, which takes some of the frequent watering that fabric asks for off your hands.

Three rigid pots sit here too

The pots from the Airpot brand, at 5.8 (18 x 18 x 18 cm), 12.5 (25 x 25 x 20 cm) and 22.5 litres (30 x 30 x 25 cm), are on this page but are not fabric. They are rigid plastic pots with a folded open wall doing the same job by another route. If that is the version you want, the rest of it is under Airpots.

Watering and standing them

Fabric dries out faster than plastic, so you water more often but with far less risk of waterlogged roots. Stand them on a tray or a grid: on a solid floor the base sits in whatever runs out, and then the wall stops working on that side. The sizes are under Plant Trays.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a fabric pot last?
Several rounds if you let it dry and knock it out before storing it. Root residue in the weave is what eventually ends it, rather than wear of the material itself.

Which size for a full cycle?
In a mid-sized room most growers settle around 8 to 11 litres, and larger once the plant stays in the same pot for the whole cycle. Work back from the final size, not from the cutting.

Can I put them in the washing machine?
Knocking them out and rinsing by hand works better. Detergent leaves residue in the weave, and the permeability of that weave is exactly what you bought.