AutoPot - 1Pot XL 4 FlexiPot watering system incl. 47L water barrel

The FlexiPot system for four pots puts 18.9 litre fabric pots on the same 1Pot XL trays with AQUAvalve5, complete with the 47 litre tank. The difference from a rigid plastic pot is not in the capacity but in what happens to the roots.

What happens at the pot wall

FlexiPot material is porous, BPA-free and lead-free, and passes air. Oxygen therefore reaches the substrate from the side, not only from above. In a solid pot the wall is a barrier; here it is permeable.

That changes what happens when a root meets it. In a plastic pot the root tip deflects and carries on around the wall: root circling, where the plant ends up with a dense ring of long roots crowding each other along the inside. In a FlexiPot that does not occur. The root tip meets dry air at the porous wall and stops extending: it is air-pruned.

What the plant does next

A stopped root tip is not a loss. The plant responds by branching behind that point, and those branches branch again. The result is a fine, fibrous root mass occupying the whole pot volume rather than a handful of long roots around the edge.

Because uptake happens at the fine root ends rather than the thick strands, a fibrous mass takes up water and nutrient considerably more efficiently. That is where this system's argument comes from: a larger plant in a smaller pot. In this range 18.9 litres of fabric sits alongside 25 litres of plastic, not below it.

The rest of the system is unchanged

The same XL trays, the same AQUAvalve5 filling to 20 millimetres and reopening only once the tray is dry, the same 47 litre tank and the same pipework. What does come with it, and is unnecessary on a plastic pot, is a PotSock per pot: the root barrier for fabric.

Technical Specifications:

• Pots: 4 x 18.9 litre FlexiPot, fabric
• Trays: 4 x 1Pot XL with AQUAvalve5
• Material: porous, BPA-free, lead-free
• Included: 47 litre tank, PotSock per pot, fittings, pipe
• Substrate: soil, coco or clay pebbles

Frequently asked questions

Why 18.9 litres against 25 litres of plastic? A fibrous root mass uses the volume better, so you need less pot for the same plant.

What is air-pruning? The root tip stops extending as soon as it reaches the porous wall and the air beyond it.

So no more root circling? No, that is exactly what the material prevents.

Does the valve work the same? Yes, same AQUAvalve5 and same XL tray.