Gronest Aqua Breathe 39 Liters

A 39 litre fabric pot, 36 x 36 x 30 centimetres, with handles and the Aqua Breathe layer. Close to forty litres of substrate under one plant, on a footprint covering roughly an eighth of a square metre.

One 39 litre pot or three 13 litre ones

That is the choice you are really making here, because the total volume is the same. What differs is almost everything around it.

Three smaller pots give you three plants, so more tops finishing sooner and a harvest you can bring in by instalments. You water three times, and if one plant has a problem it stands on its own. The cost is root room per plant: none of the three gets enough to grow genuinely large.

One 39 litre pot gives you a single plant that can grow much further, and a substrate buffer that is not empty within a day. That is what this size is for: longer cycles, mother plants, or a plant you train wide rather than tall. The flip side is that everything rides on one plant, and a problem in that root zone costs you the whole space.

The rule of thumb that holds in practice: go large when you have time and small when you want speed. This pot is the first of those.

Why wide works well here

At 36 centimetres square and 30 centimetres tall this is a wide, shallow container. The root system spreads outwards instead of hunting downwards, which suits the way most annual crops root anyway. On top of that the substrate sits in much the same moisture range over its full depth, because the wet layer at the bottom is no thicker than it would be in a smaller pot.

The Aqua Breathe layer

The less permeable layer in the side makes water leave at the base of the pot. At 39 litres that saves you a wet circle on the floor getting on for half a metre across, and it keeps the feed in the substrate where you put it.

Technical Specifications:

• Volume: 39 litres
• Dimensions: 36 x 36 x 30 cm
• Footprint: 1,296 cm²
• Material: geotextile with Aqua Breathe side wall
• Handles: yes, the largest size in the range that has them
• Seams: double-stitched
• Drainage: through the base
• Reusable: yes, washable

Frequently asked questions

How many fit on a square metre? Four fit exactly if they touch. In practice you place four and keep the edges clear.

Can I still lift it when full? Full and wet it weighs tens of kilos. The handles are there, but lift with two people or fill the pot where it is going to stand.

Is this the largest size with handles? It is. The 55 and 75 litre have none, because a pot that size is not something you pick up anyway.

How much substrate does it take? Roughly four fifths of a 50 litre bag per pot, so four pots cost you a little over three bags.