When you’re feeling hot, stressed, and uptight, many times someone will remind you to “breathe.” Dustin Fraser, West Coast sales manager for Smart Pots, reminds us that plant roots also do better if they can take a deep breath. Ahhhhhh…
“Cannabis, being a fast-growing annual plant that wants to get as big as it possibly can in a short season, needs a lot of root space to grow large,” Fraser explained. “The Smart Pot ‘air-prunes’ the roots, which creates more root zone and a greater root mass, hence leading to a bigger plant and substantially increased yields.”
Made of porous fabric, Smart Pots allow tiny, fibrous root tips to grow through the container, where contact with air and light trims the roots naturally. Fabric pots also allow more oxygen to permeate the root ball, keeping plants cooler on hot days and encouraging more robust growth.
“Your roots are breathing, which improves the life of beneficial microbes in your soil, like fungus and bacteria,” Fraser said. “In the hot summer sun, a plastic container will actually cook your root zone. If temperatures exceed 80 degrees, it’ll be over 100 in a plastic container. A cooler root zone allows the plant to take up more water and nutrients.”
For water-conscious growers, Fraser said, even though the pots are porous, simply adding mulch or other water-retaining elements to growing medium will eliminate the need to water as often as you would in a plastic pot.
At SmartPots.com, sizes range from one-gallon to 400-gallon pots, as well as 100-gallon raised-bed containers and hanging wall containers. While sizes up to 10-gallon may be slightly more expensive than plastic pots, Fraser said for sizes 10-gallon and over, Smart Pots are less expensive than plastic and very durable.
Growers that would like to buy in bulk may call (405) 842-7700 or email [email protected] and ask to be put in touch with the company’s industrial division. Smaller growers may visit SmartPots.com and enter their zip code to find a Smart Pot retailer near them. The website also contains studies about the benefits of fabric containers, testimonials, and other handy information. Your plants will breathe a sigh of relief!
