Fabric pots reviewed(rambled about?)

Joker59 · Post by **Joker59** » Mon Aug 24, 2020 10:35 pm

So for my week 3 entry I’m reviewing fabric pots, and Smart pots in particular. For those of you that have never used a fabric pot, I’ll start at the top!

Fabric pots are exactly what they sound like, they are a pot meant for mediums like soil, that are made using different textiles. They range for polymer coated weaves like RainScience-Growbags (a favourite of mine) to fabrics with air-permeable layers that are also hydrophobic! Right down to cheaper pots made of a tough felt like material, like SmartPot brand.

Each one offers its own pros and cons, but their is a few goals they share! They are all considered to be “Air Pruning pots” witch means the air can directly contact the outter layer of roots and soil. This causes the roots to branch into a more hearty, denser root ball. Where in a regular, rounded plastic pot the roots thicken and circle around each other becoming less efficient and “root bound” faster. In a Fabric pot, the roots keep branching, increasing their surface area and helping avoid root binding.

Some differences between types of bags include, materials, number and type of layers, cost, water and air permeability and structure of the bag itself. Many come with handles, although I’d actually suggest going without If you won’t be moving your plants often.

Brands I would suggest are Rainscience Growbags (hearty,last a long time, breath amazing, and they offer transplant bags) Rhizopot (best value for your price and a all around great bag) SmartPot (one of the cheaper ones, decent quality, good for a couple cycles) there is also brands like BasementAutoFlowers and Geopot. Most of them are similar and pretty solid but I would shop around for the best price on a type that fits your needs!

BasementAutoFlowers is actually starting to sell a fabric pot called their LST smart pot. It has grommets all around the top and reinforced fabric for training.

Basically a fabric pot is a way to make the most of your container space, keep outdoor plants from being swamped, and promote a healthy and aerated root zone.

They can be roughly compare to a Airpot brand pot although are less fancy, far less costly and in some peoples opinions Airpots are more effective. I haven’t used them side by side so I’m not sure!

But if your looking for a quick and cheap way to try air pruning to increase your root density, fabric pots are a great place to look!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:00 pm

Joker59 wrote: ↑
Mon Aug 24, 2020 10:35 pm
So for my week 3 entry I’m reviewing fabric pots, and Smart pots in particular. For those of you that have never used a fabric pot, I’ll start at the top!

Fabric pots are exactly what they sound like, they are a pot meant for mediums like soil, that are made using different textiles. They range for polymer coated weaves like RainScience-Growbags (a favourite of mine) to fabrics with air-permeable layers that are also hydrophobic! Right down to cheaper pots made of a tough felt like material, like SmartPot brand.

Each one offers its own pros and cons, but their is a few goals they share! They are all considered to be “Air Pruning pots” witch means the air can directly contact the outter layer of roots and soil. This causes the roots to branch into a more hearty, denser root ball. Where in a regular, rounded plastic pot the roots thicken and circle around each other becoming less efficient and “root bound” faster. In a Fabric pot, the roots keep branching, increasing their surface area and helping avoid root binding.

Some differences between types of bags include, materials, number and type of layers, cost, water and air permeability and structure of the bag itself. Many come with handles, although I’d actually suggest going without If you won’t be moving your plants often.

Brands I would suggest are Rainscience Growbags (hearty,last a long time, breath amazing, and they offer transplant bags) Rhizopot (best value for your price and a all around great bag) SmartPot (one of the cheaper ones, decent quality, good for a couple cycles) there is also brands like BasementAutoFlowers and Geopot. Most of them are similar and pretty solid but I would shop around for the best price on a type that fits your needs!

BasementAutoFlowers is actually starting to sell a fabric pot called their LST smart pot. It has grommets all around the top and reinforced fabric for training.

Basically a fabric pot is a way to make the most of your container space, keep outdoor plants from being swamped, and promote a healthy and aerated root zone.

They can be roughly compare to a Airpot brand pot although are less fancy, far less costly and in some peoples opinions Airpots are more effective. I haven’t used them side by side so I’m not sure!

But if your looking for a quick and cheap way to try air pruning to increase your root density, fabric pots are a great place to look!

Get me some of those hydrophobic pots! Any links? I get fed up with water seeping out, watering slowly and it still does it!

GrowGlow · Post by **GrowGlow** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 12:22 am

The watering part takes a while to get used to but once dialed in, No other pots I prefer really.

Joker59 · Post by **Joker59** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 3:17 am

@DIY.Rik I will look for it, I got them on Indoor Growing Canada if that helps lol I think they are made by Rain Science or GeoPot

@GrowGlow I always give mine a deep deep watering so I didn’t have to change much, other then slowing it down a bit. Indoors where we don’t have tables, I double pot them into a plastic pot and water from the bottom. We have panda film on the tops so doing that allows the root to grow right up to the top layer of soil.