Cultivation Corner with Olivia Sobelman: Evaluating potting solutions

There are a lot of options for a growing container, more every day. There’s no clear-cut way for me to dive into this content because as crazy as it may seem, there is actually a ton of information that could be said on the subject. I’ll lead with my best observation on the matter by saying that there is a tool for every job, that doesn’t make all the tools in the toolbox the correct one for every job, but they all do have their purpose. You can successfully grow in any container option if you know how to adapt to the one you are using, but some are much better than others.

Fabric Pot vs. Hard Pot

These remain two of the most common and popular containers for growing cannabis. There are pros and cons to both, but more importantly, there are benefits to using both of them in different circumstances.

Pros of fabric pots are that they can come in larger sizes than hard pots because they can fold up in shipping which makes it practical to have pot sizes up to 1000 gallons. They allow air to pass through the pot walls which prevents your roots from binding, keeping the root zone healthy for an incredibly lengthy period of time provided that you feed your plant the proper nutrition. The air flow through the sides of the container also allows for your pot to dry out faster, which in most cases is a benefit to growers. It helps prevent mistakes like over-watering which can lead to root zone flooding and stunted plant growth.

Cons of fabric pots are different sides of the same coin. Having a container that prevents root binding will ultimately lead to a smaller root zone than its same size hard pot counterpart. You won’t be able to achieve the same root mass which can and ultimately will lead to a lower yield. They are also hard to water fully and completely because the water is capable of leaking out of the sides of the pot through the fabric material, which means that you will just need to water more slowly and closer to the base of the stalk of the plant. These pots are hard to remove and clean when you are done with your harvest. They are also incredibly hard to transplant out of because of the lack of root binding and the flimsy nature of the pot. These pots will need to be meticulously packed by pushing soil down the sides and propping the fabric up so that there are no air pockets that will sink in once you begin watering your plants.

The fabric pot is an incredible invention, and its application in cannabis is pivotal to certain styles of growing. The most beneficial way in which to utilize these containers is when you are growing outdoors. The pots act as a raised bed of sorts. The height and the breathability of the pot walls allow for great drainage if you are hit by heavy rain and will prevent your plant from drowning and washing away during floods. The containers don’t attract the same heat that black plastic hard pots do which is much healthier on your root zone on hot days. You are also able to plant into large pot sizes, the benefits of which mean that you can have the potential to grow enormous plants. The best perk is the one I saved for last. The bottom of the container will be resting on the ground, which allows the root zone to actually penetrate the fabric and tap into the earth. This gives your plant the potential to find water and nutrients, and to grow larger than it would otherwise be capable of.

That all being said, these pots have more benefits to outdoor growing than indoor growing, but they are still a fine choice for either application.

Pros of Hard Pots are that they are sturdy, first and foremost. They have enough drainage at the bottom to keep your plants from waterlogging and they are easy to move around. This isn’t the first thing that anyone thinks about, but after many years I can tell you even the most obscure of details, one of which is that these pots are much easier to fill with soil when transplanting plants into them. You can dump bags of soil into them without the sides of the pot collapsing, you can take your entire pot and scoop the soil into it, and you can very quickly pack the soil into it to create a level and appropriately dense environment for your root zone for plant stability. It is faster to use these pots in a lot of ways. They are also the best pots to use for transplanting, even if you end up in large fabric pots to flower your plants, I still always recommend having your smaller plants in hard pots until you end up in whatever container you choose.

Cons of using hard pots are important to know because they can cause problems in your grow that are easy to confuse for other issues. You can over-water hard pots very easily. If you are watering too often, you will have an issue at some point with your root health.Once your root health declines your plant will struggle to uptake the nutrients that you are feeding. Once this occurs it is easy to start seeing and diagnosing deficiencies that you very well may have, but not for the reasons you think. Roots need air as well as the beneficial bacteria that break down nutrients to allow for efficient uptake. The hard walls of the pot are not permeable enough to provide air to the roots, so watering the right amount at the correct frequency is important.These pots can also attract heat outdoors which can and will raise the temperature of your container to well above anything that is healthy for your root zone and allow for fungus and bugs to flourish within your plant. Root binding is one that could go in this column or in the Pro column. Done correctly, root binding can be a point of pride among growers.You can correctly time your plants to keep them from root binding unhealthily, which is why we always inform people to transplant into larger containers as you grow and to choose the right size container when you do go into flower.

Recommendations:

Some of the best uses for fabric pots are to use them for Auto Flowering Plants that will live their entire lives without being transplanted. Also, using large fabric pots outdoors to protect your plants from flooding and to allow them to thrive in high-quality soil while still tapping into the earth beneath them for health and stability. My last recommendation is to use fabric pots for Mother Plants, of which we did not cover in this article, these are the plants that you keep to clone from so that you can keep specific genetics alive and grow more of them. They tend to be alive for a very long time in the vegetative state and also they tend to get very big, in order to provide a surplus of clones. They are the most susceptible to unhealthy root binding over the course of their long lives, so having a container that prevents such a thing is incredibly helpful.

Hard pots are the ones that I highly recommend for seed starts, early vegetative plants, and flowering plants indoors. They are easy to fill and easy to dump out after the fact. They are also easy to water and they can be lower maintenance because they take longer to dry out, meaning that you may be able to go 3-5 days between watering your plants.

I know what you’re probably thinking. ”How could she possibly have more to say about pots?” Ill tell you, Don’t worry.

These are the other, lesser-known containers for growing:

Plastic Bag ‘Pots’ have all the cons of hard pots and all the cons of fabric pots. That being said, I’ve used a thousand of them happily. They are flimsy, they don’t breathe, they have terrible drainage and soil gets packed and waterlogged in the folds at the bottom of the bag. They are so hard to fill with soil, they get hot in the summer, and they are absolutely not UV resistant. I’ve had such a good time with these, truly. You can grow in anything if you compensate for the containers’ shortcomings. They, not unlike disposable paper plates, have an important purpose. They are cheap. You don’t bring porcelain dishes to a toddler’s birthday party at the park and you don’t need 1000$ worth of pots laying around when you could have 100$ worth of disposables. These are useful when Pheno-hunting hundreds of plants, growing for only one quick season, growing a sea-of-green style canopy with numerous small plants, and of course, growing on a budget.

Air Pots are the next on the list of random pot designs. These are said to have the pros of fabric pots and the pros of plastic pots. They are sturdy, easy to clean, breathable, and able to come in any size. They are easy to fill, easy to transplant out of, and they are definitely fun to look at. These do work and they do hold soil well, but I cannot personally attest to their effectiveness without having used them. I will say though that I’ve seen them around the industry for a while and I think they are really onto something. These are ones to try if you are looking to shake things up a little in the garden.

The homemade 5-gallon bucket-turned pot is one I recommend against. It was the first thing I ever grew a plant in, and it made a foreign experience unnecessarily difficult. If you do want to give it a whirl, you will need a lot of drainage holes on the bottom of your bucket and you will want to raise the bucket off of the ground so that the flat bottom of the bucket does not block your drainage holes from actually draining. There are contraptions that are very cheap called plant risers that lift the pot off of the plant saucer that complement these buckets very well. Keep in mind that a 5-gallon bucket full of soil is not actually a 5-gallon pot, but much closer to a 7-gallon pot and you will not need to water very often at all. Overwatering is incredibly easy to do in these so just make sure you are waiting for a dry cycle before watering your plants again.

Solo Cups are a staple in most growers’ homes. I used them until I had unfettered access to starter pots at the shop, now I’ll never be able to go back. The starter pots are sturdier with a better center of gravity to avoid the constant tipping and falling that the solo cups are famous for. The starter pots also group together to fit perfectly into the 10×20 propagation trays that allow for easy watering, space-efficient veg growth, and easy transport to other areas of your grow.

Solo cups are almost great by themselves though. You will need to poke drainage holes in the bottoms of your cups for them to act as starter pots.

In whatever format, avoid using transparent pots, cups, tubs, bins, etc. The earth is not transparent for a reason and the roots aren’t capable of withstanding light and being the healthiest version of themselves. You may also create the capacity for other issues including algae and mold, which grow in such moist and nutrient-rich environments when exposed to light.

There’s more, I really could just keep going, but my editor is going to shake his head at the length of this article.

What can I say, I’m weird. I like pots. Whether or not anyone else shares that, at least you have all of the thoughts I have at my disposal to help decide what you should grow in or try out. At the shop, we are frequently asked these questions, as well as what the pros and cons are and the best applications for all of the options, with every experience level.

Happy Growing! In whatever you decide to grow in!