Kitchen Garden Forum

These pots are available in UK.

Pot sizes are 1lt to 45lt, not sure those sizes are useful for everyday seedlings grown by amateurs
Cost of 10 x 1lt pots £10.99 plus P&P £10.00.

In terms of our type of gardening, where vegetables are usually home grown for taste as well as economy of cost
I cannot see as such an investment is called for to grow something that, within one season, is going to be eaten fresh or frozen/preserved for future use


Air-Pot Original

The Original Air-Pot container was developed twenty years ago for growing trees and shrubs without the root deformities caused by traditional containers. It has been continually improved and is now in its sixth generation. Every detail of the design has been refined. It is now used by experts at the worlds’ leading horticultural institutions and by leading commercial growers in 23 countries worldwide. The containers have just one uncut cone at the top to act as a water reservoir to guarantee no root circling.

In my humble opinion , made for professional growers, of little cost practicality to amateur growers except perhaps those who wish to grow vegetables for the show bench where cost isn't always a consideration.

http://air-pot.com/garden/product-categ ... %c2%adpot/
http://air-pot.com/garden/what-to-grow/

Now where are my sandwiches and entry form for onion class at local show

How long do you intend to keep the vegetables in the pots? If you want to utilise the idea to start them off get some root trainers which have been sold for this for years and then plant them out. It will be more economical. I would imagine these air pots are more for larger plants that stay in them for longer.

One of the many YouTube Allotmenteers I follow did a piece on these holey pots, but so far I have failed to find it. So this post is a non-event really. Sorry about that. Ramble, ramble.

Why is it a none event, I've found the reading very interesting

I didn't mean the subject was a non-event, I meant me not knowing enough to make it worth writing about was a non-event. Ask SWMBO she tells me that all the time.

My only thought about curtailing the roots of plants is to prevent them from growing more vigorously. Agter all this is the theory behind growing bonsai trees and shrubs where roots are continually teimmed or resteicted to prevent excessive growth. I haven,t seen any thing about these devices but can't imagine they have anything to recommend them for growing vegetables which probably best thrive growing in normal conditions where roots are not restricted.

I will wait to see some trial results but always remind myself that clever marketeers can sell fridges to eskimos if people are naive enough to believe all their sales promotion spiels.

Primrose wrote:I will wait to see some trial results but always remind myself that clever marketeers can sell fridges to eskimos if people are naive enough to believe all their sales promotion spiels.

Primrose

Along the same lines as I was suggesting, we sometimes think alike.

Mind, these pots have been around 20 years allegedly, and yet there seems to be little feedback on use and results.
Suggests to me that they rarely get used for veg items, if at all, in this country.

Could it be that a hoped for part of the producers market has not materialised, hence being unable to find any reports.

I might buy one and put one of my cherry toms in it and compare....
I wonder if there is a DIY version??
Perhaps this would be something the magazine could do an article on.

Are they really re-usable I wonder? I wonder if confining the plant that much it bulges out a bit & would distort the pot for future use, they say they are just recycled plastic, wonder what the grade is?

Good point. It also looks like some of the designs would be difficult to clean.
I see there are plenty of video's on youtube on how to do a DIY version.

Hi mr-cecil!

Been on youtube too looking at growing peanuts, but will visit & check out these pots on the next visit. Still very undecided on their value but willing to have a bit of an experiment if you can DIY them! Not sure what to put in them though, but may get inspiration from the videos.

As a previous member has mentioned, they work on the principle that when the roots make contact with the air through the holes they are effectively 'pruned' which then stimulates further root development. If you're interested in finding out more about them go to: http://air-pot.com.

A bit of a thick blonde question. So it prunes off the ones that sneak out of the pots, then you get more root growth, but doesn't it then get too congested? Don't the holes get blocked by the 'pruned' roots, leaving the others go round & round like normal pot bound plants?

Westi

Good point - I do have some of these in the shed so will try them out this year to see what happens.

Looking forward to your feedback Tony - you try it & let us know. Thank you.