Teccacotta vs Plastic Containers

[GrimLore]

and more -

I missed two, Mica and Fiberglass. Mica is awesome but again heavy.

Another note, most plastic is very flimsy so when moved, it flexes all over the place, stressing the root system on plants repotted that year. If you plant something in a plastic pot, plan to not move it for like 6 months.

There are different qualities of black nursery pots - I find Kole produces a very rigid durable product. They are much heavier...

Grimmy

 

[GGB]

@GrimLore good to know. I always have one or two of them crumble in the winter.

 

[wireme]

I’ve had great luck with terra cotta here. I’ve got some that have been in use all seasons for twenty years. Every now and then one crumbles in spring but usually they hold up well, strange. Maybe because I have less freeze thaw cycles than many, just a long, long freeze. Freeze thaw shoulder seasons are pretty short it’s generally either frozen or not frozen.

 

[GrimLore]

@GrimLore good to know. I always have one or two of them crumble in the winter.

When you handle them you will first notice the weight. We have some here outside for several years and a few in the shed for future planting for close to 10 years that freeze and defrost a lot - 0 damage so far

Grimmy

 

[0soyoung]

These are all the little things we need to insert into the @0soyoung presented outline in the "It Depends" thread....to derive our "it depends'".

And just imagine the possible combinations of soils...x100...
In the differnt amount of containers...x800..
Then Colanders alone...
X3200..

IMHO, these are the dependencies:

• Roots don't grow at temperatures above 95F/35C and they definitely are dying above 115F/46C.
• Roots must get oxygen (as must all living tissues of a plant/tree).
• Roots must be kept moist.
• Roots primarily adsorb mineral nutrients and water through 'hair roots' which are microscopic extensions of individual cells that only occur a few millimeters back from the growing root tip.
• Removing roots tips stimulates branching, in other words new root growth closer to the trunk, just as removing branch tip stimulates new branch growth closer to the trunk above ground (i.e., you've got to cut it if you want to make a bonsai)

Spend $5 to $15 the next time you are at the grocery store on a simple meat thermometer probe - stick it at various points in the pot, at various times of day to know what temperatures the roots are experiencing (quite guessing/assuming/imagining when it is so easy to know in fact).

 

[John in Toledo]

Less questions! Less possible scenarios.
Sorce

I see what you did there!

 

[Clicio]

Roots don't grow at temperatures above 95F/35C and they definitely are dying above 115F/46C.

So the pot is important.
When we have temperatures of 95F for months in a row, specially in the afternoons, temperatures inside can be much higher if the pot is taking the full sun; so it all depends on the pot size, material, how root bound is the tree and so on.
Terracota containers in my experience are "cooler" than plastic or ceramic. Unless you wrap a moist towel around the plastic pots every afternoon, which is really a pain.

 

[0soyoung]

IMHO, these are the dependencies

And a relevant few more:

• Water has a very high heat capacity --> a lot of energy must be adsorbed to raise its temperature
  • Dry substrates have comparatively low heat capacity --> relatively little energy is required to raise its temperature
• Water evaporates directly from the surface of the substrate and in proportion to the exposed surface area.
• Evaporation of water is driven by logarithm of the relative humidity
  • no water will evaporate when the relative humidity of the air is 100%
  • 70% rH poses twice the force of evaporation as 84% rH;
    • 50% twice again the force (4x 84%);
      • 25% yet twice again% (8x 84)
• Relative humidity generally declines with increasing temperature in the course of a typical day
  • in a well-defined way if the dew point is fixed (the dew point is commonly reported by weather information services)
  • The greatest 'water stress' generally occurs at the hottest time of day.

Some things that follow from this are:

• Deep/skinny pots of substrate hold water longer than shallow wide ones (with the same volume of substrate)
• Pond baskets loose water something like 5x to 6x times faster than a solid walled pot of the same dimensions
  • the air on the underside tends to be more humid than the exposed side
  • must water more often than with a solid walled pot
• The "best" time to water is mid afternoon.

 

[Shima]

Hardly a mention of mica pots. Someone said "heavy." Really? They have so much going for them. Great insulating properties, almost indestructible and some can fool you at ten feet looking like ceramic. SOP growing pots at some Japanese production nursery's. I've read somewhere that they're expensive now. Mine came to me long ago so wouldn't know.

 

[Clicio]

The "best" time to water is mid afternoon..

And according to scientific papers, almost no species of leaves really are "burned by midday droplets acting as a lens". If this was the case, all tropical plants would burn its leaves in the summer since it rains almost every day for some time and soon the scorching sun reappears.

 

[Captnignit]

Grabbed some of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J0RRVQY recently. Tough to find wide and shallow pots in general, but this was the only fabric one I've found.

 

[W3rk]

Colanders are plastic, right? You're saying that having so many holes eliminates the problems of plastic containers...?

The holes will give you good drainage and better aeration. But can also lead to running too dry, depending on your climate, and needing more frequent watering.

But another advantage of those holes is air root pruning, which will help develop your root mass nicely.