Quote:
Originally Posted by rangiku
Ray, with 1.5 year+ growing under my belt, I totally understand your answer. And, I greatly appreciate your expert advice. However, 1.5+ years ago, I found this answer very, very frustrating.
Guidelines help us newbies.  When one way doesn't work, we can move onto another option. And, experts like you and others on this board help decode how best for us to grow. |
OK. I suppose I could have elucidated. How's this?
When choosing a pot for a plant, you have several options:
- Clay with solid sides
- Clay with slots or other perforations in the sidewall
- Opaque plastic
- Clear plastic
- Plastic (opaque or clear) with slots
- Net
- Semi-hydroponic
The pot is designed to contain the potting medium the plant is growing with, but can affect that volume with its own properties.
IF we have the same potting medium in each (We'll ignore S/H, as that's more than just a pot choice), the loss of water due to evaporation will vary greatly, in the following order - slowest to fastest:
- Solid plastic
- Slotted plastic
- Clay
- Perforated clay
- Net
(Clear plastic may allow faster evaporation, as the warming light flux can heat the medium, although one could argue that black or green plastic will absorb the energy and pass it onto the medium - I doubt either is all that significant for windowsill growers, but might be for outdoor or greenhouse growers.)
The evaporation rate has a direct connection to the frequency of watering needed fr the plant, but keep in mind that fast evaporation means there will be some evaporative cooling as well, which can affect the temperatures in the root zone, which is also an important consideration.
I think that's pretty much it for the pot, but now you have the added variable of choosing a potting medium, and as each choice results in an entirely different root zone environment that will react differently to the pot choice, you need to consider both.
I have an article on choosing potting media
HERE.
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