Carrying on from yesterday's gorgeous rugs from Weaver Green, something rather less outwardly beautiful but incredibly clever and useful; The Air Pot. This thing combines clever design and recycled plastic to give you healthier plants.
The Air Pot
The Air Pot has been around for years and is used by professional growers for everything from seedlings to large trees. The design promotes healthy root growth - roots grow outwards towards the holes in the sides and bottom, and are then air-pruned (the tips die off when they come into contact with air) which in turn makes the plant produce more branching roots. The result is a containerised root system that never becomes pot-bound (where the roots start circling around the edge of the compost), and when it's time to pot on or plant out, you simply un-wrap the pot, which means minimal root disturbance.
The pots are made in Scotland, from recycled plastic, and let's be honest, they're not pretty, but a healthy root system makes for more beautiful plants, and they can of course be placed inside another, larger, more lovely container. They come flat-packed and are easily assembled. They can also obviously be stored flat, which is a great for those with limited space. At present, because the company has only just started retailing to smaller customers, the product is sent out wrapped in a sand-bag (woven plastic material) which can be re-used in the garden. Eventually these will be replaced with cardboard.
I have enough old-school small and medium sized plastic pots to last me for years, but I'll be ordering a couple of large Air Pots for my containerised trees so watch this space!
Acers in Air Pots at Kew Gardens
x Laetitia