"R" Rock Yard

Better than Plastic Containers:

- Plastic Containers trap & Hold heat. The Smart Pot releases heat. Heat damages roots. Heat release helps roots grow.

 - Roots circle around on a plastic container.  The Smart Pot air-root prunes your plant, greatly improving the root structure.

Better than Raised Beds:

 - Think of the Smart Pot as a portable, miniature raised bed. Water distribution is even, and plant growth is better. Grow your favorite vegetables.

Re-usable:

 - The Smart Pot is a tough pot. Re-use it for years. To clean, dump out the old mix and let it dry. Dip in cleaner or bleach to sterilize if needed.

Made in the U.S.A.

The right container is the first step to healthy, happy plants.  Try the Smart Pot ® and your plant will thank you.

Choosing the correct container is the first step in growing a health plant.  The Smart Pot ® is a soft-sided fabric container that provides a natural place to grow healthy plants.  Healthy plants must have healthy, happy roots.  The Smart Pot ® is the best growing container available.

Why?

The Smart Pot ® releases heat naturally.  Many containers maintain excess heat and heat kills plants.  The University of New Hampshire found that on an 80-degree day, the temperature inside a plastic container can be as high as 125 degrees!  Inside the fabric Smart Pot ® temperatures were only 80 degrees creating a cooler environment.

The Smart Pot ® aerates a plant’s root structure.  A farmer plows his field to aerate the soil and allows the roots to breathe.  A plastic container can only aerate the top thus, suffocating the plant’s roots.  The Smart Pot ® is a porous fabric container that aerates from top to bottom and greater aeration will give you better plant growth.

The Smart Pot ® stops root circling and promotes Root Pruning.  Remove the container from a plant that has been in a container too long and you will find roots circling around and around.  Root circling can choke the plant and is detrimental to plant growth… Root Pruning is a process where the root structure sets many lateral side roots instead of circling.

The Smart Pot ® root prunes using a process called Air Root Pruning.  When a root grows to the side of the fabric, it hits the air.  The root tip desiccates and new root growth initiates laterally from the interior portion of the root.  This process continues as the plant builds a fuller root structure, using every square inch of the soil.  Better roots mean a better plant.

The Smart Pot ® is ideal for Hydroponic Gardening and for use with a drip irrigation system for above ground growing.

What Size Smart Pot Should I Use?

With container gardening, you can grow any plant in any size container.  But that does not mean you should.  Having one parsley plant in a 100-gallon pot, or growing watermelons in a 1-gallon container, are obviously not optimal uses of a Smart Pot.  Please consider the following when trying to decide what size Smart Pot to use:

1.       Portability – If you are going to move the Smart Pot around, get a size you can handle.  A 10-gallon pot, for example, might weigh forty or fifty pounds or more, depending on the soil mix and water content.  Can you move this weight without hurting your back?

2.       Do you need the Smart Pot to fit?  The Smart Pot has straight side and no taper.  If you are placing the Smart Pot inside another pot, make sure the bottom diameter will fit, and you can lift it out.

3.       What is the genetic potential of the plant?  A single Impatiens would not fill up a one-gallon Smart Pot.  For this type of plant, put a lot of them in our smallest containers.  A Burr Oak, on the other hand, is genetically capable of outgrowing even the largest container.  Put one in a small container, and plan on moving it as it grows.  A giant Pumpkin will fill a large Smart Pot in one season.  Do not put it in a one-gallon container and expect stellar growth.

4.       Do you want the plant to reach its’ genetic potential?  Do you want the plant to stunt in growth?  Leaving a plant that could grow very large in too small a Smart Pot for too long will cause the plant to bonsai.

5.       What type of mix will you use?

6.       What type of fertilizers will you use?

7.       What type of watering system do you have?

8.       What type of lighting system, if any, do you use?

The answers for questions 5 through 8 are all related.  A sophisticated hydroponic grower, using the right mix with an ebb and flow watering system, with specialized fertilizers and lighting, will grow a larger plant in a smaller container than will a backyard duffer who rarely fertilizes or irrigates.

9.       If you currently container grow, we recommend starting with the same gallon size container you ordinarily use.  With proper care, the Smart Pot grown plant should grow a little bigger and fuller when compared to the same plant grown in a hard plastic pot.

10.   If you are using the Smart Pot to container grow a plant species that you have not preciously container grown – and we hope you will container grow something unusual – start by using a size that will give the plant’s root structure room to develop.  Then observe the growth of the plant and take notes.  Next time you may want a slightly smaller or larger Smart Pot.

11.   Try something fun!  The Smart Pot fabric aeration container will allow you to container grow plants that are not usually grown in containers.  Grow something that you cannot find at the grocery store!

How Do I Clean My Smart Pot?

After use, dump out the soil and let the bag dry.  After a few days of being dry, the dust and small roots will easily brush off.  For most people, this is good enough.  At this point the Smart Pot folds easily for storage.  However, a lot of our customers will wash the bags in a bleach to sterilize (I have heard lately that many people prefer OxyClean).  They use a washing machine or dip the bag in a tub.  Do not put the Bags in a dryer.