Friday, October 14, 2011

DIY Air Pruning Pots

Well, it's official, this is the FIRST post! What are we up to on this beautiful autumn Friday? Homemade Air Pots! You might be wondering what exactly an air pot is. It is a pot that air prunes your roots, forcing roots to fill up the entire pot instead of only having roots on the outsides. This means less up-potting, bigger plants in smaller pots, and more root develoment, which means, more root = more fruit!

We are always finding ways to save, save, save and we came across some left over weed fabric. You can purchase these from your local garden stores, but they can run anywhere between $5-$25, depending on what size you need. So, we decided to make our own! This is a super easy project, that doesn't take much time.
All you need is weed fabric, a pair of scissors, a sewing machine, some pins, and a pot of any size you want the air pruning pot to be (we are using a #3 plastic nursery pot). And a marker.

Let's get started!

First, trace and cut out pieces.



Next wrap fabric around pot and pin in place to make a mold. Sew the fabric together.





Now pin the bottom to the sides and sew together.




Turn inside out, trim off excess, and Voila! You got yourself an air pot!



We will be filling these pots with recycled soil and planting heirloom tomato clones into them for a winter supply of fresh homegrown tomatoes! We'll share with you how we do this in another post. Thanks for stopping by!

1 comment:

  1. Hi Lauren!
    Did it work? Or did the roots grow trough the fabric and start circling between the fabric and the pot? I want to try this too so I´d be very interested in your observations. Please send a short answer to lindworsky (at) yahoo.de
    Best regards,
    Jens

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