Smart Pot Variety Pac: 5gal / 10gal / 15gal

Smart Pots Soft-sided Container

Better than traditional plastic containers

Smart Pots utilize a patented fabric design to produce a healthier plant. Before Smart Pots became a household name, professional tree growers were using it for over 25 years and found their trees grew better in our fabric containers.

Almost all plants grow better in Smart Pot fabric containers. That’s because Smart Pots support healthy root growth. And strong roots means a stronger plant.

Compared to plastic containers, Smart Pots stay cooler on hot days because it allows air to flow through the sides of the fabric. Roots can’t grow and are stressed when plastic containers get hot.

Smart Pots also root-prunes. What is root pruning? When a root tip reaches the side of our fabric container, it stops in place, and initiates lateral, or side branching. As this process repeats, the entire area of the container is filled with fibrous root growth, allowing more surface area for mineral and water absorption. A recent study at Texas A&M University showed double the root mass compared to a traditional plastic container. In a plastic container, roots circle around the side and rarely initiate fibrous growth.

About Smart Pots

Nurserymen and Master Gardeners alike have known for over thirty years that Smart Pots grow better plants because of the fabric used in their construction.

The tough, long lasting Smart Pot material has just the right amount of porosity to promote air root pruning, excellent drainage and allow excess heat to escape, producing superior plants. The patented soft-sided containers last for years, even in the harshest winters, and are excellent for growing the widest variety of container or potted plants.

A healthy, well-established root system is key to overall growth, and Smart Pots provide roots with an ideal environment, allowing them to thrive and develop to their full potential. Vegetables, flowers, herbs and fruits all do well in Smart Pots. Smart Pots are the horticulturist’s first choice for container gardening!

Smart Pots are 100% made in the USA. All of our raw materials and manufacturing processes are sourced in the USA. Our fabric is totally inert and free of chemicals and BPA’s.

Air Pruning in Smart Pots

As roots grow in containers they eventually reach the container walls. In hard-sided containers, these roots, upon reaching the walls, start circling and continue to circle, seeking a friendlier environment. Upon examination, these root systems exhibit a few strong roots growing in circles with very little branching, often are bound or girdled upon themselves and, depending on the type of plant, can produce a strong tap root growing through the containers bottom.

These characteristics can hinder the plant’s rate of growth and in some cases its chances of survival when transplanted. Roots grown in a Smart Pot come in contact with the fuzzy, fabric inner wall of the bag and penetrate or grow into the fabric. The bag’s tough fabric prevents the root’s continued longitudinal growth, in effect pruning it, causing the root to develop masses of lateral fibrous roots. Upon comparison, root systems that developed in a Smart Pot have a much greater mass or volume then those found in hard-sided containers.

Plants grown in Smart Pots have root balls that contain many more roots than found in a hard-sided container of similar size. The fibrous root systems produced in Smart Pots are more efficient and enable plants to maximize water and nutrient uptake in the limited surrounding soil mass.

Controlling Plant Temperature Using Smart Pots

The Smart Pot’s black fabric quickly warms up early season soil, enabling plants to get off to a quicker start. Yet the same fabric, due to its porous nature, allows heat to escape from the container through evaporative cooling during the summer’s hottest days.

Even in northern climates, root systems of container-grown plants can be damaged from too much heat. University studies have also shown a direct relationship between soil temperature and slow-release fertilizer activity. Cooler containers do not allow for premature fertilizer release.