What's in a house plant pot size? Turns out, a lot!
You might have noticed buying items such as clothes, shoes, and plants that getting a sense of scale sometimes is quite difficult.
When it comes to choosing plants you have a number of options from small seeds, cuttings, bare-rooted and then plants in pots.
Here at Florafolia we grow most of our plants in 3 sizes – small (140mm), medium (175mm) and large (200mm). A small change in pot diameter leads to an exponential increase in pot volume – this means more potting mix, more fertiliser, more room for the plant to grow, a bigger plant and therefore more plant weight. Our small is often larger than others large pot size. You can see the difference in the photo of Parlour palms with a plug, a 140mm pot and a 200mm pot and the corresponding size of the plant.
The table below illustrates the difference in pot size on soil, fertiliser and weight for a Strelitzia nicolai (Bird of Paradise). We have included a tube also for comparison.
|
Tube (50mm) |
140mm Pot |
175mm Pot |
200mm Pot |
Potting mix volume (litres) |
0.22 litres |
1.3 litres |
2.8 litres |
4.5 litres |
Fertiliser (grams) |
<1g |
12g |
25g |
40g |
Plant weight (kg) |
~100g |
~850g |
~1.8kg |
~2.9kg |
|
|
|
|
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So there you go – you can be safe in the knowledge that the plant will be in the appropriately sized pot with the right amount of nutrients to get it through its next growth period. All you need to figure out is what size plant you want!