Queston on Smart Pots / Containers Vs. Directly in the ground

Hi everyone, I have a question regarding the pros/cons of containers vs. in-ground planting. My buddy is doing his first ever outdoor grow this year and wants to grow a few large trees. After doing some research for him in this forum I notice a lot of folks, Tom Hill for example, use giant containers (smart pots I guess?) that hold anywhere from 50-200 gallons of soil. Is there a reason that people aren't digging 200 gallon holes and then filling them with their custom made soil? Is it a matter of convenience, not having to dig all that dirt out? My buddy is thinking about doing 3x3x1.8 foot holes(right around 100 gallons) in the ground. He has the heavy equipment to dig the holes so in his case he doesn't have to dig anything out manually. My thinking is that if the plants do outgrow the custom soil that the roots will then at least expand into natural soil, in his case very rich pasture.

Most importantly I'm wondering if there are any big disadvantages if the digging part is a total non-issue.

Thanks for your time.

no, if your not concerned about the size of the tree.
You basically have a perfect recipe to grow some humongous trees.
Definitely use the ground in your scenario, pots are only advantageous if you want smaller plants and can water often enough. Also if you needed to move the pot for any reason you could.

Make soil airy and use some guano it could work well otherwise

My opinion..

The temperature of the soil in an above ground container mimics air temps to some degree and that can be too hot on july days and too cool when the first cool snap comes along.. Daily watering is required due to heat and evaporation which leaches out nutes and changes the ph. Serious stress

This problem can be mitigated in 2 ways. Bury the container to moderate temp swings and so that the soil reflects the natural surrounding soil temps, or, use a container so big that soil temp swings are moderated as Tom Hill apparantly has done.

Each year i will find 4-5 rugged locations to grow a single big plant as an insurance policy in case something happens to my main crop. I dig a hole 20"W by 14"D. I usually fill that hole with a bagged soil such as miracle grow or Sunshine container mix because the site is rugged and the soil is usually rocky or clay.. A hole that size filled with miracle grow will produce a plant that is 3 meters and yields 1lb+. Those 4 or 5 holes can provide a lot of weed.

Smartpots do an excellent job of keeping plants cool. IME they did fine, even on the weeks of 100+ temps last year... They also air prune roots which helps maintain root health and they are gopher proof.

Tom Hill and others make their own containers from rebar, fencing and landscaping fabric. Cheaper, but without all of the benefits of the Sps... But... they seem to do juuuust fine with those.

Thanks for the responses everyone, I appreciate it. nomaad, if I may ask, is there a main reason you don't dig a big hole and put your soil in the hole? Is it because of the air pruning and gophers? I had a read a lot of yours planty's, and HLs posts which kind of spawned my original question in the first place.. The ground his holes will be in has been used as pasture for horses and cows for years and never been farmed so our thinking is that once the roots get to the edges of the custom-soil holes they'll still have plenty of nutrients available to expand into however it won't be as airy since I doubt he'll be tilling outside the area of the immediate hole.. But at least the roots won't be rootbound as they would be in a non-SP container. He's not trying to get the hugest monsters ever seen by man or anything but 3 lbs per in 100 gal holes with any root expansion into native soil after that being a bonus, would be considered a success to us.. Putting out 2' tall or so clones by June 1 is the plan as well.

Thanks again, everyone.

BB

I used 30 gal smart pots last year for the first time. In Oregon, so I'm limited to 6 plants. Each plant gave me > 1.5 lbs using the pots. I usually get 1 or 2 ladies with that kind of yield but never all the plants going that big. The one thing I noticed when I emptied the pots last fall, was that all the plants had roots systems that went all through the soil and down through the bottom of the pots. I could never dig a hole that big for each plant and as long as you're willing to water every day for heat issues during the hottest part of summer, the smart pots are the way to go. Plants only do as well above ground as they're doing below the dirt. Smart pots are the bomb...

sounds like your topsoil is really dank. My garden has old horse manure washing into it froma a neighbors yard... has been happening for years and part of my garden is full of it.

There are a number of reasons I didn't dig holes for my big pots in 09. First of all, my septic system's leech field is under my full season garden... so its never going to happen. We buried the smartpots in one of my black boxes last year and will do it for the other one this year... gives more headroom. In the full season garden, I like how I could just move the planters around a little, add some more, etc... I like to be able to change my mind about things. huge holes are restrictive of such freedom. also... gophers and voles... got em both. I would rather have smart pots in holes for gopher proofing than have to make huge cages out of wire mesh...

zonker: a good friend of mine who grows monsters will not take any plants from me for his garden that are rootbound in 2 gallon plastic pots... but if they were in smarties, he would take them... its the air pruning. rootbound is not REALLY rootboud...its just reached the limits of the smartpot and the pot itself is "air pruning"...which i believe it means that the tiny microscopic beginning of a new root grow thru the tiny holes in the fabric, find air and stop, rather than in a plastic pot where they turn inward and start to strangle other roots in competition... (that's my understanding of the concept...if anybody has a different idea, please share it.) I think this is what got you those high, cosnistent yields.... your plants have been getting rootbound in the past... 30 gallons is not a lot for a full season plant. not only did it grow down into the topsoil, but it did not compete with itself around the sides of the pot where it was air-pruned.

Great info, thanks for the replies again. I have no idea on the gopher/moles/voles issue there but I guess we'll find out. I think I may do something like buy a 65 and a 100 gal smart pot just to test against a 100 gallon hole in his location for future reference for next season if my friend is still interested after this year.. Hopefully my friend is cool with me taking pics of what goes down out there and if so I'll start a thread and maybe be able to offer some help to future outdoorsmen/women with the same questions.

Cuttings have been taken over the last week and there will be a variety of strains going because we've never done anything OD so didn't want to put all our eggs in one basket. If I knew mold wouldn't be an issue I'd put out all SWT #3 girls we have that grow huge dense buds but I really fear mold will become an issue come October. So along with a few of those there will be some Sour Diesel X NL that were received as boo freebies and turned out to make extremely beautiful plants indoors. Also a gorgeous purple pheno of a White Rhino/BCGA Orange crush cross that reliable finishes in < 60 indoors. Some Sensi Skunk #1 as well and I think some SOL mountain mix for a little variety. Also one or two Alpha Diesels but I'm somewhat fearing they may need more time to finish before the weather turns really cold/wet so I think we may just put out 1 of those.

Let the games begin!

Sounds like you have a fun season ahead of you. Good luck.

Deleted

D.S. Toker. MD said:

My opinion..

The temperature of the soil in an above ground container mimics air temps to some degree and that can be too hot on july days and too cool when the first cool snap comes along.. Daily watering is required due to heat and evaporation which leaches out nutes and changes the ph. Serious stress

This problem can be mitigated in 2 ways. Bury the container to moderate temp swings and so that the soil reflects the natural surrounding soil temps, or, use a container so big that soil temp swings are moderated as Tom Hill apparantly has done.

Each year i will find 4-5 rugged locations to grow a single big plant as an insurance policy in case something happens to my main crop. I dig a hole 20"W by 14"D. I usually fill that hole with a bagged soil such as miracle grow or Sunshine container mix because the site is rugged and the soil is usually rocky or clay.. A hole that size filled with miracle grow will produce a plant that is 3 meters and yields 1lb+. Those 4 or 5 holes can provide a lot of weed.

Click to expand...

yuk ... miracle grow ...lol?