Good job! Looks pretty professional to me. ;o)

Al

Wow, that was quick. I'm impressed. Your air pot looks great! Thanks for sharing your adventure, humor, and sewing with us :)

What do you think about this cutting and molding idea? Put a pre-determined size of window screen (or nylon shade screen) inside of a trash bin or milk crate to shape the bottom and the side of the pot. Make the cut(s) on the vertical plane instead of the bottom, so the sewing and stapling are done on the side (on the vertical plane) with overlaying layers as well as to counter the horizontal forces and the weight of the potting soil when they are wet for improved durability. If necessary or required to make the desired shape and molding more uniform, sew, tie, or staple tubing material or plastic or snap ties on both sides of the screen to enforce the bottom edging without making the bottom a separate cut-out piece. All the connecting enclosure(s) are on the vertical (and diagonal) plane instead.

You can cheat, too. Just sew or snap the screen as a liner inside a milk crate or stackable crate for solid structural support and movability. Come winter, you can bury your plant and the air pot with or w/o the outer crate. It might be easier to lift it out of the ground in the spring if the bag's integrity is sufficiently sturdy or supported.

Question: Are there functional differences between using aluminum and fiberglass screens in this application?

Great idea Brandon,

Good job too. You gave me an idea...For an industrial "pot" and support for tomato plants you can use 4" x 4" roll of concrete wire mesh standing 4' or 8' high and wrap the screen around the bottom 2' of the upright "cylinder". Kinda like a one plant raised bed c/w support. Of course this would be reasonable only if you did't have room for an in ground garden like my concrete patio. Its large and sunny but no soil. You could take them apart and stack them flat for the winter if you wish.

Tim

Before I found the Air-Pots, I had considered doing this (with 1/4 inch hardwire cloth). If my memory serves, it wasn't cost effective and would have required a considerable time investment.

I had another idea which will give you similar results without being too time consuming and a more rigid container. Create a tool which will melt holes in the side of five gallon buckets. A soldering iron takes too long (hours for one container). However, if you were to take a block of wood, lets say 2X12" and drilled holes for nails to pass through ever 1/3 to 1/2 and inch, and attach a handle to the other side, you could heat the nails in a fire pit (like a branding iron) then use it to melt 36 holes at a time though a plastic bucket.

Despite the cost, which I really didn't find too objectionable, I have been extremely pleased with the Air-Pots I purchased. I am currently have about 70 trees (sizs from rooted cuttings to 3.4 gallons) in the Air-Pots and am using some of the rooter size for air-layering.

1 3/4 inch branch air-layered in 2 attached Air-Pot with a home made base and top
{{gwi:51992}}

By the beginning of next season, I am expecting to have about 125 trees in the 3.4 gallon size and 15-20 in the 15 gallon along with a host of cuttings in rooter size.

~james

the screen containers is an awesome idea;making me think of lots of other uses for it in the garden.why didn't i think of that?!?

Wow, looks like this thread continued without me noticing! It's great to see the interest.

Legacy, I think that's a heck of an idea! I'll get to work on it soon. I tried playing around with a few different "molds" tonight, seeing if I could use something such as a tuperware container to form the screen. It partially worked, yet I couldn't get the screen to maintain shape after pulling it out from the tuperware. I used two containers of a few different sizes that were stackable. One container served as the bottom half of the mold and the top container as the top half and also as a compressor. I had mixed results. Ultimately I was attempting to compress a shape without having to make vertical cuts in the sides as you had suggested. I was hoping it would maintain shape while I pulled it out of the mold so I could staple the sides without having to make cuts. But alas, I could never get them to hold shape no matter how much force I applied compressing the two containers together.

So I'm going to try the vertical cut technique you had suggested. I'm really exited about it as it should make the process very efficient if I can get the process perfected.

Tim, that's a great idea too with the tomato planter. I've got a similar situation in my back yard: lots of concrete, but little soil. If I'm ever struck by the tomato bug, I'll definitely give it a shot. If you decide to try it next year, please let us know how it turns out!

James thanks for sharing your experiences too. I'm glad you're having success with the air pots. That drives me even further to try and perfect this DIY attempt. I like your idea of using plastic buckets with holes burned in them, however I am at a loss for spare buckets at this time. But in the long run such a container would definitely be more structurally sound and last nearly forever.

If anyone has more ideas, please share them with everyone. Thanks again!
-Brandon

Brandon,

Frosting comes in 2, 4, and 5 gallon buckets. Your local bakery (including the ones in the grocery store) will have them daily. You can also find buckets at any construction site during the drywall phase.

One other nice thing about the buckets is they are white. During the heat of the summer it makes a huge difference in the temperature inside the container and consequently affects root growth.

~james

"Frosting comes in 2, 4, and 5 gallon buckets. Your local bakery (including the ones in the grocery store) will have them daily. You can also find buckets at any construction site during the drywall phase."

Ha! The things you'll learn from other gardeners ceases to amaze me! Thanks for sharing this handy tid-bit of info James. I won't ask how you learned this :)

I like your point about the white plastic being cooler than your average container. Root death due to excessive heat is something that I've always been weary of. It gets pretty hot here in southern OK, but I'm sure it gets even hotter in Houston. I've always wondered about a light-reflective container but have yet to see one that actually lasts for a few seasons. Perhaps the Air Pots, be them DIY or commercial, would provide a little extra air cooling due to the soil being exposed to the air to facilitate more evaporation. Of course that means more watering, but I knew that when I had started this project.

I pass a construction site on my way to and from work each day. I'll keep my eye out for signs of drywalling.

Thanks again James!

I have to admit, currently (yes, even in November) my biggest challenge is controlling the temperatures inside the containers. I repotted a tree yesterday. The growing mix at the top of the container was very warm to the touch.

At this point my thought is to cut the base off some of the old five gallon buckets I have, cut a slit up one side and make a sleeve to fit around the Air-Pots... a quasi pot-in-pot design. The Air-Pots are too wide to fit down into the bucket.