6x 25cm 10 Inch Pots

Product Information

How about we turn to an old standby and look at bulletins and fact sheets released by land grant university Cooperative Extension services? After reading nearly two dozen of them from all over the country, Ilearned that… nobody agrees, even slightly, right down to whether it should be listed by pot volumes or pot diameters. At least 10,000 of my (Eliza’s) brain cells died during the grueling research that brought you this information, so pleasehonor their brave sacrifice by sharing the article with your other gardening friends (they’re guaranteed to have been confused by pot sizes at some point in their gardening careers)! There are two basic ways to plant a combination. The “living flower arrangement” and the traditional planting. The living flower arrangement is when you place as many plants as possible into each planter. This allows the planter to look full immediately after planting. However, since living flower arrangements are crowded, they tend not to have as much longevity and often have more disease problems than traditional plantings. Living flower arrangements can be useful if you need to have a high impact container immediately, say for a party the same weekend you are planting the container.

Alrighty, perhaps we should go by soil volume instead and recommend a 1 gallon pot. Do you choose the pots labeled “one gallon” in nurseries that really only hold 0.664 gallons of soil, or should you find a pot that you can literally fit a full gallon of soil into? As the plants grow or mature, nursery growers may step up the plant to another larger size pot. For instance, a #1 shrub may be stepped up to a #3 pot. The gallon (4 L.) nursery containers, or #1 pots, are the most common nursery pot sizes used in the industry. While they normally only hold 3 quarts (3 L) of soil (using liquid measure), they are still considered to be 1-gallon (4 L.) pots. A variety of flowers, shrubs, and trees can be found in this pot size.

On the other hand, plants that are more compact and have an upright nature may take more than the recommended number to make the planter seem full. Pansies are an example of a rather compact, upright, slower-growing plant. Pansies are fantastic for cool season color. However, they tend to be relatively small plants and are primarily grown when the weather is cool which means they grow more slowly. When I plant pansies in pots, I tend to use a lot more than the recommended number of plants I gave above. The photo below was taken at the end of October and the container was planted at the end of September. This is a 12-inch container and it has eight plants in it. The planter is full without being overly crowded. It had rained for three days prior to taking this photo so the plants are looking a bit forlorn. I gathered as much data as I could find, dropped the extreme numbers from both end of the scale, and came up with an average based on our personal experience and the frequency with which experts made a recommendation (if the majority of extension offices swore by a 5 gallon minimum pot for peppers, that’s what we used). The # symbol is used to reference each class number size. Smaller containers (i.e. 4-inch or 10 cm. pots) may also include SP in front of its class number, indicating a smaller plant size. In general, the larger the # is, the larger the pot and, thus, the larger the plant will be. These container sizes range from #1, #2, #3 and #5 to #7, #10, #15 on up to #20 or higher. What is #1 Pot Size? As you are planting, try and spread the plants somewhat evenly throughout the planting area of the container while leaving some space between the edge of the container and the root ball of the plants. If you do that, your planters will look great.

Traditional planting is when you allow enough room between plants so the planter looks full after several weeks of additional growth. Generally, using three or four plants in 10 to 12-inch planters, four to six plants in 14 to 16-inch planters and six to eight plants in 16 to 20-inch planters will fill out containers nicely while allowing room for the plants to grow without excessive crowding. With traditional planting, you need to have a bit of patience to get a completely full planter. However, the plants will be healthier because of better root growth and increased air flow which decreases disease pressure in the planter. With healthier plants, containers are much more likely to still be in bloom and looking good at the end of the season. Some pots may have their volume listed in measurements other than US customary units (gallons, etc.) and you can use our easy table or an online converter to figure it out.

Subscribe to the GrowJourney blog

In addition to the various pot sizes, some nursery growers include grading information. As with the variations among sizes, these too may vary among different growers. These are usually dependent on how a particular plant has been grown (its conditions). That said, the most common grades associated with plant pots are: MoreUniversity Extension servicesused volume, but one office might say 1 gallon for peppers while others insist 5 gallons is the minimum. For tomatoes, extension offices recommended anywhere from 1-15 gallons. Now that we’re onto the trade gallons scheme, it must mean our predicament has been solved since everyone’s container size recommendations should mean “trade gallon” pots. Whew. That would mean if you’re supposed to use a “five gallon” nursery pot, your plant actually only needs the 3.55 regular gallons of soil that a 5 trade gallon pot should hold… wait… no! There are no standard pot sizes (it’s chaos), so we have chosen to use: a) volume in pints or gallons (which is how most pots are sold), b) the likely diameter of pots with the correct volume (if you place a ruler across the widest part on top of the pot you get the diameter ), and c) the minimum soil depth for plants that are fussy about it (like root veggies).

An internet search turned up nursery standard “five gallon” pots that hold 3.55 gallons, 3.68 gallons, 4.16 gallons, 4.97 gallons, or 5.03 gallons. Didn’t all the plastic pot molding corporations get the conspiracy memo? Also, now we still have no clue what size pot to actually use. We recommend focusing on the volume of soil the pot should hold and whether or not we recommend a minimum soil depth (such as at least 10” deep for beets). The rest of the dimensions can match whatever size pot you have on hand. We’ve put the end results into a table for you to use as a resource (below). The table is complete with conversions into just about any volume measurement you might encounter from nurseries, garden centers, your kitchen measuring tools, or found containers that weren’t originally intended for gardening (make sure to drill enough drainage holes). The main challenges for people new to container gardeningare how many plants should be included, and how to place them in the container. The reality is that plants are flexible and there is no "right" answer. There are, however, guidelines that can help you when it is time to get started.Variations in plant pot sizes can be quite different among individual nursery growers. While one nursery may ship a large, lush plant in a #1 pot, another might only send a bare, twiggy-looking plant in the same size. For this reason, you should research beforehand to make sure of what you are getting. Grade of Nursery Plant Pots Now that you've determined how many plants to use in your container, it is time to start placing them in the planter. It is always best to leave some space between the top of the soil and the edge of the pot. In small containers half an inch is good, but for larger containers you should leave an inch or maybe even two inches of space. This is called headspace and it helps to keep the soil from washing out of the container and it also channels the water into the container. Without headspace, the water would simply run off of the container.

This is one article in a series of four on container garden design. You can access the other three articles here: Okay, as an example, if you’re told to use a 10” diameter pot, does that mean a 10” pot that holds approximately 1.3 gallons of soil, a 10” pot that holds 2 gallons, or a 10” pot that holds 3 gallons? All three are common sizes sold at nurseries and vary in volume capacity based on their other dimensions. What are trade gallons?In this article, Master Gardener and Permaculturist Eliza Holcombe, will help you make sense of the varying (often conflicting) pot sizes and how to determine a garden pot’s true size & volume. If you are planting a mono-crop (all one plant), you can simply put one plant in each spot. If you are planting a combination planter (several different kinds of plants), you need to pay attention to color, texture, habit and height. One of the most frequent questions expert gardeners are asked is what size pot is right for a certain plant. If you’ve ever tried to look this information up for yourself, you may have discovered that the search can be complete chaos. Minimum recommended” size means you should try to use a pot at least that big, so if you can’t find that exact size just get a bigger one. Additionally, it’s possible to grow plants in “too small” pots, but your watering and fertilizing schedule will be much more demanding if you want healthy plants and a great harvest. For the record, we cannot imagine growing a successful full-sized tomato plant in a 1 gallon pot! How We Came Up With the Figures For Our Gardening PotSize Chart