Yes, The POT matters!

Bringing a new plant home, you probably think to yourself “lets place it in a nice big pot for it to grow into and you dont need to repot for a long time”. STOP!! Unless you want to murder your new variegated plant faster than green bin collection could come to collect its remains. 😅

Why is that so? A bigger pot requires more soil to fill. The more soil, the more pressure on the roots. This also increases density and restricts air-flow. The combination will suffocate the roots and cause it to rot. Rotting doesn’t happen overnight; by the time you realize it, it might already be too late.

Size: I can’t stress enough the importance of picking a size-appropriate pot. The rule of thumb is to choose a pot that is slightly bigger than the roots’ size (the size of the plant doesnt matter). Once roots have taken up around 80% of its current pot, then it’s time to upsize. Go up 1 to 2” maximum at a time and repot again as the plant grows.

Example of root ball taking up around 80% of the current pot.

Type: At Plantopia, we have completely transitioned away from traditional nursery pots. All of our plants are potted in clear plastic cups, which provides visibility to what’s going on under the surface. A clear plastic cup allows you to see how wet/dry your medium is and adjust watering level accordingly. You can also monitor roots’ health, or keep an eye on when repotting is needed. Besides, watching those roots grow is super satisfying :)

Moisture level of the medium is clearly visible.

Roots thriving in a recycled plastic drink cup.

Sustainability: More importantly, this aids our effort of being sustainable. We collect used coffee/bubble tea cups, togo containers and various other plastic items. They are throughly cleaned and sterilized before putting in used. When plants are upsized, we go though the cleaning process again and reuse the same pot for the next plant.