Beginner Gardening: Good Growing Practices - an Overview for Beginners, 2 by tapla

tapla wrote:
Once the chickadees are aware of a food source (in winter), I can usually train them to the hand within 10 min not that difficult. Nuthatches aren\'t as trusting and take longer. See image.

There are 2 perspectives from which to judge the characteristics of a pot. From your own, and from the plant\'s perspective. It does little good to argue what a plant would prefer while in \'grower\'s perspective mode\' because growers often prefer a pretty color or what they have available (and the list goes on) over what serves the plant best. Pots with gas-permeable walls are MUCH better for root health than pots made of materials that can\'t/don\'t breathe. That puts terra cotta - low-fired clay, at or near the top. Pots that breathe mean lower root temps when it counts (summer), and offer a pathway for unwanted soil gasses to escape while desirable fresh air enters the soil in greater volume. You might need to water more often, but then again that\'s viewing from the grower\'s perspective, but the necessity of watering more frequently would get a thumbs up from our green pals. If you stick to viewing things from your plants\' perspectives, it\'ll be difficult to argue against terra cotta. I do grow many plants in pots that do not allow gas exchange, but the % plants I\'m developing as potential bonsai (mostly what I do re plants) leans VERY heavily toward terra cotta. I have a lot of high-fired terra cotta pots made by Tokoname that still breathe very well and have held up to a soils frozen solid in them for year after year. See second image:
Al