New way to grow plants.

I seen a new way to grow plants on Gardening By The Yard. The new way is called a pot in a pot you burry a pot in the ground then put some thing in the bottom to keep the roots from going in the ground then you get a another pot and plant a bush tree or flowers in it then stick it inside the other pot. The person who does this says the plants grow bigger and when you want to change things around you just take the pot out of the other and stick another plant in it.

Are you asking if this is a good idea, or just what?

Just letting everyone on the forum know about it.

Have you considered the disadvantages as well as any advantages of this method?

I saw that same episode, and the people using the method owned a nursery and that was a technique they were using for keeping plants until they were ready to be sold. Much less useful for home gardeners--since you've got to bury the outer pot in the soil it will take up room in the garden so it's not useful for people who don't have garden space and are growing containers instead. And once you're taking up garden space for something you might as well plant it in the ground since the plant will be better off in the long run. The only value I see in it for the home gardener is if you like to change out your annuals a couple times a season so you always have something blooming, or if you've got a "nursery bed" somewhere in your yard where you stash things temporarily before you find a permanent home for them.

I've heard people suggest doing something similar with buried pots for invasive plants that spread by runners--the type you still might want in your garden (gooseneck loostrife comes to mind), but don't want taking over. The difference would be that if you planned for the placement to be permanent, you'd want to cut off the bottom of the pot to allow for plenty of root growth but to keep the runners in check.

Obviously, this sort of thing wouldn't work for plants that readily reseed.

For some reason they said it made the plants grow faster because it keeps the soil warmer and cooler.

I think the idea is that if you have the container buried in the ground, you get more insulation because the soil temperature in a garden bed doesn't fluctuate much. Containers that aren't buried in the ground will tend to get hot during the day when the sun's on them and will also get colder in the winter. So maybe the plants grown this way would grow faster than plants in containers that aren't sunk in the ground, but they're not going to do better than plants that are planted directly in the ground so I'd still argue if it's a plant that you have room for in your garden, you ought to plant it in the garden without the pot.

One other use for this would be if you have some tropicals that need to be dug up every winter--you could do this instead and make them look like part of the garden for the summer but then be able to easily pull them up and bring them in for the winter without having to do a lot of digging.

The nursery that does this claims the plants they grow to sell get faster bigger than the normal in pot or just in ground method.

This message was edited Jun 23, 2009 4:30 PM

Do as you wish.

I can definitely see how it would be beneficial for a nursery--it'll keep soil temperatures more moderate and consistent and need to be watered less vs an above ground container, and it results in less root disturbance when they have to dig the plant up later to sell it so it would be better for them than planting in the ground. So for them I can definitely see the benefits, but for a home gardener your plants will be better off in the long run if you plant them in the ground except in a few situations that have been mentioned above. But if you want to try it, it's up to you, let us know how it works for you.

I do this with some of my annuals or plants I need to bring in for the winter.

Thankyou.