Black Plastic Nursery Pots – Size Makes a Difference

Containers are the backbone of nursery growers. A black plastic nursery pot may seem ordinary and rudimentary in its design, but it provides a place where plants are propagated, grown and ultimately supplied for gardens, forestry, conservation biology and agriculture.

Nurseries often grow small trees, shrubs and other herbaceous plants in containerfields. There, hundreds if not thousands of black plastic nursery pots are lined up in perfect rows for proper ventilation and sunlight for plants to grow out in nature.

Whereas greenhouse growers have production space limitations in their indoor environments, striving to cram as many plants as possible into every available square inch using small, tightly packed containers, nursery growers understand that size does in fact matter for larger cultivations.

Larger Plastic Containers Help Growth

According to Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott on the website The Garden Professors, “Almost without exception, you get better growth on plants grown in larger containers, whether you’re measuring height, number of leaves, leaf area, stem diameter, shoot and root dry and fresh weights, whole plant dry and fresh weight, you get the idea. This isn’t surprising, because with a larger root zone you can support more roots, which in turn support more above-ground growth.”

Beyond taking up less room, a smaller black plastic nursery pot also require less water than larger containers. That is a definite concern for larger growers, especially in areas where drought conditions are prominent throughout the growing season.

Still, Linda Chalker-Scott believes that the increased growth and eventually yield of planting in a larger black plastic nursery pot far outweighs the additional costs of watering.

“The science is clear: it’s best to pot up plants in small containers quickly into their final destination, rather than making several (pointless) intermediate transplants.”

HC Companies Black Plastic Nursery Pots

The HC Companies has a wide variety of black plastic nursery pots to choose from for both greenhouse and nursery growers. So whether you’re looking for a small square container for seasonal herbs and vegetables, or a larger finished pot for trees and shrubs, rest assured we have the container you’re searching for.

You may also find our article What Consumers Can Do with Black Plastic Pots of interest.