Smart Pots vs Plastic Pots side by side results.

Harpocrates

Harpocrates

the tit
I've seen some debate about smart pots being better than plastic pots, so I thought I'd share my results.

Using my most dialed in plant (Cheese), and 1 gallon plastic and smart pots with over 50 plants each my results are.

My best smart pot plant was 75g
My average smart pot plant is 56g

My best plastic pot plant was 39g
My average plastic pot plant is 32g

All of those plants began flower at the same size (19"), and roughly the same age within a couple of days. That is a big difference, with enough plants tested to be conclusive IMO.

Interestingly, I get better yields on average with a 1 gallon smart pot than I do with a 2 gallon plastic pot.

I haven't done nearly enough testing with 3 gallons, but the smart pots still outweigh the plastic pots by a significant amount every time.

When people say smart pots aren't worth it, I wonder exactly what kind of testing they've done with them...
 
I use smart pots now too and man oh man do my plants love them.. Awesome root growth. Plus growing in coco you can imagine my plants are already growing fast but with these smart pots im seeing alot of super lush growth :) Me very happy :)
 
Interesting results:study:
I did a side by side grow a couple years ago, using smart pots and regular plastic pots. Not enough plants to conclude anything significant, though the "smart plants" did very well, and yielded slightly more per gallon of soil IME. I ran a few different strains, with the same results for each.
The only down side I thought was moving the smart pots around was difficult, and awkward to do without disturbing the soil. They used about 25 percent more water as well.
It was cool seeing the different bacteria, and fungus colonies thriving on the outside of the pot(you can sorta see it in the picture below).
Sensi Star smart pot
View attachment 165100
Sensi Star plastic pot
View attachment 165101
 
bigsur51 said:
what kind of medium do you use Harpocrates?....
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Coco. We are actually in the coco forum now. :p I'm just bustin on ya. :laugh:

I do lots of pinching and bending because plants grow so fast in coco. The smart pot plants have much more side shoots with better/stronger stems. I also have a very shitty veg area this time of year, cool and very dry (less that 25% RH),. If I don't mist the plants every day, my plastic pot plants freak out with purple stems and 3 blade leafs or less, the smart pot plants will still look normal.
 
I used 5g smart pots last run and they vegged in half the normal time.
They had handles and were very convenient to move around. Good stuff, thanks for the comparison grow, that confirms it.
 
Wow, that's quite a difference. I have only run a few plants in 3 gallon smart pots and they never did any better than those in plastic pots for me. Your results have me thinking I need to give them another try.
 
my side by side came out nearly identical yields, smarties being slightly more. i like to run at least three side by sides before deciding which way to go. in the end, i like the smart pots, though i did only two side by sides. you can pump a lot of nutes to plants in smarties.
 
A couple of things to keep in mind.

These are my results when growing in coco, growing in soil or promix might yield different results.

IME, if you aren't supercropping in coco, you aren't getting the best out of the medium. Supercropping in coco with smart pots is just that much better.

When supercropping, my plastic pots usually have 6-8 tops, while the smart pot plants usually have 14-15 or more. That is in the same amount of growing time with both plants being 19 inches at the end of veg.

In smart pots, it seems like I can keep going and going, but I hit a wall with plastic pots.

These results were over the course of about a year, during which I took very meticulous notes. Not once did my plastic pots out yield the smart pots.

I'm running 3 gallons a lot more now, so I'll be collecting all the info as I go but I won't be testing out 50+ of each because it's already plainly obvious. In fact, the only reason I'm running plastic pots is because I don't have enough smart pots.

I've got a couple 5 gallon smart pots going now but I don't think I'll do that well with them because of my garden space. What I really wanted where the 2 gallon smarties but nobody carries them here. I bet they would be perfect for my garden.
 
Are you vegging for the same amount of time in SPs vs plastic? If so, the SPs will have a huge advantage because they will be a lot bigger when going into 12/12.

Assuming your plants aren't getting rootbound (this takes a larger plastic pot vs SP), I think the main advantage of SPs is that plants veg faster. Using the same size pots, SPs will not make the plant rootbound nearly as much if at all.

If you want something that kicks butt over any type of pot, try a bed :thumbsup:
 
Harpocrates said:
I've seen some debate about smart pots being better than plastic pots, so I thought I'd share my results.

Using my most dialed in plant (Cheese), and 1 gallon plastic and smart pots with over 50 plants each my results are.

My best smart pot plant was 75g
My average smart pot plant is 56g

My best plastic pot plant was 39g
My average plastic pot plant is 32g

All of those plants began flower at the same size (19"), and roughly the same age within a couple of days. That is a big difference, with enough plants tested to be conclusive IMO.

Interestingly, I get better yields on average with a 1 gallon smart pot than I do with a 2 gallon plastic pot.

I haven't done nearly enough testing with 3 gallons, but the smart pots still outweigh the plastic pots by a significant amount every time.

When people say smart pots aren't worth it, I wonder exactly what kind of testing they've done with them...
Click to expand...

How old were the plants approximately when they went into flower? I realize the two plant populations were about the same age, but how old? Were there any differences in any other factor inside your garden? Lights (type)? Wattage per square foot? Distance the lights were from the plants? Nutes/supplements? Space between plants? Temps? Humidity? CO2? If all those variables are consistent amongst your two plant populations and you're dealing with the same genes (clones), then I'd say you've given the community some excellent data here.

What I'm about to write will need further testing, but I believe what you may be seeing are the effects of eliminating a root bound plant. The fact that as the plastic pots get larger the difference between the results diminishes suggests this hypothesis could be correct. The way of course to test it would be to not only use 3 gallon pots under the same conditions to see if the different performance continues to diminish, but also to use much larger pots, such as 10 gallon pots, to see if the difference becomes indistinguishable.

I appreciate you sharing!
 
Thanks Harp. I've been thinking about smart pots but was wondering about water use. A 25% increase isn't so bad, but at higher temps that are inevitable in my grow in the summer, I'm wondering if that number would increase....
 
Were all plants fed the same and at the same frequency? Seems likely that a plastic pot that's dialed in would have different requirements than a SP that is dialed in. Treating them the same might skew results.

Very cool though. I'd switch if:

- a larger % of growers were reporting significant yield increases like yours and not just marginal increases.
- smart pots were free like my nursery pots are
- I knew I would be able to move a 3-4 oz plant around easily. I move my plants quite a bit to feed plants behind them.

Are you using the actual Smart Pots brand? Which fabric pot brands do people like best?
 
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moho- haprpocrotes findings are on par w mine. these things cant be beat, yet, w whats available, these are my favorite.

plastic pots got butter face...
 
Dorje said:
Are you vegging for the same amount of time in SPs vs plastic? If so, the SPs will have a huge advantage because they will be a lot bigger when going into 12/12.

Assuming your plants aren't getting rootbound (this takes a larger plastic pot vs SP), I think the main advantage of SPs is that plants veg faster. Using the same size pots, SPs will not make the plant rootbound nearly as much if at all.

If you want something that kicks butt over any type of pot, try a bed :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

I've tried vegging for the same amount of time, that's when smart pots really kick the shit out of plastic pots. I've also vegged the plastic pots longer to get the plants to have roughly the same amount of tops as well as the same height. When doing that the plastic pots needed another 2-3 weeks time but the best plastic pot was 39g while the worst smart pot was 49g.

Using exact same veg times, a 1 gallon smart pot will out weigh a 2 gallon plastic pot. I can get the plastic pot to do better, but only by adding 2-3 weeks more veg time more than what the smart pot needs.

I can't really do a bed here.

HighBurn8 said:
Are those reusable?
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Yes, but a PITA to clean. I've heard some people wash them at a laundromat and that it's super easy though.
 
MoHo- I'll chime in from the bandwagon if it'll help ya hop on!

I don't have nearly the n that Keph does, but I've done side-by-sides of cuts I'm very familiar with in 3 gal smart pots and 3 gal hard pots. Saw between a 25-35% yield increase when using smart pots in addition to thicker stems, more stout plants with closer internode spacing.

The smart pots are a pain to move around, tear easy, bust at the seems, require more frequent watering etc and are a real pain to move. Come yield time, air pruning the roots is the ticket. They may not be perfect, but they're pretty close to it in the department we all care about.

Thanks for running such a large side-by-side Keph!

a.
 
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