Lattice Pots

[daveyp1970]

Crumbs Davey. If your plants survive these ravages it must be pot luck?

[hwscot]

Thread worth reviving?
Have been doing some catch-up on the Galanthus threads and wondering about lattice pots. Just intuitively, it's seemed to me that the c. 10 cm lattice pots are very small. We had a large pond until a few years ago, which we hadsed to fill in .. vandalism too frequentl .., and so there were quite a few lattice pots from that, but mostly c. 20cm square or larger. I have used them as temporary homes / growing on, etc, simply because they've been handy. I've found that seedling crocus and snowdrops have survived in lattice pots which were sitting above ground .. presumably the larger size has meant there was sufficient insulation simply from the mass of compost. I wouldn't advocate using lattice pots routinely out of the ground, of course. One thing that strikes me is that the larger lattice pots seem to have slightly larger holes; the smaller pots seem to me to have holes so small, particularly lower down (most lattice pots seem to have holes that decrease in size towards the bottom) that most Galanthus roots would simply be too large in diameter to pass through the lattice.
FWIW our primary soil pest is wireworm, which I haven't so far found inside a lattice pot, although if the pots are acting as a wireworm filter that is purely luck, not management.

[Alan_b]

I have begun to use a stock of square lattice pots which are 10 x 10 cm inner dimension and about 10.5 cm deep.  The holes are squarish in shape, vary in size slightly but the maximum width of the opening is about 3mm.  The holes are no smaller at the bottom than at the top and I would have thought they should be large enough for the largest snowdrop root to pass through.  It's too early to say if they bring any benefits to my snowdrop cultivation but this autumn I dug up a Uvularia grandiflora that I had grown successfully for two seasons in such a pot in order to divide it.  The roots had passed easily though the holes.

On the downside, I have found it difficult to bury the pots to exactly the right depth so the rim often ends up showing above the soil.  If snowdrops do well in these small pots they will need to be divided quite frequently to prevent overcrowding. 

   

[Lina Hesseling]

Alan, you do describe exactly my problem. The edges show and this is because it is difficult to put them in the correct depth. It is not a pretty sight.

I have to be more accurate with this.

Lina.

[RichardW]

Same here, it doesn't look very nice and the fact they're so visible makes me worry they're vulnerable.

The mulching I do hides them well but the rest have been lifted months ago and reset to cover them, worth it though, the results I've had using them with varieties that struggled here are very positive.

[uvularia]

For those people interested in buying lattice pots cheaply. The best I have found are at Anglo-Aquarium. 9cm are 13p each and 11cm are 15p. Discounts on 100+ no.
They do lots of different sizes. These are trade prices.
Catalogue available at http://www.angloaquatic.co.uk/docs/Anglo%20Aquatic%20Plant%20Catalogue%20low%20res.pdf
020 8363 8548
www.angloaquatic.co.uk

Happy New Year every one!

[Alan_b]

My small aquatic baskets cost me 35p each (including postage) for a bulk order of 99 so those are very good prices.   

[annew]

That's really good to know - I've been unable to find 9cm baskets for a couple of years, and they are ideal for seedlings. Thank you for letting us know!

[hwscot]

Thanks! ... and Happy New Year!

For those people interested in buying lattice pots cheaply. The best I have found are at Anglo-Aquarium. 9cm are 13p each and 11cm are 15p. Discounts on 100+ no.
They do lots of different sizes. These are trade prices.
Catalogue available at http://www.angloaquatic.co.uk/docs/Anglo%20Aquatic%20Plant%20Catalogue%20low%20res.pdf
020 8363 8548
www.angloaquatic.co.uk

Happy New Year every one!

[annew]

Just got my baskets today, 100 x 9cm square for £26.82 total. Well pleased

[uvularia]

Excellent. I recommend getting an account with them. It might save you more money. You also get a discount if you pay early.

[ChrisD]

Here are a couple of rather poor photos. The first is a warning not to leave your drops in place for too long, these Titania are all in one 9cm basket and were planted two seasons ago but not looked at last summer.

The second is a small clump of Diggory which were in a lattice pot for 1 season and then last summer were planted into the garden. As you can see if you look closely 4 of the 5 bulbs responded by producing twin scapes. I had the same thing with S. Arnott when I grew that in lattice pots and then "released" them into the garden, in that instance about half the bulbs produced twin scapes, but they havent done it again in the two years since.

Chris

[Alan_b]

Chris, I think the only point of using lattice pots is if you see a reason to do so.  My main reason is in the hope that they will offer protection against burrowing insects but I have no idea yet if this will work.  If it does, then a certain loss of vigour is a price worth paying. 

[annew]

As far as I can work out - the bulbs performed best in the year after they were planted out. That would mean the flowers produced were formed during their time in the baskets. Or am I confused again?

[Brian Ellis]

As far as I can work out - the bulbs performed best in the year after they were planted out. That would mean the flowers produced were formed during their time in the baskets. Or am I confused again?

Yes, that would seem to be right wouldn't it?