Cloth pot fabric.

[Bobby Boucher]

Can anybody vouch for a brand or weight or variety of fabric for diy cloth pots?

Everybody seems to suggest using something a little different. Been reading around for an hour or two and now my head is spinning here reading about "drainage issues" in amazon reviews.

It's been a long day. I just wanna order my fabric already ..

 

[ReikoX]

I use ecofelt it is made of recycled water bottles. Make sure to use nylon thread, cotton will eventually decompose.

 

[Bobby Boucher]

eco-fi stiffened felt, classic felt, plush felt, premium felt, 1mm, 1.2mm, 1.4mm etc etc..

Landscape fabric of as many varieties, pond underlayment of as many varieties, seamstress underlayments..

Christ.

I'm trying to make a bunch of these, so I'd very much like to get it perfect the first time.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

You're like me with LED lights. Lol

Visit a fabric store and pull the trigger on one. It's the only way.

 

[Bobby Boucher]

I’m just going to start buying small quantities of different materials starting with eco-fi felt and see what happens. Might even have a roll of landscape fabric in the garage.

Ideally, it would be autoclavable and seam together with heat sealer..

 

[AgentPothead]

Man I looked into doing this, and I think as cheap as the cloth pots are at my local grow shop it ended up being me just buying more pots. I think where it gets worth it is if you are gonna do a BIG custom size.

 

[Bobby Boucher]

Gimme an hour to see how many of these I can pump out

 

[TychoMonolyth]

I made half of one. It took me an hour to figure out how to use the sewing machine. I managed to sew one side so now I have a tube. Pretty useless. I'm not very domestic.

 

[Bobby Boucher]

That’s 10 4 inch square pots in about 30 minutes with 5-10 minutes to stage the photo and post it up.

Sealed nicely with my food saver. Hoping there isn’t a problem with them being as thin as they are. I’ve got a fresh new roll of the stuff.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

Show off. lol

 

[Bobby Boucher]

They are surprisingly strong. They pass the “can I tear it apart” test with flying colors. Still curious to know if there’s a better option.

 

[AgentPothead]

That’s 10 4 inch square pots in about 30 minutes with 5-10 minutes to stage the photo and post it up.

Sealed nicely with my food saver. Hoping there isn’t a problem with them being as thin as they are. I’ve got a fresh new roll of the stuff.

View Image

You just heat sealed the edges? Don't lift them once they are full of soil + water weigh, I just have a bad feeling that without stitches that will end poorly. Still great job though they look really nice. Can I ask how they stack up price wise? 4 inch pots are only like 50 cents a piece I think.

 

[Bobby Boucher]

They survived the pressure cooker. I’ve handed them over to a couple people and challenged them to destroy them. They haven’t been willing to exert the pressure it’d take. The seams are stronger than the fabric.

Here’s the stencils, along with a picture of the graded seams and a 3, 4 and 6 I put together. Need to reseal all of the 4’s to grade them.

 

[Bobby Boucher]

Price wise..

A 4x200 roll is 44 at Home Depot, and if you cut your pots frugally, that’s half a square foot per 4” pot. So $45 for about 1600 4” is about exactly $0.025 per pot.

$0.056 per square foot. A 6 inch pot is $0.084..

My math sounds off, but not by much. I ate a couple hundred mg earlier.. and this luigis mansion multiplayer is distracting.

*Ok, a 4” pot is 2/3 a square foot. Making it $0.0373.

*5/9ths a square foot.. at 0.03125. Final answer.

 

[Beaucephus]

Macgyver using the sealer...

 

[Bobby Boucher]

..That's exactly how I've kept my hair for the past 6-7 years, tho.

 

[AgentPothead]

Price wise..

A 4x200 roll is 44 at Home Depot, and if you cut your pots frugally, that’s half a square foot per 4” pot. So $45 for about 1600 4” is about exactly $0.025 per pot.

$0.056 per square foot. A 6 inch pot is $0.084..

My math sounds off, but not by much. I ate a couple hundred mg earlier.. and this luigis mansion multiplayer is distracting.

*Ok, a 4” pot is 2/3 a square foot. Making it $0.0373.

*5/9ths a square foot.. at 0.03125. Final answer.

Now you have enough for ~4,000 pots. Better get sealing

 

[Bobby Boucher]

It was just an extra roll I had laying around from a landscaping project. I don’t need that many.

They only take about 15 seconds to cut out and 60 seconds to line up and seal, per. If they took much longer it’d hardly be worth the time considering I could only pump out 30-40 an hour.

I already made all I need along with a few extra for my buddy and put the roll away.

I’ll give them a whirl before I decide if I should go another route, unless someone chimes in to suggest this thickness of fabric won’t function fundamentally the same as the recommended thickness I’m seeing.

They are surprisingly tough. I haven’t succeeded in destroying one yet, and I’ve been giving it quite a go.

 

[Bobby Boucher]

 

[AgentPothead]

Only the 10 cm are that size, and those won't last more than 1 season since they biodegradeable. Your bags still better buy if you reuse them. The amazon ones might be a good thing for transplanting directly into soil, but my transplants are in at least 3 gallon pots normally.