Friday, May 20, 2011

Super Roots Air-Pots versus RootMaker's RootBuilder II

Just found another example of technological innovation in the high-aeration container category:

Air-Pot Garden from the UK and their Super Roots Air-Pots:




APG's Super Roots Air-Pot

Note that these Air-Pots are almost identical to RootMaker's RootBuilder II pots. The Air-Pot appears to be better-designed than the RB2 as demonstrated by the video link above. The Air-Pots have three clear advantages over the RB2s: 1) They have air holes in the baseplate as well as the sidewall, 2) they use durable and reusable green connectors (RootMaker only provides you with one-use zip ties), and 3) they have no holes in the top 2 rows of cones to prevent water loss when irrigating (if you water on a regular basis you will understand why I appreciate this).

Another notable difference: the RB2's material is cut along the vertical, while the Air-Pot's material is cut along a diagonal.

Regardless of who first created this wonderful pot design, Air-Pot Garden's design is the clear winner in the tech category. In the price category, Air-Pot seems to be pretty much equal to RootMaker (prices from Air-Pots based on their American suppliers). Overall Air-Pot appears to be clearly superior to the RootBuilder II, and overall I'm looking forward to using some of these pots as well as the propagation trays from RootBuilder, which have already been obtained for future experiments.

This is the only video I could find of the Rootmaker trays (get on it you nits!):




RootMaker's RootBuilder II


1 comment:

  1. The RB holes protrude and point downward, which manufacturer claims provide shade to the fibrous root system. This makes good sense to moi.

    ReplyDelete