Ercole Perforated Growth Pot - Accelerated Growth Nursery Pot

• Ercole ventilated root air pruning pots
• Promotes dramatic growth and development of all plants
• Rapidly establish collected trees and yamadori
• Offers optimum growing conditions for all starter trees
• Eliminates root spiralling and increases vigour
• UV-stabilised heavyweight black plastic & infinitely reusable

Ercole Growth Pot - Accelerated Growth Nursery Pot

It takes a great deal of time to create bonsai regardless of whether you are starting with seeds, cuttings, small plants or old yamadori. Ultimately the key to success is a good root system carefully balanced with just the right amount of foliage to fuel growth. The key to a powerful root system is dense fibrous fine feeder roots, and a lot of them. Sadly a bonsai pot is not a suitable container for the development of raw material into bonsai. A bonsai pot is designed to slow and restrict the growth of a tree thus easing the work required to keep the tree small.

Always follow the rule, ‘bonsai go into bonsai pots’, never put raw material or undeveloped trees into bonsai pots, their future development will be SIGNIFICANTLY retarded and the process will take many times longer than in larger nursery pots. In all commercial bonsai nurseries across the world bonsai are developed, firstly in the ground, and then in nursery pots before being transferred into bonsai pots where just the final ramification and refinement is developed. We have found that developing trees into bonsai is best achieved with a relatively small diameter but deep pot, this will give the fastest growth rate. Accelerated growth is achieved by maximising the drainage of water through the root zone. Irrespective of the soil constituents used, drainage will always be better in deep soil rather than shallow soil, thus a deep pot will produce higher growth rates.

One of the primary draw-backs of conventional ‘flower’ pots is the tendency of plant roots to circle the pot. Roots naturally only grow down and forwards and after some time in a pot the roots can spiral around the inside often achieving several feet in length. The problem with this is that the white feeder part of the root gets progressively further and further from the tree, thus increasing transfer time of water and nutrients and reducing growth rates. In bonsai we prune the roots regularly at re-potting time which increases the density of fine feeder roots to counteract this effect. The problem with re-potting is the invasive nature of the procedure that can only be carried out at certain times of the year and requires a significant amount of time for the tree to restore its balance afterward, thus wasting valuable growing season activity. The efficient answer to this dilemma is these growing pots which are an extremely simple but effective growth accelerating tool regardless of the plants you are looking to develop and grow. Roots naturally extend away from a plant in a search for water and nutrients, the little white end pushes it’s way through the soil relentlessly. If we can snip that tip off, the root will fork and divide behind the cut. This increases root density and the more little white root ends we can develop the stronger the plant will be. Using Ercole pots, once the growing tip of a root reaches the edge of the soil and emerges into the air it dries out and is effectively pruned.

From a bonsai development perspective these Ercole perforated pots are the ultimate growth enhancing tool. Light weight, space efficient, UV stabilised, cheap and infinitely reusable. Because of the shape and construction of the pot it is not necessary to go to the expense of using high quality free draining soil products. A finer more fibrous medium is still going to drain water efficiently. Therefore a relatively cheap growing medium can be used, bark, peat, coir and even regular garden compost will work really well. Because the pot is taking care of root pruning it is not necessary to keep re-potting and messing with the root system, plants can stay in these pots for several years and each year the growth rate will accelerate. At the time you are satisfied with the development of your tree the re-potting procedure is simple because the roots will not be encircling the rootball, it’s just like re-potting a well maintained bonsai tree.

If you are out collecting trees or rescuing skip rats, Ercole pots will offer dramatically increased survival rates and promote rapid re-growth. If you need to restore the vigour and health of tired old and neglected bonsai trees just two or three years in an Ercole pot with a good fertilising regimen will work wonders. Ercole pots are the perfect choice for developing starter trees as bonsai and given correct horticultural practice will produce growth rate similar to what might be achieved in the open ground.

Ercole pots are available in the following approximate sizes....

2 Litre - 6” diameter

3 Litre - 7” diameter

7.5 Litre - 10” diameter

9.5 Litre - 11” diameter

12 Litre - 12” diameter

20 Litre - 13” diameter

25 Litre - 14.5" diameter