{"id":545,"date":"2026-10-09T00:28:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T22:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.168.60.121\/en\/choosing-the-right-pot\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T18:37:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T16:37:52","slug":"choosing-the-right-pot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ortoinbalcone.com\/en\/choosing-the-right-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing the right pot: volume, depth and families"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The right pot is not just any container: its <strong>volume<\/strong> and <strong>depth<\/strong> decide how much soil the root can use and how much water it can hold. The data below are real, taken from the 120 validated profiles, grouped by family.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image oib-infographic\" data-oib-fig=\"g1-vaso\" style=\"margin:0 0 2.25rem;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/g1-vaso.jpg\" alt=\"Dimensioni dei vasi per famiglia di piante: volume e profondit\u00e0 \u2014 Pot size by plant family: volume and depth\" width=\"1672\" height=\"941\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/figure>\n<h2>The right pot: volume and depth per family<\/h2>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Family<\/th>\n<th>Min pot<\/th>\n<th>Depth<\/th>\n<th>Examples<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Fruiting vegetable<\/td>\n<td>12\u201345 L<\/td>\n<td>30\u201340 cm<\/td>\n<td>Tomato, Peppers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Leaf vegetable<\/td>\n<td>6\u201315 L<\/td>\n<td>18\u201325 cm<\/td>\n<td>Lettuce, Swiss chard<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Root or bulb<\/td>\n<td>5\u201340 L<\/td>\n<td>15\u201335 cm<\/td>\n<td>Radish, Short carrot<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Compact legume<\/td>\n<td>15\u201318 L<\/td>\n<td>25 cm<\/td>\n<td>Dwarf bean, Dwarf pea<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Herb<\/td>\n<td>4\u201330 L<\/td>\n<td>18\u201335 cm<\/td>\n<td>Basil, Parsley<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Soft fruit<\/td>\n<td>4\u201360 L<\/td>\n<td>30\u201345 cm<\/td>\n<td>Strawberry, Blueberry<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Beneficial flower<\/td>\n<td>5\u201315 L<\/td>\n<td>20 cm<\/td>\n<td>Nasturtium, Calendula<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2>The rules that emerge from the data<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Fruiting vegetables want the biggest pots.<\/strong> The tomato alone needs at least 30 L and 35 cm of depth; small fruits like the blueberry can reach 60 L to give the roots room.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Leaves need little.<\/strong> The right pot for lettuce is 6 L and 18 cm: it&#8217;s the most compact family.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Roots have a minimum but vary.<\/strong> Radish is fine in 5 L and 15 cm; carrots and beetroot, which develop a taproot, want up to 35\u201340 cm.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Drainage always.<\/strong> Every family, every pot: holes clear at the bottom.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Use the <a href=\"\/en\/tools\/\">Pot size and depth<\/a> tool to calculate the right pot for the exact plant: the profile numbers are the real dataset values.<\/p>\n<h2>Sources<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/powo.science.kew.org\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew \u2014 Plants of the World Online<\/a> \u2014 taxonomy<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rhs.org.uk\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Royal Horticultural Society<\/a> \u2014 plant care<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umd.edu\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">University of Maryland Extension<\/a> \u2014 container growing<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umn.edu\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">University of Minnesota Extension<\/a> \u2014 container + climate<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.psu.edu\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Penn State Extension<\/a> \u2014 urban container growing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The right pot is not just any container: its volume and depth decide how much soil the root can use and how much water it can hold. The data below are real, taken from the 120 validated profiles, grouped by family. The right pot: volume and depth per family Family Min pot Depth Examples Fruiting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_GB","_original_post":"544","oib_translation_group_id":"","oib_affiliate_link_limit":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guide","tag-guide","en-GB"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ortoinbalcone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ortoinbalcone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ortoinbalcone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ortoinbalcone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ortoinbalcone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ortoinbalcone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ortoinbalcone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ortoinbalcone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ortoinbalcone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ortoinbalcone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}