On 06/01/2014 19:08, sacha wrote:
Not really - but something I've briefly touched on with another Nursery
on Twitter and it seems to me that the experiences of urglers is
valuable both to each other and to the nurseryman in this. Few
nurseries selling online tell you what size pot your plant is going to
arrive in but we wonder if the average buyer knows the difference
between a 2 litre pot and a 10cm pot? I'm asking this because, frankly,
we have been shocked to see certain plants sold for £20 which, we're
fairly sure, will arrive in a 10cm pot, which means a small plant with a
small root system. We searched the ad and the website of the nursery
involved and see no reference to pot sizes at all. In the past we
ourselves have bought a supposedly 2 year old grape vine from a
reputable nursery but which had to be 'nursed' in a tunnel for 2 years
before planting out into a greenhouse. The same happened to a very
expensive but desirable Magnolia from another (different) well known
nursery. We didn't dare put it in the garden for two years!

How many people ask what size pot the plant will have grown into and how
many even consider the matter, I wonder. Do most just expect a small
plant and pay up happily? I know that, before I met Ray, as an
'ordinary' customer, pot sizes in litres meant nothing to me. I've
decided to measure the tops of ours and put those online because I think
it will make more sense to the average buyer.




I've been following this thread with interest. I have got so that I
mentally recognise pots measured in litres and inches (top
circumference). I can also manage metric pot sizes, but tend to convert
to imperial first.

Each has its ambiguity. I know roughly what a litre of compost looks
like, but that doesn't tell me how much of that volume is filled with
root. GCs often pot up small plants into 1ltr pots so they can charge
more. Nurseries do this less, but some are still guilty. On-line and
postal nurseries tend to keep the pots smaller (or send plants
bare-root) to ease postage.

A top circumference measurement is fine (whether imperial or metric),
but doesn't tell you the *depth* of the pot. 'Pans' are much shallower
than standard pots, which in turn are shallower than 'long tom' pots.

Perhaps, along with pot size, the labelling should say "garden ready" or
"established" (at least in catalogues). The depth of the pot is harder
to define, which is probably why volume in litres was adopted.
One way to get over this would be to label as follows:

Plant H2'x W1'
Pot 6"top x 4"depth.

Even this makes the customer ask whether the given plant measurement is
size at sale or size at maturity.

I think you may have opened a can of worms, Sacha! Squirm squirm :~).

--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay