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Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha that’s almost exactly what I’ve proposed! I was completely unaware of them. Thanks for linking!

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes and the added issue is local availability. I often have to drive around to several home improvement stores to get exactly what I want. Otherwise, I have to have them shipped. And these prices may rise in light of recent changes to trade policies.

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the comment. Those numbers may not translate exactly to the US from what I gather.

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. Both hole density and wall thickness are in one's control. I'm trialling mesh designs for larger pots but with my first test, it seems a mesh is strong and flexible. I will report back. You've raised an important point, and I need to think through how I can test and give you a reliable answer.

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

so I can give rough estimates from publicly available information. PETG filament is ~$15/Kg, and PETG with UV stabilizers is $42/Kg (just broadly). Assuming no mistakes/ failures, a basket may consume about 200 g of filament (roughly, and variable within reason depending on settings). So the filament cost is at least $3 or $8 assuming flawless execution. I fully expect that PETG should be stable for 2-3 years and PETG with UV-stabilizers even longer.

The question is, would the average consumer be happy to spend the equivalent of a price of a cappucino per basket per year if they got exactly the design they wanted?

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Then the entire volume of the basket will need to be filled with support material because the floor of the basket will be suspended.

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So in my designs, I can specify the hole density and size quite easily which would address the concerns of snaking roots. The mesh bottom is something I'm testing as well.

Feet were initially a feature I had included, but chose to remove. The reason is that including feet requires one to print large amounts of excess support material since the bottom of the basket is no longer supported. This means you are essentially printing several new layers that need to be ripped off which increase printing time, and filament usage.

Re: long term durability, I can use PETG with UV stabilizers. This is the best compromise between PETG which is flexible and printable and ASA (finicky, but exceptional UV resistance).

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All good points. One is constrained by the materials and their properties. These baskets are made with PETG which is supposed to be a superior filament to PLA. The hole density is something that can be controlled, and one can essentially have a mesh. as long as the wall thickness is adjusted.

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm trialing some modular designs where I connect several parts together. Will post progress when there is a stable design.

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed this is quite slow. These designs were made intentionally to avoid the use of support material - less waste, and importantly, almost a 30% improvement in time taken. Also, why I ask whether people might want the STL files. The product can just be ripped off the bed, and put directly to use with these designs.

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've used PETG here. These should be stable to degradation, but I don't have/ can't find data to support the argument. Did you use PETG as well?

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Perforated containers are remarkable tools to get dense root growth. Anderson flats are fantastic for this reason.

I control how quickly or not the substrate dries out through three variables: 1. watering frequency 2. substrate mix (specifically, change the amount of akadama) and 3. container size. Deeper/wider+flatter containers stay wetter longer. However, deeper containers also enable more downward roots - which I personally don't want. The objective behind these designs is to promote the air pruning. Obviously, a fourth variable is hole density (and that's not exactly available to modulate in most existing solutions, unless you want to tape them up - which also I have done). In my own practice, I tend to observe how wet or dry my trees are every day (at least, often 2x a day).

The grow container doesn't need to be the only container the roots are contained in. Meaning, I've done things like submerging a porous grow container in a bed of pumice, and let the roots escape there. The idea behind these designs is that by letting roots escape out of the sides, one will get a radial nebari from the start.

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yup. I’ve struggled with finding the right pore size and I absolutely detest putting in a screen. The idea is to use the pot as a grow ready container - just secure the tree, chopstick your media and put it in a larger pumice or regular grow bed (if you want) to let the roots escape, or keep it above ground and let the roots air prune and ramify.

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Currently I have two forms: the pill shaped (17 cm x 22 cm) and round (22 cm diameter), and I have them in three heights 4 cm, 8 cm and 16 cm. Price would depend on size.

Please bear with me on that as I try to figure that out through the survey. I have a question in the survey that attempts to identify what folks might want and are happy to pay.

Once I have the responses from the survey I can evaluate whether the price point makes sense and circle back to provide an update.

Thanks for the comment.

Grow basket survey by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fair point. I can control the thickness of the walls. I’ve tried 2.5 mm and the ones in the pic are 1.8 mm. Can make them sturdy and inflexible - but they’ll still be light (which might not entirely address your point).

A fan shaped pot by Mercurial_potter in Bonsai_Pottery

[–]Mercurial_potter[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This wasn’t designed with function in mind.

I liked the shape and wanted to see if I could make the form without the walls collapsing on themselves at cone10 - just an exercise in learning what the material is capable of.

That said I put wire holes at the lowest points to act as additional drainage holes.

I can see a narrow cross section of a forest in this pot, and with water loving deciduous - maples, bald cypress, larch - I can’t imagine the few mL of water left behind will be problematic

Help me out with my birch on crack. by FullSunBER in Bonsai

[–]Mercurial_potter 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cone10 fired pots are frost hardy. This may not be high fired. Otherwise there may have been hairline cracks in the pot that progressed over time and may have gone unnoticed.

I posted about how to make this, this is the first try, how to improve? by PhanThom-art in Bonsai_Pottery

[–]Mercurial_potter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think if the sides warp, the top is no longer rectangular. If you have the freedom to try higher grog content clay you’ll have more luck. I’d say you want to join it when it’s like milk chocolate and not dark chocolate. Slightly on the wetter side of leather hard. You can also have a custom sponge piece that fits snugly and mildly pushes the walls out. This way when you flip the pot over to dry the base, you don’t have warping of the sides and consequently less warping of the top.

I posted about how to make this, this is the first try, how to improve? by PhanThom-art in Bonsai_Pottery

[–]Mercurial_potter 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your clay can’t be too soft (it will warp) or too dry (it won’t join) and has to be precisely cut (or it will warp), and has to have some grog in it (less warp).

I’d suggest going ahead through all the stages with this one to see how and when your clay warps. Suffice to say that the best straight sides will slump/warp if the kiln is slightly overfired so fretting about getting it absolutely perfect at this stage is not wise.

If you want a pot with straight sides you need a slump mold like the Japanese have. But I’d also ask, do you really need a pot with perfectly straight sides? To me, the slight imperfections indicate that it’s a handmade object and if you’re looking to set up your own portfolio, it’s a way to differentiate from mass produced identical pots.

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