 If you're asking yourself which pot is the best one for your plants, this video is for you. The pots that you pick for your plants will greatly influence the care that you give her, as well as how she grows. And when thinking about this, there are many different factors that we can consider in order to pick the right one for your plants and for yourself. As I always say, when it comes to plant care, the first thing that we want to look at is our plants. So what type of plant do you have? Do you have a tropical plant? Do you have a succulent or a cactus? Do they like the soil to stay moist at all times? Or do you know that they need less water and the soil needs to dry out completely before you water again? If you pick the right pot, this one will help you prevent over watering or under watering. So getting to know your plant is really important to get to choose the right one for her and also for you. And talking about you, this is the second very important factor. Get to know yourself and the care that you give to your plant. Are you an overwaterer or do you usually forget to water your plants? I can tell you, in my experience, the material of the pot has helped me regulate how long the soil stays moist. So this is very important when it comes to me and if I'm very forgetful of watering my plants or if I know that I water them too much. So now that you have an idea of which plants you have and the type of care that you give them, let's look at the pots. And the first one that we're going to look at is one that is very common in plant shops and plant nurseries and this is the plastic pot. Now I can tell you there are many advantages to plastic and this is why this one is so common. The first one of course is that it is very cheap. So if you go to the store you will see that plastic is one of the cheapest pots that you can get, which makes it a good option if you have many plants and you don't want to break the bank. Another very good thing about plastic is that it's very durable. So as you can see here it's not really easy to break. So it can last for long periods of time. If you buy a plastic pot and then you repot your plant, just try to save that plastic pot because you can reuse it for other plants. Plastic retains the water in the soil for longer periods of time. I can tell you, in my experience with tropical plants like alexias or allocations, plastic is very useful when retaining the water inside for longer. And this is really great because these plants actually like the soil to stay moist at all times. If you have a succulent for example that likes the soil to dry out more quickly or even completely before you water again, plastic may not be the best option because the soil is going to be moist for longer periods of time and this may not be the best for your succulent. But if you are someone that forgets to water and have tropical plants that like the soil to be moist, then plastic may be helpful for you. Another great thing about plastic is that it's lightweight. So if you like to move your plants around or you even have to move them around, for example, I actually water my plants all together in a box. So I actually move them around the house when I water. Plastic is very good because it's not so heavy as other materials. You can also use the method of check the weight of your plant to see if they need water. With plastic, since it is very light, you can just put it up and if it feels light, that means that your plant may need water. If you have a heavier material like terracotta or ceramic, this method may not be so accurate when checking if your plant needs water. Two of the main disadvantages of plastic is that first oxygen cannot go through the material because this material is not porous. So the space may be too saturated and the roots will not have the space to breathe. The other thing that is a big disadvantage of plastic is that this is not a sustainable material. As you may know, plastic takes 450 years to decompose. So the pots that you're using for your plant today will stay on this planet for 450 years. On top of that, the production of plastic is not sustainable and it will contribute to the pollution of our planet and to climate change. So this is something very important to consider when using plastic pots. And if you have plastic pots at home, I strongly recommend that you reuse them for your plants as they are very durable. So if you already have them there, just save them and reuse them. Another thing that you can do is to check with your nursery because some nurseries actually take plastic pots back to reuse them over there. So if that's your case, just check with them, wash your plastic pot really well and bring it back to the nursery so it can be reused. This takes me to the second type of pot, which is the terracotta pot. And we can start with the advantage that it's a more sustainable alternative than plastic. Terracotta is 100% natural brown bait clay. So its production is way more sustainable than the production of plastic. And it is a better alternative when it comes to caring for our planet. Another thing that I love about terracotta is that in my opinion, it is very pretty. It brings its natural tones to your house and it is very easy to combine with other colors. I also really like that it's kind of reddish so it looks really great with the green of the leaves on top. As opposed to plastic, terracotta is very porous, which means two things. First, oxygen can actually travel through the material into the soil and it will give you roots the space to breathe. And second, because it is very porous, terracotta will absorb the water out of the soil. This is great for plants that like the soil to try out completely in between waterings because the soil will not stay moist for long periods of time. So for example, you have succulents or cacti, terracotta pots will be great for these types of plants. Does this mean that you cannot have tropical plants in terracotta pots? Of course not. I actually have my Galatia Rufibarba in a terracotta pot and she is doing really great. All I have to do is to remind myself to water more frequently. Another thing that you can do to maintain the soil moist for longer periods of time for your tropical plants in terracotta pots is to use something like this. This is actually a terracotta watering globe and all you have to do is to pour the water inside here and stick it in the soil because then the water will be absorbed by the terracotta into the soil and this will help you prevent under watering or just prevent you the soil to be really really dry for your plant. I can tell you for me has been really great. I use it for my asparagus ferns and yeah, they seem to be really happy in the terracotta pots. Now some disadvantages that come with terracotta pots is that first they can be more expensive than plastic pots. One thing that I can say is that you know of any flea markets around your neighborhood you can actually find terracotta pots there and they may be at a lower price. Another disadvantage with terracotta is that it is very heavy so if you're like me and you water your plants grouped together for example with me I actually bring my plants in a box and I bottom water all of them. Terracotta may make it more difficult to move your plants around as it is a very heavy material so this is another thing to consider and related to that it can also break really easily so if you're carrying your plant and any drops terracotta may actually break and then it's not as durable as plastic. But anyways if you're careful and you don't have to move your plants around terracotta can be a very good choice because first it's really pretty and I love that it is more sustainable than plastic so it becomes a very good option to care for our plants and also to care for our planet. Now does the size of your pot matter? Yes it does and I'm going to tell you how to pick the right size for your plant. When choosing the next pot for your plant when you're reporting her one thing that we really have to remember is to not go too big. So a good rule of thumb is that you go maximum one to two sizes bigger than the previous pot. When you look at the measurement of the pot this is actually measuring its diameter. So when you're choosing a new pot for your plant just look at the diameter and make sure that it goes one to two sizes bigger maximum. This is going to help you prevent over watering and also your plant is not going to be too shocked with the new environment. The last thing that I consider when choosing my pot is drainage. Now many people have asked me do I really need drainage holes in the pot? The answer is no you don't really need them. Now in my experience drainage holes have been very very helpful so when I go buy my pot I always check that it has drainage holes and this is because of various reasons. The first one and most important one is that drainage holes help me prevent over watering my plant. This is because when I water the drainage holes make sure that the extra water drains down and the soil stays moist but not super wet which is really great when preventing root rot and over watering. The second reason for me is that I bottom water my plants so you have to have drainage holes for the water to go up to the soil from the bottom. So again you don't absolutely need drainage holes when it comes to the pot that you're going to choose for your plant. This will greatly depend on the type of care that you give her how you water her and you feel comfortable with the water that you give her knowing that the soil will be moist and not wet. I would love to know which pot that you prefer for your plants and why so make sure to comment below and share with others because I can assure you the whole community will appreciate it and that's including myself because I always learn from you guys. Also if you would like to support this community and the work that I do here we do have a Patreon page and we actually meet every month to talk about plants so we talk about potting mix and pots and plant issues so it's been really great so if you would like to join us there make sure to check out this link right here and as always I will see you in the next one okay adios