IRRIPOT is the new Millenium vase. Except for the table model, all IRRIPOT containers are designed to house the GoStopWater irrigation device on the saucer, both for the mechanical and for the electric model.
It is a revisited and reinvented pot considering the advantages and disadvantages of traditional manufacturing terracotta and modern plastic materials including foams. One of the innovations made lies in the structural choice of adopting a double wall with a glazing of the internal wall that allows the plant to breathe as it does in terracotta pots with the advantage of avoiding the drawbacks. In fact, the porosity of the terracotta allows a greater drainage and a certain degree of aeration of the substrate. The water that evaporates tends to concentrate the salts on the walls of the pot and to cool the substrate with harmful thermal changes. This won’t happen with the double wall because the gas exchange is internal to the cavity where conditions of high humidity exists. Therefore, given the presence of the bottom water of the saucer and the windowed surface of the container which is not directly subject to external air currents, since it is protected by the external wall. This solution also allows the container not to heat under insolation and avoids scalding of roots of the plant as it occurs using current plastic pots due to the small thickness and poor thermal insulation. As far as double-walled vases are concerned, in the state of the art there are no plastic containers industrialized in the shape and functionality described. Mostly, there are pots with relative pot covers or medium and large double-walled plastic containers from rotational molding. However, in this case the double wall is confined to the upper part of the vase. A further innovation brought to the container is that of equipping the saucer with an internal well with a window in which a coconut fiber disk is positioned as a mediator of the contact between the bottom water and the substrate of the plant. The hydrated coconut fiber reaches the surface of the plant substrate and with its contact it guarantees both water supply and drainage. This solution optimizes the draining of the plant substrate and it allows the elimination of the classic inert drainage material base.
The state of the art as regards the sector that distinguishes the so-called water reserve vases consists of a saucer for the water reserve (generally a few centimeters in height) and the upper container that houses the substrate. The mediator between water and substrate of the plant is in the most accurate production made with strips or wicks of textile material, mostly cotton. In this case the transport of water takes place by capillarity through the strip or the wick for most of the pottery with a water reserve. The absence of the mediator (in this case the roots that come out of the bottom, variously windowed, contact with the water from the saucer reserve) or the feet of the upper container in which the substrate of the plant extends putting it in contact with the reserve water of the saucer.
In the absence of the mediator there is a good draining of the substrate; but, for an efficient system the growth of the roots must be expected taking care in the initial phase of the touching of the water with the bottom of the container. If the container is set up with feet, then it is the substrate itself that has contact with the bottom water in this portion. In this case, there is a rapid capillary rise ,but a radical asphyxiation phenomena arise due to excessive humidity on the bottom of the plant substrate. The most accurate solution of the strips in textile material and of the wicks was the best among all since the humidification took place by capillary rise in the portion affected by the contact remaining in the air and dripping. Conversely, the latter solution had a low efficiency linked to the scarce surface of transmission of humidity between the two phases.
The innovation of providing the saucer with an internal well windowed with coconut fiber increases the efficiency of the capillary transport of water towards the plant substrate and makes coconut fiber an excellent specialized mediator of the contact between the bottom water and the substrate of the plant.
The bottom of the IRRIPOT container is designed for both the GSW mechanical irrigation device and for the electromechanical device. Its structure allows: an adequate capillary rise of the bottom water towards the plant substrate, an extensive dripping surface that prevents any phenomenon of radical asphyxiation, and an adequate gas exchange (aeration) of the surface of the substrate below the vase.
IRRIPOT containers are simple to use, they irrigate when the plant really needs water, and it simplifies the practice of fertilizing and repotting plants.