The regular 4" terracotta plant pot



has an internal diameter of 4" (no surprises there), an external diameter of 4 3/8" and a height of 3 7/8" - I know that because I just measured one.

So it is not an ideal container for many of our cacti that have deep taproots, like Lophophora, Ariocarpus, Pelecyphora, Turbinicarpus and others. In fact I recently repotted my Ariocarpus trigonus because its taproot had ´bottomed-out´ and was pushing the plant out of its pot.

These cactus genuses do better in a pot that is deeper in comparison to its diameter



what British horticulturists call ´Long Tom´ pots.

So I embarked upon a quest to acquire some ´Long Toms´.

No garden centre around me here in sunny Spain had anything like, and an internet search of Spanish suppliers came up with zilch, although ´half-pots´, the opposite requirement, were available.

So they had to be sourced from the UK - but even there your common or garden centre did not stock them, and I found they had to be ordered from a specialist supplier. An online UK horticultural supplier called ´The Plant Directory´ had the business, but would not deliver outside the UK.

BUT I had arranged to visit the UK for 12 days in October - my kid sister, who is a US citizen, and her husband were visiting our mother, then going to a NFL match at Wembley stadium (long way to go for a football match!!), so before I left I ordered a selection to be delivered at my son´s house near Southampton, where we were going next.

The most common size I use is 4", so I ordered 15 of them, then smaller amounts of 3.5", 6", 5" and 8" Long Tom pots. A total of 43 pots in all. So how to get them back to Spain?? Road hauliers wanted 120 UK pounds to deliver a credit card - so the cheapest option - and the most convenient, was to fly them back with me and Mrs. Fly.

They all came in boxes and wrapped in tubes of 5 or so, very well protected by ´The Plant Directory´ in bubble wrap and foam padding. So keeping them in the as received units I packed 10kg of pots, the smaller ones and the weight limit, into my carry-on cabin bag.

A tube of pots went in each of our two suitcases, protected by clothing, and I made up a large cardboard box for the largest pots (ensuring it was well padded with clothing and paper) - I had to book and pay for an additional item of baggage - 30 UK pounds, as I said, easily the cheapest option.

After unpacking on arrival here is the consignment



After removing the bubble wrap I had:



every one of these fragile pots arrived intact - remarkable as Spanish baggage handlers are not renowned for their delicacy of touch.

So mission accomplished !!

Awesome! Talk about dedication

Nice dude!!! I have been looking for those for a while! I recently had a lophophora start to push itself out of a 4" terra cotta pot. I tried to find the long torn pots, but I didn't have any luck. I ended up putting it in a rediculously wide pot that was tall enough to house it's tap root. I am a bit worried about it's ability to dry out though since it has such a large volume of soil in it.

Thanks for sharing this!
hostilis

Thanks - my babes are worth every effort!!

Glad you found it interesting. I agree that pots with too big a volume of soil are slow to dry out and a rotting risk.