The formula to calculate the volume of truncated cone: Calculating the volume of a pot, which is actually a truncated cone, or a cone without a point The diagram below shows the truncated cone shape of a typical garden pot. The correct name for this shape is a truncated cone, also known as a frustum of a cone or conical frustum, a cone which is sliced somewhere along its length parallel to the base. This shape is a an inverted cone with the pointed end removed. To do this, all we need to do is measure the width at the top and bottom of the pot, and its height.Ī regular shaped pot has a round top, with a smaller round base, and sloped sides. What can we do if we have a non-standard sized pot that we need to know the volume of? The volume of any traditionally shaped pot can be calculated mathematically. How to Calculate the Volume of a Garden Pot Repeat if necessary, until the water just begins to trickle out from the drainage holes at the bottom, to ensure the potting mix is watered evenly, all the way through. That’s what it’s for! Let the water drain down into the potting mix. When watering, fill the empty space at the top of the pot with water, all the way to the brim. This empty space makes watering easier, and prevents the potting mix and any fertiliser applied to the pot washing out.
![soil volume calculator for pots soil volume calculator for pots](https://d2vlcm61l7u1fs.cloudfront.net/media/5ab/5ab6838b-2a5e-494d-8203-4b63340cb8be/phpvoPggb.png)
With larger pots, leave a space of 2cm (3/4″) or more. Smaller pots are usually filled at least 1cm (3/8”) below the top. When filling pots with potting mix, they should never filled to the top. What is the Correct Level to Fill Garden Pots? Don’t fill pots all the way to the top, leave some space to make watering easier! If we have a 25L bag of potting mix, and are filling 15cm (6”) pots which hold 1.9L of potting mix, we can fill 25/1.9 = 13.16 or 13 pots. Using the table below, it’s easy to figure out how much potting mix is needed to fill a standard pot. Lower height pots are referred to as squat pots, to distinguish them for the regular standard pots.
![soil volume calculator for pots soil volume calculator for pots](https://i0.wp.com/www.civilengineeringforum.me/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Soil-Moisture-Content-VWC-Fig-2-e1486863586157.png)
The way the horticulture industry gets around this is to use standardised sizes of pots, so a standard pot of a certain width will be a particular height. The width measurement doesn’t account for the height, and a taller pot of the same width will obviously hold much more. Standard pots are measured by the width across their top This measurement, and sometimes figure for the volume, may be printed on the bottom of plastic pots. So, a pot measuring 15cm (6”) across the top is referred to as a 15cm or 6” pot. When referring to pot sizes, pots are measured by their width across the top. But what about pots, where do we find their volume? When filling a large pot, or a number of smaller pots, gardeners often have to estimate how much potting mix they will require.īags of potting mix specify how many litres they hold, usually 25-30L for a standard bag, and 40L in the extra-large ones. Plastic garden pots come in a range of standard sizes.