What Pot Size Should You Actually Buy?

Nursery pot sizes are the most confusing numbers in the whole trade, and almost nobody explains them honestly. You are shown a plant listed as 100L, you picture something, it arrives, and it is either twice the tree you expected or half of it. The litre figure does not describe the plant. It describes the container, and only loosely at that. This guide sets out what each common size actually delivers in height, weight and access requirements, so you can order once and get it right.

What the litre number really measures

The number on a nursery pot is a nominal volume for the container, not a measured volume of growing media and not a measurement of the plant. A pot sold as 45L usually holds somewhere between 40 and 50 litres depending on whether it is a standard or squat profile. Two nurseries can both sell a "100L" and one will be noticeably taller and narrower than the other.

What the number does tell you reliably is root volume, and root volume is what actually governs how big a plant can be carried in that container, how much water it needs in its first summer, and how quickly it will push away once planted. Treat the litre figure as a measure of the root system, then ask separately what height and calliper that root system is currently supporting.

The common sizes and what you actually get

These are honest working ranges across the species we grow on. Fast growers such as Waterhousea, Lophostemon or Cupressus sit at the top of each band. Slow, dense species such as Magnolia 'Little Gem', Buxus or Cycas sit at the bottom.

• 45L, roughly a 400mm pot. Plant height typically 1.5 to 2.5m. Weight around 50 to 70kg wet. Two people can carry it. This is the smallest size we sell.
• 100L, roughly a 500 to 560mm pot. Height typically 2.5 to 3.5m. Weight around 120 to 150kg. Needs a trolley or two strong people, and a gate of about 900mm.
• 200L, roughly a 620 to 700mm pot. Height typically 3 to 4.5m. Weight around 250 to 300kg. Machine handling from here on.
• 400L, roughly an 800 to 900mm pot. Height typically 4 to 6m. Weight commonly 500 to 600kg. Needs a bobcat, a telehandler or a crane, and a clear path of at least 1.2m.
• 500L to 750L, the top of our range. Height typically 5 to 7m. Well over a tonne. Effectively a crane lift or a truck mounted loader, planned in advance.

Weights are the number people underestimate. Wet potting media runs close to a kilogram per litre before you add the plant, which is why a 200L tree is not something you slide off a ute with a mate.

Bags, pots and ex-ground stock are not the same thing

You will also see poly bag sizes, usually 27L, 33L and 45L. Bags are lighter and cheaper to handle but the root ball is softer and needs more care in transit. Ex-ground or field grown stock is different again: it is grown in the ground, dug with a tree spade and either hessian wrapped or crated, and it is measured in metres of height rather than litres, because there is no pot involved. Ex-ground is how the very largest specimens are moved, and it is best done in the cooler months. We supply container and bag grown stock rather than ex-ground, so everything on our site is measured in litres or pot diameter so the tree can re-root before it has to cope with a summer.

Palms are measured differently again. A palm listing quotes clear trunk or overall height, not pot volume, because the crown does not scale with the container in the way a tree canopy does. A 400L Bismarckia and a 400L Wodyetia will look nothing alike. Our palm range lists height so you can compare like with like.

For how growers themselves grade stock, including the millimetre pot ladder below 45L and how the American gallon sizes compare, HortOS explains nursery pot sizes in millimetres, litres and gallons.

Why we do not sell anything smaller than 45L

Because below that size the job does not work. We supply, deliver and plant every order as one bundled service, and a 200mm tube stock plant does not justify a truck, a crew and a machine. It also does not do what our customers are actually buying, which is a garden that looks finished. Starting at 45L and 400mm means every plant that leaves us has a root system substantial enough to survive a professional install and enough top growth to read as a real plant from the first day.

There is a second reason. Advanced stock is genuinely more expensive to produce, because it has occupied nursery space, water and labour for years before you see it. We set that out properly in our guide to why advanced trees cost what they do.

Which size for which job

Match the size to the outcome, not to the budget line.

• Boundary screen you are happy to grow in. 45L is usually the sweet spot. Screening species are chosen for speed, so a 45L Waterhousea or Syzygium will close a gap within two to three seasons and establish faster than a bigger one. Start with our privacy screening range.
• Screen you need working now. 100L to 200L. You are buying the years, not the plant.
• Single feature tree in a front garden. 100L to 200L. Big enough to hold the space against a two storey facade, small enough to establish without heroics.
• Avenue or driveway planting. 100L for a run of eight or more, because consistency matters more than instant size and you want every tree to move at the same rate.
• Courtyard where there is one tree and nothing else. 200L to 400L. There is nothing to hide behind.
• Replacing a mature tree that came out. 400L and up, because the surrounding garden is already at full scale.

Our full tree collection lists the sizes available for each species, and if you are weighing instant effect against establishment, what size tree should you buy for impact works through the trade-off with real examples.

Bigger is not automatically better

This is the part the industry is quiet about. A large tree carries a root system that was cut or confined at some point, and it has to rebuild that system before it can put on new top growth. A smaller tree has a better root to shoot ratio, transpires less on a hot day, and gets away faster.

In practice, on a well prepared site with reliable water, a 45L of a fast growing species will often catch a 200L of the same species within three to five years. The 200L still wins on year one and year two, which is exactly what you are paying for if the view from the kitchen window is the problem you are solving. What you should not assume is that the big one will always stay ahead. If it goes in badly, it will sulk for two summers and the small one will pass it.

The other honest caveat is that large stock is less forgiving of poor soil, poor drainage and poor watering. If your site has heavy clay or builder's fill, either fix the soil properly or buy one size down and put the difference into ground preparation.

Access is a real constraint, so measure it first

Before you choose a size, walk the route the plant has to travel. Measure the narrowest gate, note any steps, check whether the side path is 900mm or 1.2m, and look at overhead wires and low eaves. Note where the truck can legally stop and how far it is from there to the hole.

• Under 900mm access: 45L only, hand carried.
• 900mm to 1.2m: up to 100L with a trolley.
• 1.2m and level: 200L with a machine.
• No side access at all: 400L and above go over the roof or the fence by crane, which needs planning and space for the truck to set up.

Tell us the access before you order rather than after. It changes the size we recommend and the equipment we bring, and it is the single most common reason a delivery has to be rebooked.

Working out your size in five minutes

Stand where you will look at the plant from. Measure the height of the thing you are trying to hide or balance. Subtract the fence height if there is one. That is the height you need the plant to reach, and the size you buy is simply how much of that height you want on day one versus how much you are prepared to wait for. Then check your access, then check your soil.

Every plant we sell arrives as one bundled price with free delivery Australia wide and professional planting by our own crew, so the heavy sizes are not your problem to move. See how the service works on our supplied and installed page.

Once you have settled on a size, read how to plant a tree properly so you know what good ground preparation looks like, and if instant screening is your actual goal, instant privacy: what is actually possible will tell you honestly what each size buys you in the first season.