Elaine, I am not a great lover of plastic pots either, but for me, with 300-400 plants, clay is simply too expensive and too heavy. I only use clay when the plant gets too top-heavy or when I re-pot a plant for someone and they want clay. I have now started using plastic mesh-pots, starting with 2" and ultimately going to 4". When the plant needs something larger, I either switch to clay, if not hanging, or more likely to a mesh basket, 6", 8", and 10". Mesh allows so much more root growth and the ability of the roots to not only grow into "space" but also to dry out rapidly. The down-side of mesh baskets is that there is so doggone much root growth through the mesh that the only practical way to move up to a larger size basket is to leave the plant as is and just put the old, smaller basket into a larger one. There is little to disturb the plant doing it this way and I think that is a good thing. I have started dabbling in some of the terrestrial orchids and those are in solid plastic pots, with bottom drain hole(s).
