Thanks Blue. I can now see you are 100% right - the 18 slice 2" mesh net pots came the other day. They weigh 4.0 grams each, too flexible, and the lips are tiny and molding shoddy. The only way to deal with them would be to buy a 1 7/8" hole saw. To add further insult, about 10% of the lips were not completely molded, i.e., missing material and are worthless. These disappointing mesh net pots came from hydroponicsnation in CO via eBay. They are obviously not reliable for most veggies, though they might be pretty good for Spiritweed, garden Dandelion varieties and the like. I may just snip the 16-slice bottoms out and insert them in the durable 4 slice bottoms I'm using currently when I get a chance. They came from homeandgardensupply in RI via Amazon, and weigh 4.5 grams, which made all the difference to their integrity and clearly superior durability and molding.

The 3.75'' would work for tomatoes because I currently use them for my DWC system. What kind of plants are you planning on growing other than tomatoes? To be honest, given the area of 11'' X 11''you are talking about I would bet you could fit one, maybe 2 toms at most in there... now I could be wrong... do you have any pics? that might help. Tomatoe roots get very large and will take up TONS of space in your setup. From what I understand you are using an Ebb and Flow "tray" method where the tray floods and drains. How deep is the tray? Do you have any pictures?

Net pots support the plant and allow plant roots to grow through the net so they can get oxygen. Net pots need to be big enough for the roots & strong enough to support the plant weight. The mesh of the net pot is also important a smaller mesh allows one to use media with small particles whereas a large mesh will need a media with larger particles. Net pot liners may be added, however, to contain the media. When placing pots in a system, they should sit ¼ of their depth in water. Home or cheaper versions of net pots include strawberry baskets, small fish nets, Styrofoam cups with slits on the bottom, or plastic cups with holes placed in them by a soldering iron, etc.

I think those biodomes for the Nepenthes Lady Luck plants are in what is essentially a net pot. They sit in a container with exposed soil/roots that take in the water directly. Supposedly the root ball has the fertilizer or nutritiion the plant needs for up to 1 year, so you just have to keep adding water to the bio-dome for that time period. http://www.borneoexotics.com/bio-domes/faq.html