sounds odd doesn't it?
i am nursing a plumeria back to health that had some rot issues. it had become root bound. the roots that were touching the bottom of the container started rotting because of drainage issues. it think the classic, black nursery container has a design flaw. (putting on flame retardant suit now - LOL) it prevents water from draining well from containers. before you say that i am crazy here's one case in point.
i planted the plumeria in a 5-gal nursery container in 100% pumice. i watered it this morning before leaving for work. almost 12 hours later, i tip the container on its side and water starts pouring out of one of the drain holes. hmmm...that's odd isn't it? i always thought that fast draining meant no water sitting in the container hours later. one would think this to definitely be true for 100% pumice.
i say that there needs to be drain holes on the bottom too and not just the sides. just a thought.
dete
fast draining but still holds water???
How high from the bottom are your drain holes? And how many do your pots have? I find the larger pots have drain holes higher than the small ones for some reason. I have had to enlarge holes on some of my larger pots. Just some thoughts.
davie
davie - these are the black nursery pots that have the drain holes in the side wall. there are four 1" x 1" drain holes. the top of the drain hole is 1" from the bottom of the container. the bottom of the drain hole is the bottom of the container. just about every last drop of water should come pouring out as i water.
"just about every last drop of water should come pouring out as i water." You woulld think...got me interested...I water in the morning I will check out my pots.
let me know what you see.
I think I have some black plastic nursery pots with the drainage holes partly on the side and partly on the bottom in the corner where the two meet. I'll have to check to see if there is a hole in the middle on some of them tomorrow.
Maybe 100% pumice is packed too tightly to allow air spaces and water to get through without moving the pumice around in the container by tipping it on its side and allowing the water to find a different route through. I would never recommend either 100% perlite or 100% pumice to anyone, but I know some people do root with them exclusively. I have SunGro's Sunshine Mix, and I wish it stayed wet for a longer period of time. My pots dry out way too fast. I am really sick of watering!
Here's another food for thought: perched water table effect.
hi clare,
that's sounds like a reasonable design.
i can assure that it's not packed too tightly as to not have enough air space to allow water through. by it vary nature it is used for aeration of soil. however, i guess one could experience stratification of 100% pumice but it seems like this would have to be deliberate. i use large to medium size pumice and wash all of the dust off. the screen that i use when i wash off the pumice allows all of the dust and smaller particles to pass through. therefore, i avoid the situation that you mention.
i still don't understand that perched water table fully. my thought has always been that the bottom of the container itself make for a perched water table. bury your drain holes and the perched water table disappears because the ground acts as a wick.
my problem here is the design of the nursery container. the flaw can clearly be seen in the pic that i will post later.
dete
here is a pic of 1/4 drain holes. the bottom of the drain hole is the botton of the pot. i think that the center of the bottom of the pot sits mm lower than the bottom of the drain hole. see the shadow of the edge of the pot underneath the pot? that would mean that the edge of the container is very slightly raised. this is why i made the point that they also need drain holes on the bottom of the containers, too.
is all of this making since? LOL
dete
I can see what you what you are typing about...and it makes sense. The bottom of your pots are in the shape of a bowl and retain some water...i agree poor design. Just drill a hole in the center.
good to know that i am not losing it. haha!!!
i think this is a common occurrence and most people don't pay attention to it. i goes unnoticed for me probably because of the heat and dry weather. however, when i plumeria is sick then all of the issues with bad soil mixes and the type of container in use and other not-so-good horticultural practices start to rear their ugly heads.
i'll start putting holes in the bottom. i think why i didn't do this before was because i didn't want the roots growing into the ground. however, this is good because the ground will wick away the water that would tend to sit in the bottom of the container.
Dete, what's wrong with roots growing into the ground? They will grow out of the sides just as easily as they out of the bottom.
I make the drainage holes bigger in the pots of plants that I bury in the ground so that roots have room to grow out and seek nutrients. In the winter I cut off the roots growing out of the pots when I dig them up. That leaves me with an established root ball for the following season and the plants do not mind the root pruning.
I see what you mean, Dete! This hasn't been a problem for me, and I think I have some of those containers too. I tend to overwater a lot too because, once my potting soil gets bone dry, it is really hard to re-wet again so I try to make sure that the soil stays consistently moist at my house.
If a plumeria is otherwise healthy, I don't think it should cause a life-threatening problem though. Sometimes, when I repot one-gallons to five-gallons, I'll see that some of the roots that were touching the container have turned brown. This could be from too much moisture or from the heat of the container or from not being in a medium for a while, but the overall root system is usuallly quite healthy and abundant despite a few outer brown roots.
Dete I was really looking over all my containers, I found that i have about 10 different types, most have drain holes that start on the side of the pot and continue to the bottom side (I hope that makes sense). I had some, the worst type, that the drain holes start an 1" up the side of the pot, leaving water to sit in the bottom 1" of the pot. I had a few, I think this is the best type, that have all the drain holes on the bottom of the pot. The drain holes that are on the bottom have risers that surround the drain holes actually keeping the drain hole cm's from the ground, in othe words the drain holes have no contact with the ground letting water flow freely from the bottom of the pot. I will take a picture of this particular pot when I get a chance. Hope some of the babbling above makes sense.
Davie
That does make sense, Davie. I didn't realize that there were some that were an inch up from the bottom on the side of the pot. That truly is a design flaw as Dete said.
Forgot my camera @ the office...pics Manana.
Davie
josie - i don't mind them going in the ground now. their was nothing wrong with it in the first place. i just didn't want to damage any roots.
the plumie was actually healing itself clare and send out new roots at the points where the rot had stopped.
i understand what you mean davie. i need some pots like that. i will put holes about the center, too.
Glad to hear it, Dete. I love it when that happens!
Took some pictures of my pots and their different drain holes...until now I never realized how many different pot types I have...I only selected a few to take pictures of.
Pic 1 10 or 12 gallon pot with drain holes that start about an inch up...what good this does?
Normal pot..drain holes on side..works fairly well.
Very similar to the one above, drains just as well.
One of my best draining pots...holes are on the bottom but the outer edge of the pot is lower to the ground than the center holes leaving them Cm's above the ground allowing all water to exit the bottoms holes without obstruction.
Best draining pot I have... it has it all...lot of holes on the botton that are elevated.
Davie
I have never seen pots like the first one you posted! What the heck? That is weird! If that is the kind of pot that Dete was talking about, he is right that it is an obvious design flaw.
i vote for the last one!