3 Ways to Help Your Potted Plants Get Enough Drainage - The Plant Gallery (2024)

FAQs

3 Ways to Help Your Potted Plants Get Enough Drainage - The Plant Gallery? ›

Place a layer of drainage material e.g. small pebbles or hydrogranules on the base of the liner. Hydrogranules are baked, expanded clay granules that absorb excess water. Sit the plant in the grow pot on the drainage layer.

Place a layer of drainage material e.g. small pebbles or hydrogranules on the base of the liner. Hydrogranules are baked, expanded clay granules that absorb excess water. Sit the plant in the grow pot on the drainage layer.

Potting mixes usually contain ingredients like coarse sand, vermiculite, and perlite, which help facilitate drainage for potted plants.

Proper drainage is critical to plant root health because, by allowing excess water to seep out after watering, you can ensure that water won't pool at the base of your pot. This helps protect the plant's roots from bacteria, fungus, and rot. Overwatering can do severe damage.

One way of doing this is slowly tilt the pot to its side and then gently tap the container, the soil ball should now be loose within the container. Carefully re-stand the pot up when completed there should be small air pockets between the pot wall and around the soil ball.

You can also boost a potted plant's airflow and water drainage by adding different materials and aggregates to the potting soil. Materials like perlite, coarse sand, clay aggregates, vermiculite, and compost can all improve the structure of your plants' soil and prevent them from becoming too impacted.

A key practice for improving soil drainage is incorporating organic matter like compost or well-rotted manure. Organic matter improves soil structure by increasing soil aggregation which allows for more and varied pore sizes. Soil aggregates are groups of mineral particles that bind together.

One of the best things to put at the bottom of a planter for drainage is broken pieces of pot. You can use any unwanted plant pots or chipped crockery for this – simply smash them up into small to medium-sized pieces. Adding a layer of broken pieces of pot like this will prevent compost loss out of the drainage holes.

Pea gravel is one of the best materials for landscape drainage because its small size allows for outstanding drainage. These rocks are only about ¾ inches in size. Pea gravel is available in a variety of shades, including brown, grey, blue, and red, making it a good choice for a number of different landscapes.

Fill 1-2" inches at the bottom of your pot evenly with rocks. You can use gravel, landscape stones or smaller stones. This is where the excess water will go in your container, to keep it away from the roots. Plants hate having their roots sitting in soggy soil.

How do plants help with drainage? ›

The right plants will absorb the moisture and prevent runoff into other areas of your yard. This simple gardening technique is a lot cheaper than earth-moving solutions like installing a dry creek bed, a French drain, or a landscape pond.

Make sure the holes are free of roots or blockages so water can drain away freely. If your pots get waterlogged frequently, consider drilling more holes in the pot or transplanting into a more suitable container.

In addition to signs like wet potting mix and fungus gnats, the lower leaves of your overwatered plant will start to turn yellow, and then you may even see blackening at the base of said plant. If you see base mushiness or rot, it may be game over for your plant depending on the variety, so try to catch it early.

Signs of Root Rot

Unhealthy roots appear dark brown, black, mushy, fall apart, or smell like decay. Other symptoms of root rot: A large number of yellowing or smaller, pale-colored leaves. A lot of leaves wilting or falling off the plant (unseasonably)

However, Laura Janney, gardening expert and founder of The Inspired Garden, explains that rocks at the bottom of a planter can actually do more harm than good to your plant's roots. "The last thing you want to do is put any sort of rocks or gravel in the bottom of your container," she says.

Add one gallon of moist, coarse sphagnum peat moss, followed by one gallon of coarse sand, perlite, or vermiculite. Adjust the texture of the medium to create a loose, well-drained mixture. Sand feels gritty and clay feels sticky. If the potting soil feels too sandy, more peat moss should be added.