What material do I use for drainage?

10 years ago

I really trying to minimize the cost in growing my own vegatables. I like using plastic peanuts and putting them at the bottom with some landscape cloth but I am looking for other materials that could be used. Rocks would work but it starts to make my bigger containers way to heavy. My main two questions are what materials could be used at the bottom of containers and what do you about drainage?

Comments (3)

oxboy555
10 years ago
Plastic soda bottles with their caps on.
seysonn
10 years ago
It depend on the size of pot/container.
You can use a variety of things, broken bricks, large gravel. These heavy thing can also stabilize the container. For light weight do like oxboy said. Plus you can put small plastic nursery pot face down.(cover bottom holes). But when you do these, then you are reducing the space for the roots system. UNLESS your container is oversized.

Having said all that, the best way is to use a well draining medium
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Miguelovic
10 years ago
"Having said all that, the best way is to use a well draining medium"

Thats gold right there. Fabric to keep everything in the pot is fine, but by adding a "drainage" layer, you really are only reducing the root space and raising the perched water table, not avoiding it. A well draining mix is your best bet to avoid this, ie. perlite, hydrocorn/hydroton, rice/buckwheat hulls, pumice, etc.