I'm gonna try empty paper towel and toilet paper rolls. I know they break down eventually but maybe they help hold water. Pat

Pat, I used toilet paper rolls in place of peat pots when starting some annuals this year. I put my peat pots or toilet paper tubes into larger pots and surround everything with potting soil, to help conserve moisture. Anyway, the toilet paper tubes broke down very quickly, much faster than the peat pots. I was still able to separate the plant starts out thought, but the toilet paper tubes were almost gone completely by the time the plants were big enough to move out.
Just wanted to let you know, as eventually might be much faster than you think ;-) But, it's always worth a try. That's the fun of gardening (for me anyway,) getting to try things out and see how they work. No big loss if it doesn't work, and if it does, that's fun!

Jean

I have used them for pots of a sort...got to be a good use for them right:)? Pat

aluminum cans upside down to prevent them from fillign with water. also as the plastic nursery pots upside down work well. never tried pinecones but it seems like a good idea.

packing peanuts work well but they will "sour" after a year or two and can begin to smell bad. not going to hurt the plants but not very pleasnt to be out on your porch if it stinks.

always start with a little gravel so soil doesnt escape the bottom. I am going to do upside down pots and a piece of plywood cut in to a circle with holes cut in it. then wrap the wood in landscape fabric. (this is for BIG pots, 3 foot across, 4 foot high.

I use a plastic pot in a smaller size upside down

I use all sorts of things, with no ill effects. My parents don't have recycling where they are, so I just go through their garbage (they laugh)! I've used empty cans and bottles turned upside down, plastic food trays, empty detergent bottles (with the lids on), you name it.

This is totally off topic....
A good use for paper towel rolls....
When making pie crusts, wrap a towel roll with plastic, roll your crust around it, more plastic wrap & freeze for later use as either top or bottom crust! Thaw before unrolling!

plastic pop bottles with the screw top attached (don't want water to get into the bottle). Takes up a lot of room and allows for great drainage.

I'm scared to use soda cans and bottles because it's so hot where I live. I think the cans would act like little heat conductors since they're metal, and the bottles would melt plastic at a small slow rate. I found a bunch of old ceramic tiles and break those up and mix it with rocks.

I use empty milk jugs with the lids on so they don't crush or hold water.

I read one of those Container Gardener Bible books and he says to not put anything in the containers to take up space. His thought is that plants in containers need all the growing material and water holding material they can get (bigger is better).

I saw a neat idea on some nursery website the other day..this designer was giving a class on container gardening and he took a plastic colander, turned upside down and it fit perfect for the container he was demonstrating with. It has drainage holes already but it would take up less potting mix with that in there. I thought it was a neat idea. Go to $ store if you don't have one..I've turned those black nursery pots upside down, I've put in a 3 lb. coffee can(but that rust and breaks down I found)I've also used water bottles. If you use milk jugs, do you poke drainage holes in them? I made a mistake of using the peanuts one time without putting them inside a plastic bag and like the one person said...what a mess the next year! Never used them again, but I never thought to put them inside a plastic bag. Wouldn't pine cones break down, like mulch?

I'm a bit concerned about all of the plastic & styrofoam that people are putting in their pots. I realize that this isn't necessarily an organic forum, but people should be wary of plastic in any form, anywhere.

I have one huge pot that I had put a lot of shredded paper in the bottom of, but the soil level has dropped by several inches over the past 3 years or so. It is either compacting from water or decomposing or both.

I like the suggestions of either organic materials (pine cones - although beware of what I mentioned above) or inert materials like glass, metal or ceramics.

I realize that weight is an issue for some people, but I will continue to use shovelfuls of clay soil in the bottom. Position the empty pot first, then fill it.

What is your concern with plastic?

You can use chunks of styrofoam packing material cut up to fit your pots, or another pot turned upside down. Those hard plastic nursery pots are good for that purpose. Newspaper would only get soggy and would soak up enough water that they would add to the weight. What other waterproof light weight materials do you have around the house, garage and garden?

I've used small limbs and even larger pieces of wood in the bottom of large pots. The weight helps keep my pots from blowing over in our Oklahoma wind, and the wood eventually breaks down and turns into compost (or something similar). It helps to retain water during dry spells, and my plants love it. We always have a pile of limbs to be disposed of, so I have a constant supply.

I use pieces of pine bark I pick up in the woods. It is very sad actually, our pines are dying around here. So you see dead trunks with piles of bark around them. I like to carve or whittle with chunks of pine bark - very easy, I used to do it when I was a child and my children do it. At the bottom of a pot, it is lightweight and doesn't rot still is natural, plant-friendly and does not stink of course.

I saw in a DIY magazine to use plastic shopping bags. They claimed they would take up space but kept the pot light to carry.

I just used the red plastic solo cups. Worked like a charm. You can turn them over for maximum space used or keep them on their side for a minimum of space used, or a combo of both. You can even crush them down if you need to.

i used plastic buckets turned over a sponge type disc over holes i drilled in bottom but plants were stunted, root growth was compromised so wasted all that , ENERGY< TIME and MONEY, going to remove and try again, yeah it was way lighter but they didn't grow right BEWARE if u do this. good luck, debbie

After reading all the comments, I am wondering if I can fill the bottom of my pot with all the wood tree branches/twigs that falls from trees in my backyard. Also the original question was about planting flowers, what if planting let say basil or anything to eat? Also I bought some drainage rocks the other day, I am wondering if wood is ok as a filler, what is the order I should put them in? Drainage rocks (bottom), wood branches & twigs, landscape fabric, soil on top? What about mixing my fall leaves with the wood?

I used anything organic from the outdoors. I pull rocks from the creek that run through my yard. I then add leave mulch from the previous year. I add potting soil and then plant my flowers. I really like the idea of adding pine cones. When it come to emptying the pot, I can add all these items back to the earth. Typically I leave the dirt in my pots for two years before changing.

I use wiffle balls.

I crush plastic water bottles, let most of the air out and then screw the cap back on. I do leave a few bottles crushed but without caps, so water can collect there and keep the bottom of the pot humid. It worked for my raised garden in the past, as I didn't have to buy as much soil.

Coffee filters will keep the soil from washing out.

I am assuming we are talking about options for flowers, and not edible foods? I am looking for options for 55 gallon drums, cut in half. I would want suggestions though for organic gardening. The plastics/styrofoam would not work for me. The breakdown/heat of the soil would leach the chemicals into my soil/plants. I was going to use straw bales, but someone noted above that the composting of the straw stole nutrients from the plant. I may have to bite the bullet and buy more top soil/manure mix :-/

Any leaching would occur downward, not up through the soil - it just doesn't work that way :-) And I would suggest using the crushed pop cans to take up space but you always want to put a layer of fine screen mesh or landscape fabric between the filler and the potting soil to 'contain' the soil and stop it from filtering between the cans and keep the plant roots from doing the same.

Using any organic matter - branches, pruning trimmings, old vines, pinecones, etc - is not suggested as these will want to decompose with heat and water and ultimately impact the proper drainage you need for a container. Same thing with gravel or crushed rocks - they certainly will not make the container any lighter and will impede rather than improve drainage.

Growing organic in a container situation is very difficult to achieve properly yet with good results afa the health and productivity of the plants are concerned.

My husband had lots of old golf balls sitting around in the garage. I used those and they worked really well. Just make sure your husband doesn't want them first!!

I understand wanting to keep the pot lighter but doesn't that defeat the point of letting a plant grow bigger when you fill the pot with a bunch of other things that aren't good for a plant. When I use a big pot I want my plant to grow big and I put that pot on a heavy duty rolling cart in order to move it.

if you aren't concerned about plastics use cut up swimming pool noodles, you could recycle old ones, or use floral foam bricks like the kind used in flower arrangements...put a layer of landscaping cloth between your soil and filler to prevent roots from growing into the filler

I have a 3 foot tall pot, shaped like an urn. So since the bottom is more narrow than the top, I wanted to add weight to the base to prevent it from being top heavy and tipping over if bumped. So instead of adding all of the recommended lightweight fillers, I put a 1/2 cubic foot bag of river rock in the bottom. I then collected a bucket and a half of pinecones from my front yard and added them on top of the rocks. I then added most of a bag of potting soil and watered it so that the soil would settle down through the pinecones, adding more soil as needed. My plants are growing beautifully! I would make certain your pot is in an area where it will not need to be moved before doing this, as it is very heavy! The pinecones do not decompose that quickly. If you need to add more potting soil next season, go ahead!

thanks everyone for the helpful suggestions :)

Pine bark fines!! Super light weight and cheap, plus plants grow well in it!

How 'bout seashells?

PLEASE, just fill with potting soil. I have done this and it does not work. The water just runs through and the plant dies from thirst. If you have to extend the potting soil, mix the soil with pine bark and perlite. Then put the entire mix into the pot. You can use a circle of landscaping fabric or newspaper to keep the soil from washing out of the bottom of the pot.

Do not use rocks, peanuts, pot shards, water bottles, drink cans, or anything else to take up space. You might as well just throw your plants in the garbage can and save time.

I used both the golf balls and the crushed soda cans with a great deal of success. Both of these ideas were used in large planters that were to hold annuals. I'm sure if I wanted to put a perennial or a shrub in the container, I would use all soil. Very good ideas from everyone!

I like Stacey's idea with the rocks , then adding leaf mulch. I gather bags of leaf from the town park for making my compost and I have 3 extra bags. I will go that route for any large pots.

I use plastic bottles with the caps on (so dirt doesn't wind up inside them). Then--you know how people lay down black landscape fabric?--well, I am in the process of taking that stuff up from my new property, so I use scraps of it to cover the layer of bottles to keep the dirt from trickling down between the bottles.

I usually layer potting soil with organic material, like leaves, sticks, pinecones, old mulch, whatever. That way, it breaks down slowly and feeds the plants. I've even put shredded paper and newspaper into some when I had just moved and was unpacking.

Speaking of styrofoam peanuts, does anyone remember when growers were using styrofoam beads instead of perlite? They said it was better because they didn't float up out of the soil. I don't remember why they stopped doing that.

Charcoal. Not the chemically-laced briquettes, but natural wood that's been burned into charcoal. It's lightweight, inexpensive, available almost everywhere, and has no bothersome chemicals. It absorbs and hold water, and its high carbon density can help keep the potting soil "sweet" (i. e., not overly acidic). Plant roots can grow into and around it as it very slowly breaks down. I've used it for years with great results.

(And of course, you still need to make sure that you have enough potting soil in the pot for your plant. I like to use pumice instead of perlite as a lightweight soil conditioner.)

Please! No rocks or gravel in the bottom of pots. It actually prevents good drainage. This has been proven over and over again.

https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/container-drainage.pdf

What about using pieces of bubble wrap?

I just saw someone this week say to cut up pool noodles to use in the bottom of large containers. I think I am going to try that!

DI
Saw saw
I look

Thanks to you all for many great suggestions. Happy planting and HAPPY HAPPY 2021 😀

To summarize: and thank you everyone! This year i'm going to try a mix of all these.

Light weight

Pine cones

Pop cans

recyclables, crushed or not, including empty coffee cans, plastic containers, solo cups, etc. (not for food growing)

Upside down pots

PEAT pots

Styrofoam – put in pantyhose to contain

Colanders upside down

Floral foam bricks

Pool noodles - cut up

Mulch

Charcoal – without chemical treatment

Straw (might soak up nutrients away from plants)

Paper rolls – TP or paper towel (breaks down fairly quickly)

Old golf balls (other balls?)

Heavy

Rocks

Broken ceramic pots or ceramic pieces

Plywood rounds cut to size

Branches, pieces of wood

tips:

- Good idea to place landscape fabric between some of these non organic fillers before soil on top

- If you are growing food, stick to organic matter

I use old plastic plant pots the ones you get when you buy your plant just cut it down flip it over inside the other pot put the dirt and plant in its all lighter, instead of recycling or throwing them away or just piling up in your plant spot.

What about using bales of hay for very large deep containers?