I think those pots with no holes must be meant as cachepots. Who would use a pot with no holes?

Anyway, you could try to borrow bigger drill bits or the drill with bigger bits. Or make do with what you have- lots of little holes. That's what I usually do and it works out OK. Use a potting mix that drains well.

"lining the bottom few inches of the pot with terra cotta, or stones..." The short answer is no, use a consistent mix in the container. No stones or gravel in the bottom. Al has a now infamous thread on the container forum on the movement of water in a container. It explains the perched water table well. It's a lot to get through, but if you stick with it it's very informative.

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: Movement of water in a container

thanks for referring to that thread. I'll take a look at it. I knew I had read somewhere about NOT putting stones etc on the bottom, and I couldn't remember why that was not a good idea.

ellen

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You can make a series of overlapping small holes in a circle to get a bigger hole or buy a small spade bit for your drill. Spade bits come in almost any width. My 7/8 inch spade makes great drainage holes in big plastic pots.

Putting gravel or packing peanuts in the bottom of a big pot means you can never have bottom watering, where the water is sucked up from the saucer iinto the pot. If it is a very deep, vary large pot and you want to make it lighter, pack the bottom inches with packing peants etc., then put a plastic pot saucer on top of them and then put an inner pot just about the same diameter of the big pot on the tray. The plastic saucer gives you the resevoir so that soil will have a chance to soal up water when you water