On 14 Feb 05 at 0:15, Alberto Castillo wrote: > ...better than round holes are vertical slits... Unless your > containers are on mesh benches (and who grows their plants this > way I wonder?) the bottom holes are useless. When people say that > they are growing plants in such and such container size it is > seldom true. Only the upper fraction lets roots survive. Half or > 3/4 of the pot is saturated with water and roots would not venture > into it. If you plant your bulbs deeply the roots will drown and > rot will set in from the dead roots to the basal plate and it is > all over. To avoid this you must exclude excess water that collects > by gravity in the bottom of the container taking a long time to > pass through the bottom hole: a few round holes even in the side of > the pot are often not enough. Hence the long slits. What about pots plunged or placed on sand so that the soil in them is in capillary contact with the sand? I used to have ordinary terra cotta pots plunged in sand (placed over the soil) and was of the opinion that the sand bed blotted up excess moisture after watering, while providing some moisture when things started to get dry. The key element being that the pots had no crocking in the bottom and were wrung into place so that there was capillary contact between the soil in them and the surrounding sand bed through the central drain hole in the bottom of the pot. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island