Perhaps the soil became so saturated that it expanded and became so heavy and then compacted down fairly tight and prevented the water from going out the hole. The roots could have been in the way of the hole also.
Can you drill more holes in the pot? At least 3 more closed to the edges of the pot (assuming that the one you have now is in the center).
The first thing I do when I get a new pot is to add drainage holes because I grow a lot of tropicals and they like the soil to be very well drained~ even the bananas.
~SJN

Try to left the pot up from the ground and put it on top of few rocks, this will give a chance to the buttom holes to dain better. At the mean time do what SJN said to drill more holes.

It is long, but this article is a good read for container users and may partially explain your problem.

Here is a link that might be useful: Container soils and water in containers (long post)

Read Ruth Anns, link on soil hydrology. More holes and pebbles seem like they should work but really do not. They do expose the soil to more air so it will dry a little quicker. Try this until you can add a bunch of vermiculite to the soil. You need to put a wick into the holes only one is needed but you can add more. This will break the water tension and it will drain from the wick. Keep the wick hanging and it will dry the soil faster. It worked well for me till I could change all my soil to a high amount of Vermiculite.

Jim

Thank you all, it seems the plant is now safe, be it bald, but the few smaller leaves left look healthy again. The drainage is now perfect, good to have all this advice from across the ocean!

I read that thread - and I put wicks in 2 of my larger pots and left a couple without to see if there's a difference. I was noticing roots at the top of these very large pots. And I used some compost like mulch as jeep said he does.

I wasn't sure if I had this problem in my larger pots or not but I definately wanted to try it.

I'm so glad it's working for you!

Good article. I think I might try this for some of my large outdoor pots. I have some larger tropical trees and citrus in huge pots.

I am having the top part of the pot dry out here about a foot down and the bottom isn't as dry as the top due to extreme hot temps and no humidity. So then the water meter reads dry because it only goes down so far and it isn't really dry at the bottom...

Does anyone know what could be used for a wick in huge pots? How about a long shoelace (cut off the plastic ends)?

I was thinking I could thread the shoelace/'wick' up through the bottom hole of the container with a piece of long wire (like a straightened out coat hanger) tied onto a shoelace up to the top of the soil then take off the wire and adjust the 'wick' down to where I need it by pulling on the bottom of the shoelace/'wick'. This way I don't have to totally repot~ its way too hot to be repotting huge plants right now LOL.

I am a sucker for any time of plant experiment, this sounds pretty cool.

I used cotton rope but anything will work as long as it has some dangle room. As I understand the principal size does not matter much unless you want it to drain real fast a small wick will do. It breaks the surface tension and it drains. The reverse of this can be used to water plants from the bottom up if the wick is placed in water. I am a terrible container gardener or was until I learned a few tricks. Now if you use 50% vermiculite and bark fines no wick is needed. Plenty of air will get to the roots.

Now if I could figure out the SPHS problem. New acronym Sudden Plant Heat Stroke. LOL could be a mole or gopher hitting the roots in a 115 degree heat factor. It does not kill them but all the leaves go limp and stay that way no matter how much you water them. Growing in Sand makes you like rain. Tropical storm Erin in going right over us. I could use another 10 inches of rain. Alkaline well water just does not do the same thing for plants plus a large rain flushes the sand out.

JIm

Sultry:

HereÂs what I did and it was pretty easy. I used a "bamboo" stick - the kind I use for supporting smaller plants. It was a little longer than the height of the pot or soil line in the pot.

I put the pot up on a bench so I could tilt the pot  to accommodate the length of the bamboo. I pushed the stick up from the bottom through a hole  tied a string to the top of the stick and the other end of the string to the "rope" or wick  then slowly pulled the stick  then string  then wick  back down through the hole until I had enough of the wick hanging out where I wanted it to be.

It worked pretty well and I didnÂt have to repot. I hope you find a way so that you donÂt have to repot.

Good luck.

Heavy rains and high water tables will kill a brugmansia as fast as anything, we feel for you as we have gone back to raising our above ground due to the higher water table in our area. One never knows how this weather will react and death by drowning isn't pretty. Just wishing you the best of luck. Great article RA.