I bought 2 of those pots from Target several years ago and love them! The drainage works really well and you don't have to water all the time because of the built-in reservoir. Every spring I plant tomatoes and every fall I plant lettuce. If Target is carrying them again, I think I'll go pick up a few more.

The drawback is that you don't know if you have poured water above the resevoir or not--so you won't know if the roots are sitting in a pool or not. The pots like that I have seen have a clear tube so you can put it down into the pot, put your thumb over the top of the straw, and pull it out to see how much water is sitting down there in the resevoir.

You can always drill drain holes. Plastic drills easy.

It sounds like the system works IF I get the hang of it...hm. I didn't want to drill holes, wanted to give it a chance, but chickened out and put a bunch of styrofoam between the reservoir and the dirt for plants. Not sure if that will interfere...I plan to plant the plants in the yard this winter so I'll see how it goes for now. I mainly wanted the plants to look nice for Labor Day :-)

erela--thanks for sharing your experience!
hoovb--they didn't come with tubes but the concept you described makes a lot of sense.

I've never tried them but if you're worried about the reservoir getting too full (and that's a good thing to worry about), you could just drill a hole in the side of the pot at or near the top of the reservoir. The reservoir will fill to the spot you choose and the excess water will spill out the side instead of going up past the reservoir.
Here's what I'm thinking though: If the water is low enough in the reservoir that the roots don't get root rot, then that means the roots aren't touching the water....what's the function of the reservoir?
If your roots can get to the water in the reservoir, that means their sitting in water and they could very easily start rotting.

I think your gut reaction was right. I don't trust this drainage either. Besides, it's such an inexpensive and simple design. If it consistently worked the way it was supposed to, every single one of the commercial nurseries would have jumped all over it. Especially here in So. Cal. where water restrictions are putting wholesalers out of business. They'll try anything to save water at this point.
I would just punch holes in the bottom and use it like any other pot.

gargwarb,

I think the idea is that the plastic tray usually has a couple of projections that go down into the reservoir. When you fill the pot with soil, you have to make sure to tamp it into the projecting parts. Those are continually in contact with water and wick it up into drier soil. Unless the plant is severely potbound and sends roots all the way down into the projections, it's not actually sitting in water.

These pots (the ones I've seen) usually have a hole in the side where you can stick a watering can and fill the reservoir, and then the reservoir can't overfill.

I have to say, though, it's a cheap, clunky design, and in my experience does not work.

If you want a "self-watering" pot, a better model is those ceramic african violet pots. This is a two-part pot--you plant your violets in the top, which has an unglazed bottom. This top part sits in the reservoir, and water can penetrate the unglazed clay to get to the soil but the roots obviously can't penetrate the clay to get to the water.

You can't overfill the pot. There is an opening at the top of the reservoir that allows excess water to spill out. Your plant's roots are not sitting in water. I've used these pots for years and never lost a plant. On the contrary, the tomatoes planted in these pots do better than the ones in the ground.

Today I took a good look at the pot and there is just no way for excess water to escape. I will see how much standing water it might contain at the end of the season, when I plant my flowers in the yard (I planted an African daisy, a miniature Scaevola, and a white Gazania).

If it looks like a lot of water built up, I'll take a drill to the bottom. Thanks everyone :-)