Where is the drain? At the bottom of the slab the pot stands on? It is a very small drain for a pot that large. What is the pot made of?

good question, I'm not sure. I don't believe it was at the very bottom I believe it drains out where the bottom of the too part is. I believe it is solid cement, it's a couple hundred odd.

pounds

Do you use a screen to prevent potting soil from migrating down into the hole? That could help.

Is that a drainage tube or a fastener?

I could...I just got it yesterday so it hasn't been used by me yet. The store used it as a display for plants.

Jim- I honestly don't know. I'm at home now and the maker is Campania so I am on their website looking to see if I can find information.

actually it does go all the way to the bottom, I think I can clear it will a long pole. What type of filter should I use in the future? could I use a coffee filter or would something no. biodegradable work better?

Non-biodegradable so soil doesn't go down it in large masses--coffee filters would rot away. Sealed screening, epoxied into place using marine epoxy. Something like that. It's the one case where a tight plastic weave actually makes sense--like a light landscape plastic cloth that water will go through but soil won't. That would be the easiest way to assure it stays clear, even if it slows the drainage a bit.

I probably wouldn't plant anything in there that would require a very light, easily draining soil, but... :-)

Would actual planting fabric work as a screen? is there something I can do to help it drain out of the bottom after too? I assume putting it on a paver vs on the dirt would help to prevent dirt from the base getting stuck?

Okay good to know, I will pick water loving planets over say.... succulents.

They actually make round plastic mesh discs for just this purpose. I have used them for years. They are fully reusable. Or window screening works well also - cheap, also reusable and you can cut to size or shape.

Technically, anything with webbing larger than a water molecule will work as a screen. :-) But it'll limit the egress of water if one chooses something too thick or tightly-woven, hence the landscape fabric; it's meant to pass rainfall, even heavy and large amounts of water, pretty easily. It'd be slower than a wider web, but hold soil better.

Since the water's going to drop through the hole, and the hole ends, I'm guessing, at the bottom as a hole in the base, yeah, set it on a paver. Even so, you might have to break a bit of dirt seal every now and again as tiny bits of clay wash through and seal the hole against the paver. BTDT, about three times a season with several of my pots on the patio. Shift them and they suddenly lose two gallons...

I finally set them on small rocks. Now I only have to shift them once a season.

The old standard was just to put a rock there, which actually obstructs the hole and still leaves a smaller hole. I've fudged it with multiply-overlapping deer fence. I've made my own out of polymer clay (essentially PVC plastic).

If you choose something that can drain well enough, and use a sandy soil, succulents would do just fine! I'd probably avoid cacti with a more obstructed hole, but that would depend on where you were and how often you water... In the PNW, probably no cacti, in other words...

Plastic mesh disks would be fine. Don't use window screening; it rusts if it's stainless steel (fiberglass would be OK, and again, rusts if it's aluminum). The two that rust also release things into the soil (nickel and a few other doodads, and aluminum and other trace elements respectively) that you don't want in plant soil if you can avoid it.

"But aren't they stainless/weatherproof?"

Yep, but that doesn't mean they're rated for constant soil contact, which includes frequent salt exposure in soils, and heavy water exposure in soil.

It's the one time where plastic is better if you can get it.

Most window screening is fiberglass. And what isn't fiberglass is usually aluminum....and that does not rust. And since it will be located at the base of the planter under the soil, the chance of these screens leaching anything harmful into the potting soil is remote at best.

ok thanks for all the info. I will looks around for that mesh pot liners. I was looking online and I see the kind that is for bonsai planters but I'm assuming I'll want something with smaller holes than that, as mentioned, something similar to a window screen.

Once again, grossly overstating the issue. The amount of screening involved is unlikely to leach anything of substance in any direction.

And a quick review of the first 30 or so of the multiple entries for rolled window screen available online at Home Depot indicted all but one was fiberglass.

Much ado about nothing!!

@hutchae84. What a great freebie. I have to agree with gardengal here. I use pieces of a window screen and it does not rust. It does not cause any issue in the planters to the plants or soil. Mine must be a fiberglass screen because I have never seen rust on them from year to year when I dump my pots to store for the winter. I cut the screen bigger than the hole and lay it in the bottom of the pot. I have never glued it in the pot. I cover my raised bed with the same type of screening every year to keep the leaves/mulch in place so they don’t blow all over the yard. It works wonderful every year. My daughter’s dog when she was a puppy on it there.

Oh, fiberglass absolutely won't be an issue. We've all said that.

Not sure what is meant by "set it on a paving block" but, what you need is a system that leaves the drainage hole in the air, not pressed against another solid object. "Pot feet" would work.

I used to use aluminum screen for drainage holes till I stopped using it for a different reason. Roots can bind to quite well and it is difficult to separate it when repotting an overdue plant. Fiberclass screen comes off easily or regular garden scissors can take care of it. But for the past 10 years I have changed over to coarser plastic "canvas" available at Art stores. They are durable, easily come apart and thus easily reusable.

I have had aluminum screens in pots for over 10 years with no signs of degradation except at the very surface. So you can safely ignore that. Aluminum is quite resilient. It reacts to form very stable compounds very quickly. Remember it is the most abundant metal in the earths crust. And it is one of the most difficult metals to extract - just because it is incredibly tightly bound to something else.

In garden settings Al can last more than 500 yrs according to some estimates. Anyway decomposition of Al is so slow that it is irrelevant in garden settings. An if Al is so toxic to plants then you would not see Al screen completely entangled in roots - would you?

I understand the chemistry pretty well but I like to keep the scale in mind too.

Environmental concern is important but neither it is within the scope of this question nor it is within the scope of this forum. Especially within the scope of using Al screen it is quite irrelevant. Scale is important too understand. Solve the bigger problem first. Playing in the possible contamination effects of a screen in a pot or a spoonful of poylmer coated fertilizer is too easy.

Lastly one has to address why do you need a screen at the drain hole? What it is achieving. At best it prevents soil particles from escaping. At worst it itself becomes an impediment to quick drainage. The choice of screen material depends on what soil mix you have. To me something like peat mix does not need a screen up to about 1/2 inch or even 3/4 inch hole. Have you seen any commercial growers put a screen? They do not need to since a regular peat/bark mix does not move as much and it will self plug the hole(s) (after a small initial loss).

Screen becomes a bit more useful if you have coarser mix that will have a tendency to move and escape the hole. Something like 511 mix is coarse but I do not use a screen unless the hole is more than 1/2. Gritty mix on the other hand is limited to 1/4 particle size and tends to move quickly.

To the OP: If water is pooling in the soil then it is a good indication that the plant needs to be repotted. At least a partial repot. A partial repot involves taking out the plant and slicing off outer 1-2 inch of root, 2-5 inches of roots from bottom and using a coarse mix to pot it up again. This best done in early spring when soil thaws or just before bud break. Depends on your growing zone though. Best is to use a very coarse and well draining mix for an evergreen.

Thanks for everyone's response, I learned so much I didn't know and found out about products I was unaware of...how did I never know pot feet where a thing, it will save my patio from moss rings. Anyways I purchased some fiberglass window screen patches, I'm going to start using this on all my pots before planning and pot "toes" (small versions of pot feet.)

Cool! I cheap out on pot feet and just use small stones. :-)

Morpheuspa: I guess you again missed the point. The topic was about drainage and then about screens. But you single-handedly injected environmental issues into a topic when there was no need to.

The more some expound, the more pathetic they appear. Verbacious bellicose bullying becomes their stock in trade.

Just wait for it............. :-)

I'm still waiting for actual scientific answers, but won't tolerate bad information and simple mulishness. Now, if you'd like to pretend that I'm in trouble with Houzz management again, we can play that "bullying" game if you'd like. I'd really enjoy that, but I don't think you will.

Quite well-said and honestly, this isn't about the environment.

This is a set of reinforcing personalities that can't tolerate getting what they're giving...well, I could go on, but I'll refrain as I'd rather not ruin your sentiment, which is lovely. For myself, I'll continue to conserve, avoid damaging what I can, and restore where I can, even in tiny measure. Where I must do damage, I choose to do the least damage possible.

Betty White just turned 99. She's gonna live forever, so we have to leave a clean world for Betty.

Amen, Hutch.

As I said I am all for the environment, recycling, reuse and properly disposing hard to recycle items. Several times a year we organize these events in our neighborhood to educate, encourage and help in proper disposal of many materials. Fortunately, we have several resources here to donate (for reuse) most household stuff including furniture, appliances, lumber, windows, doors, etc. We take turns organizing collection events for hard to recycle items and drop off at collection centers. We even pay for disposing certain items. I like to focus on the big picture and not get hung up on a minuscule effect.

It seems once again the folks here confused me. I thought we were talking about keeping a drain hole cleared. Why do answers have to be a long dragged response about more than the poster needed to know about a drain hole. We all are trying to do our bests gardening and hopefully helping our pollinators and our environment. I agree that if you aren’t being your best self every day (which I can say I am not always) then you can’t preach. Lol. I was taught about stone throwers early in life. Let’s all agree we are here to give our opinion to help the poster. We are not here to tell others everything you think they are doing incorrectly. I learn so much on this website and I do not like to read posts that go off point.

Patti, some posters like to pontificate ad nauseum hoping it will show off what they perceive to be a "superior" intellect. Unfortunately, that tends to be mostly in their own mind's eye and their dissertations just come off as self aggrandizing and pompous and generally delve far from the original point. They also seem to have the very uncharming effect of deteriorating any thread they participate in with aggressive, sarcastic comments and backhanded insults.

As with online trolls and other bullies, best just to ignore :-) Or flag if they get too offensive.

btw, one can purchase all manner of manufactured or recycled containers made from a wide range of metals, including aluminum, and use them without any concern for leaching or toxicity. So just how real or damaging is this effect? There are claims about the "science" behind this but none have been presented. And would using a couple of square inches of wire mesh to cover a drain hole really create that much of an issue? Hardly.........

Online forums bring all types of personalities but the benefit is if you don't mesh well with someone you can choose to avoid them versus say family members in real life ;)

I got my pots lined and their "toes" on. I'm trying to hold off on adding soil because an unpotted pot is irresistible to fill.

Alas, it's a relatively small forum. I've had more luck cutting the rare family member off, and Houzz refuses to give us a Block The Infantile Abuser button no matter how much I ask. :-) I think we're running on forum software a la 1998.

Yeah, I hear ya. The soil goes in, the pot looks...empty, and suddenly you're at the greenhouse picking up three things and two more pots because it looks good. Been there, done that, just not during the COVID crisis. Yet. Ten seconds after my second shot's settled in, though... :-)

Segmentation fault - core dumped. Sent that piece of stellar composition to a bunch of my friends for sheer entertainment factor.

Hutch, a landscape fabric will impede water flow a lot and eventually itself will clog up much quicker. Go insect screen or larger. Plastic canvas is dollar a sheet at Michael's and will make many smaller screens.

Morph: At this point, I'm simply going to check out of the thread and, as Hutch suggests, treat you as toxic alcoholics like my now-passed cousin. Interactions just aren't worth my time and his grave remains unvisited.

Hutch never said that and neither suggested. He has been a gentleman or woman - do not know. Your grievances are with me and so keep it at that. Hutch had no role to play except as an innocent bystander caught in this unfortunate "fight". My apologies to Hutch for being partly instrumental in this bizarre turn of events.

To me this captures how one can turn a well meaning comment (by Hutch, I mean) into a venom filled statement.

And I would like offer a prayer for your cousin. It is sad so in many ways.