Please post a Picture of your Pot with this need.

no clue what your words mean without a pic.. so plz...

you might be able to buy a cheap aquarium pump.. and plug it in once a week to pump out the pot??

or drill holes in the side of the pot??? how much time should that take that you would have to wait a few months to do it???

ken

Google self-starting siphon.

Hi westes,

I agree with Ken's suggestion, the easiest and cheapest way is to drill a few holes on the sides of the pot near the bottom. It will be for the best in the long run anyway. 

In my opinion relying on a single drainage hole (single point of failure) doesn't sound like a good idea, especially for a very large pot.

There really isn't a great siphon for a pot currently filled with dirt. The dirt itself ends up being too much contaminant for most siphons to handle.

Maybe if it stays real wet, try your hand at a little bog or water garden. Grow some watercress or other water loving plants in there and let them siphon the water out :)

What's going on with the pot now that it got clogged, and why not being able to unclog it for months? What's in the pot now other than soil?

Just some general comments about the Siphon idea. Siphon works when the air pressure pushes against the liquid surface and pushes the liquid above a bend or you use a vacuum on the exit end of the tube to start the siphon. Then, the liquid is pull buy gravity which creates a vacuum that pulls more the water from the reservoir. The flow continues until the surface of the liquid is lower that the entrance to the siphon allowing air to break the siphon effect.

So unless you can push the tube of the surface far enough through the soil until you reach the pooled water in the container, a siphon will not work. Assuming you could get into that pool and start the siphon, the probability is that dirt will clog the siphon tube, or the dirt would be sufficiently porous that air would filter through the soil and break the siphon.

So your best bet is to put a small pump on a tube that goes into the water at the bottom of the container, and pump it out occasionally. You will still have problems of blockage as the soil is suck into the tube and pump.

The other option is to put several holes in the very bottom of the container and treat it like a flower pot with a shallow saucer.

@krnuttle You convinced me the siphon even if it were established would soon enter a permanent failure condition.

@tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) That is a genius way to lower a perched water table, and the nice thing about that solution is that it works even when overgrown plant roots come out through the drain hole, as long as the cord is not severed.

Can you recommend a type of rope on Amazon that you think is a good combination of absorbency and durability?

Best I've found are the individual strands from 100% rayon mop heads. See image in my post just above. You can also cut various width strips from "man-made chamois" material which is also 100% rayon. Click me to see it.

Strangely, I just bought a new boat (yesterday) and was just on my way to shop (online) for the various rope products I'll need to outfit it for whatever eventuality I'm dealt while on the water.

Al

@tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) Rayon mophead on the way. Thanks.

Good luck with the boat. I am in the process of trying to free up my life from all the things that own me. I dream about having the flexibility to move around, maybe chase endless summer by living in the US during our summer and New Zealand during their summer (US winter).

@tapla how would you approach this drainage challenge in Zone 5a (Denver, CO) where preventing roots from freezing is also a major concern? I’m planning to plant a Zone 3 cold-hardy tree in a large plastic pot (top outer diameter 41”, bottom outer diameter 25”, height 33”) and use your recommended gritty mix. Pictures of the pot with some initial drain holes drilled included here.
The measures I can see for insulating the pot in winter - packing soil around the outside or heeling it into the ground- seem likely to impede the outlet side of the drainage system. Adding drainage holes higher up on the pot would appear to make it more vulnerable to freezing and loss of planting medium, although enough of them could add an air pruning functionality to the pot. At the moment I’m leaning toward elevating the pot on bricks and packing soil around and partway under it except for a gap on one side for drainage and access.
By the way, long story but I can’t plant in-ground because of lack of space and utility conflicts. Your knowledgeable recommendation would be much appreciated.

What plant will be in the pot?

Can you move it to the north side of a heated building and situate it against the foundation or in/above a window well and mulch it in? You might even build a cage for it (poultry wire) to hold leaves or mulch. It won't need that much protection, being it's hardy to 2 zones colder than yours. Do you have a friend whose garage you might over-winter it in? You'd need to toss a couple of shovels full of snow on it from time to time to keep the soil from drying out completely, but an unheated garage would be more than enough protection.

Al

Thank you for your quick reply Al. I have three trees from my local city’s spring tree sale, each between 6.5-9.5 ft tall and about 3/4” caliper: Tatarian Hot Wings Maple, Espresso Kentucky Coffee Tree, and Common Hackberry. They are currently in #7 plastic air pruning pots in my garage up against an east-facing window. The Maple is already nicely in bloom but almost too tall to keep in my 10 ft high garage and there are roots coming out of the pot (I got the trees 6 days ago so it was already like this). The Coffee Tree has a few green nubs just popping out of the trunk. Little sign of spring showing on the Hackberry as yet.

I can see potentially overwintering the two smaller trees in the garage this year, but I need a more permanent solution for the Maple. Space on the north side of the house/garage is really tight and gets no direct sunlight in winter. My hope with this particular container was to place it in a sort of “cubby” in the southeast corner of my lot, where it would get good sun even in winter and is sheltered by my elevated paver patio and lattice on the west side, and the wood property fences on the east and south, with a small corridor from the north for access. The other problem with this container is that- when full- it will be too heavy to move. I like your window well and poultry wire cage ideas. One other thought I had was putting a 50” diameter, 24” high fabric air pruning pot under the plastic pot and using that to contain soil, leaves, or mulch as a sort of “insulation doughnut.”

@Ben (Colorado, USDA Z5) Those drain holes are way too small. Better to have drain holes that are at least 3/4 inch diameter, and then line filter screen material on the bottom of the pot.

It is very important to get the bottom of the pot off of any dirt below it. Otherwise, soil mixes with rain water and plugs the drain holes. I put all my pots onto small concrete stepping stones, which get them out of any water pooling from rain, and well above a soil line.

Space on the north side of the house/garage is really tight and gets no direct sunlight in winter. "..... gets no sunlight in the winter" is exactly why I suggested the north side of the house. Sunlight raises the soil temperature and can activate buds too early when a potted plant is influenced by sunlight ans ambient air tempos. Your 'struggle' will be keeping the trees dormant or quiescent as long as possible so they aren't pushing growth in February like many of mt trees did this year. When that happens, you need to ferry them in and out as temperatures allow, or suffer the unsightly consequences of overly long internodes, which I guarantee you won't like on the maple as the second internode after bud break can often be more than a foot long. Also, sunlight warms the trunk which encourages rising sap which very often freezes and kills large sections of the trunk or even the entire tree. For more on that search "Southwest injury" trees

The fabric pot should serve just as well as or even slightly better than the wire cage. Try to make sure you keep direct sun off the trunks in winter and even in summer id it gets really hot. Southwest injury is both a summer and winter danger for young trees and trees with smooth bark.

You know, if you're feeling adventurous, you could chop that maple back to whatever ht you want it to be. Here's a maple that started out as a 9-10 ft tall tree before I chopped it back to this (tree in middle with white wound):

follow it's development:

I just pruned and thinned the canopy today, but it was getting dark when I finished and I didn't get an up to date image. If I can remember to take one, I'll do it tomorrow.

You could easily chop the tree back as low as 2" from the soil with almost no chance it would cause a problem insofar as jeopardizing the tree's viability. Your call, of course, but it's easier to keep a short tree from getting too tall, but pretty much impossible to keep a borderline 'too tall tree' from getting too taller.

More 'chops':

Al

@westes thank you for your advice about the size and screening for the drain holes. They are currently somewhat irregular in size and shape due to the difficulty of drilling the plastic (I probably need a different type of drill bit or just a bigger one). Any recommendations for filter screen material on the bottom? And would you say I need additional drain holes on the bottom and/or sides?

@tapla the depth of your knowledge is remarkable. It is always a pleasure to read what you share, and I have been learning a lot from it. Thanks also for sharing the pictures of trees you have cut back significantly - is that primarily something you would do to shape them into banzai form?
Great point about the north side of the house- I didn’t initially see where you were going with that. Would wrapping the trunk of a tree planted in that big plastic pot in the southeast corner of my lot protect it sufficiently, or does that only address the sun scald/cracking issue and not the temperature fluctuation issue? The good thing about that corner is that- even with the size of the pot- I believe the soil would remain mostly shaded beneath the 6 foot property fence due to the shallow angle of the sun during winter. As a result I don’t think the soil would be prone to heating up.
I don’t necessarily need to plant anything in the giant pot this spring. Would you recommend potting up from the current #7 containers to say- #25 fabric air pruning pots, before potentially moving one of the trees to the big pot this fall?

@Ben (Colorado, USDA Z5) Thanks for the kind words.

Would wrapping the trunk of a tree planted in that big plastic pot in the southeast corner of my lot protect it sufficiently, or does that only address the sun scald/cracking issue and not the temperature fluctuation issue? Typically orchards of young trees have some form of protective mechanism (like white-washing or tree wraps) to reflect those little electromagnetic bundles of energy [photons]) to prevent passive solar gain, which occurs when light energy turns to heat when it strikes a surface. Both methods work summer and winter.

Would you recommend potting up from the current #7 containers to say- #25 fabric air pruning pots, before potentially moving one of the trees to the big pot this fall? That's sort of a judgment call. The lower limit (of pot size) is determined by the size of the root mass of the plant being bumped up to a larger pot; whereas the grower's choice of grow medium is what determines what is appropriate as the upper limit of pot size. The more water-retentive the medium is, the more critical choosing an appropriate size pot becomes. When using a medium that supports no or very little perched water, you can use pots most growers would advise are too large and your plant will b e "over-potted. I think that repeating the mantra "one should only pot up one pot at a time" reveals that the giver of the advice is either assuming you're using a very water-retentive medium, or doesn't understand how water behaves in container medium and as such is unaware of the fact that in order for advice about pot size to be of value, those critical qualifiers are essential. Using a grow medium that allows you to grow in large pots w/o worrying about soggy soil wrecking root function/health is a major game changer for growers serious about providing plants with the best opportunity to realize as much of their genetic potential as possible. Every plant (practically speaking) in a pot has the genetic potential to be a star. It's the growers job, only job, to figure out what cultural condition(s) is/are holding back the plant, and fixing them. The most significant issues are far more often than not found to be something limiting root function or compromising root health.

Al

@Ben (Colorado, USDA Z5) Any Home Depot will have abundant selection of window screen like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DGZXGHG

Every gardener should have a roll.

@tapla Thank you for the information and encouragement, Al. The ultimate goal with the big pot is to plant a tree in it on the SE corner of my lot to provide a little shade and some screening during the warmer months. I’m guessing I’d need a tree to reach around 15 feet tall to do much in those regards. Once planted in gritty mix- with the soil mostly sheltered from sun, stakes, and a ring of mulch for insulation as described above- the hope would be to not have to repot and to just rely on routine watering, fertilizing, and wrapping the trunk in winter because I won’t be able to move it. If you don’t think any tree can do reasonably well in those conditions, let me know. I want to be bold but not foolish. :)

With room for roots to run, the plant will or should show a high level of vitality (all other cultural conditions being favorable) until the point in time when root congestion gets to the point where the soil/root mass could be lifted from the pot intact. From that point forward, root congestion will limit growth, vitality, and the plant's ability to defend itself and a gradual decline will start and increase in direct proportion to the level of root congestion. The reason this occurs is, with a pot full of roots and the organic portion of the medium gassing off as CO2 as the medium is broken down, there will be little room left in the pot to hold the essential resources of air (oxygen), water, and nutrients.

Plants have a pecking order insofar as the strength of their energy sinks. Sinks are parts of the tree that get the largest share of the plant's food/energy. Energy is first allocated to respiratory function, i.e. to maintenance of living tissues, then, to production of fine roots, followed by flower and seed/fruit production, then primary growth (extension of both roots and shoots), then secondary growth (thickening), and finally, the synthesis of defensive chemicals. Chemical defense is last in the pecking order because synthesis of these chemicals is a byproduct of the plants metabolic rate, which is why weakened plants usually succumb to disease pathogens or insect herbivory because they have little in the way of natural defense.

Being realistic, I think you should be willing to repot the tree every 3 years at a minimum if you want to have it for the long term; or, be prepared to enjoy it temporarily until its decline is conspicuous enough you'd want to replace it. You could pot up to a larger pot, but that is a half measure which leaves the lion's share of the soil/root mass still horribly congested.

This is a maple 4 years in the same pot. I didn't get it repotted this spring because I've been repotting bonsai while trying to get a new boat set up with radios and all the electronic gadgetry one needs (or at least wants) while on the water. I'm seriously concerned about how steep this years decline is going to be. I know I have to make it a first priority next spring if I want it to continue to survive - thrive is already out of the question. This is summer last year and it's already showing signs of serious decline.

We had a stretch of really warm weather in early Feb that really screwed things up for bonsai trees - getting them growing that early it tough when there is no light and its too cold after the warm spell to move them in and out.

Al

If you're looking for a gardening tip and trick for dealing with a clogged drainage hole in a large concrete container, one option is to create a DIY siphon. You can do this by using a PVC pipe or a hose, and creating a loop that extends from the bottom of the container to the ground.

To do this, drill a hole near the bottom of the container and insert the PVC pipe or hose, making sure it extends a few inches above the soil line. Then, bend the pipe or hose into a loop that extends to the ground, and bury the end in the soil.

As water collects in the container, it will flow into the PVC pipe or hose and out the end that is buried in the ground. This will create a permanent siphon that will help prevent water from collecting at the bottom of the container and causing root rot.

Keep in mind that while this is a temporary solution, it can be a useful gardening tip and trick for managing drainage issues in containers. However, it's still important to unclog the drainage hole as soon as possible to ensure optimal plant health.

No hose or pipe is required, at all. Simply set a pot on the ground such that there is a continuous soil bridge between the soil in the pot and mineral soil below the pot. The increase in capillarity created by the additional surface area of the mineral soil will pull water from the pot (that otherwise would have perched in it) into the earth. This is precisely the mechanism that drives pot in socket or pot in trench nursery production.

If one wishes to use a tube, insert a short piece of tube into the soil an inch or so and fill it with the same grow medium contained in the pot. The tube should be no higher than the floor of the pot. Set the drain hole over the tube and you're done. The greater capillary pull of the mineral soil below the pot will pull all excess (perched) water from the grow medium. The tube is an unnecessary step in either case and will not drain the pot any more effectively than simply setting the pot on the ground or burrowing the bottom of the pot an inch or so into the mineral soil below.

What you described, if I understand correctly, will not work as a siphon because the moment air from the mineral soil below the pot enters the tube, suction is lost at the distal (low) end of the tube. Drainage will then depend only on the gravitational flow potential of the water in the pot's soil column, which puts us right back where we were w/o the tube.

Al

Yes the tube siphon will never work. As long as there is air in the tube there is no way water can overcome gravity and rise up the tube and flow out a bend.

Westes, window screen is a OK type of screen. The holes are too fine to my liking and will clog up pretty quick. I prefer coarser screens. One such cheap one is called plastic canvas ( I think) available at Michaels and probably any art/craft supply store. They come in paper size sheets for a $1 or so. The plastic is thicker and holes are larger and bit less than an 1/8th. Even better are proper bonsai screens.

@tropicofcancer (6b SW-PA) My bonsai screens have only slightly larger holes than window screen, but they are made of a much thicker plastic. I have never had a window screen not work well, but I only use it in nursery pots where there are many side / corner holes to cover at 90 degree angles. I use the heavier bonsai screens in circular plastic shapes. If you have a photo of the plastic canvas please link that.

Al

@westes Zone 9b California SF Bay Al posted a pic of it above.

And here is one from Michaels, same thing in white instead: https://www.michaels.com/product/clear-10-mesh-plastic-canvas-by-loops-threads-10635615

Yes these are not as flexible as window screen.

@tropicofcancer (6b SW-PA) I purchased some of that white screen previously, and if you can believe it that is biodegradable!! After a year it literally starts to disintegrate. The black version of that product works very well for long-term pot use Thanks, @tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)

I have used both the white and black version and I have not noticed any difference between them for the last 20 years. Black plastic is usually more UV resistant but they never see daylight anyway. I usually try to salvage them when repotting and have reused them for years before they fall apart. More often they would get destroyed when removing the entangled roots or the wire holding them against the drainage holes.

I do use the window screen for plastic pots with many holes. I use a single screen to cover all the holes at once. Much easier that way. Sometimes, when being lazy, I will just put a layer of 511 in the bottom if the holes are small enough.

When I buy the plastic canvas, I usually but 10 sheets of 1 color. When I buy it next, I but 10 of a different color, and do you know what? I have noticed that some of the sheets of that stuff became so fragile over time (still in full sheet form in a drawer) that it was difficult to cut with a scissors without the cut breaking into the 'fabric'. I never would have associated the term with bio-degradable, but it makes sense. I think there is definitely a 'fragility factor', involved with the mesh I've been using lately, once it's in place. I'm wondering if some producers of the sheets are using something organic in the material injected into the molds?.

As former owner of a glass company. I had/have access to tons of insect screen. I use a lot of that and never have a issue with lack of drainage is. BTW - with almost 5 decades of growing in containers, I have never had a blocked drain hole. I think most people blame a perched water table (PWT) on blocked drain holes because they don't understand what causes water to perch in medium above the pot bottom.

I use a lot of wicks to facilitate drainage, even though the media I make is specifically designed to limit water retention, which illustrates how sure I am about the limitations of perched water (PW). But to get back on track, if the pot has a single drain hole, I do this:

If it has 2 holes or it's a plastic pot with 1 hole, I make/melt 2 holes through the pot bottom where the bottom meets the walls. I keep a soldering iron plugged in for that purpose. You can use a drill, but it makes a weaker hole which might break if the pot is a cheepie or the soil mass is very heavy.

Melted hols through the bottom at the sidewall ^^^

The reason I make 2 holes is so I can tip the pot in either direction so one of the wicks is at the lowest point. Tipping the pot changes where perched water resides in the grow medium. It actually limits the volume of soil in the planting which is CAPABLE of holding perched water. Below, A shows a perched water table (excess water) in a pot filled with soil. B shows what happens to that water when the pit is tipped.

If the drain hole in B is in the center of the bottom, excess water would only drain to the level of the lowest edge of the drain hole. If the hole is through the bottom at the sidewall, it would drain to the level shown, which is the the natural level of the PWT. If a wick/wicks is/are inserted through through a hole in the bottom at the sidewall, additional water (more than show in B) will drain.

Because the ht of the PWT any given medium can hold when saturated is a constant, no matter what the size or shape, C shows how the shape of the container can limit (or increase) how much PW a planting can hold, while D shows how ballast can work passively to limit how much PW is held in a planting.

If you're reading this and having issues with excess water, make sure you understand how you use these tools or tricks. They can make a very significant increase in the rewards you get for your efforts.

Al

Two question for @tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a).

1. Is the mosquito net on the bottom used to prevent the medium in the pot from coming out of the drainage holes? A piece of crock is no good?

2. I have often read that you recommend the use of wicks. One thing is not clear to me: the wick is only useful where the vase is lifted in the air, right? If it is a heavy vessel that cannot be lifted, is the wick useless?

@Michele Rossi Crock at the bottom of a pot sometimes works and sometimes does not, whereas a small diameter screen at the bottom works 99% of the time until either a) plant roots pop through the only drainage hole or b) you put the pot onto bare soil and the soil underneath encroaches into the drainage hole and plugs it.

The point of the wick is to connect the water in the perched water table - inside the pot - to the ground soil, which effectively "sucks" the water out of the pot. This is basically a siphon, but the flow of water is hidden inside of the filaments of the wick. This is a clever hack to give another failsafe to ensure that the perched water table does not get out of control.

@tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) Exactly right, I think some subset of plastic vendors are starting to use organic additives to encourage biodegradable plastics. From an overall environmental perspective, society needs that. But in the case of a window screen or any kind of filter, that is a crazy misapplication of the technology. We want screens to last "forever" against water and outside exposure. I contacted the vendor who made the white screens that degraded after they crumbled in my hands and that vendor was not even aware that their product was biodegradable. It might well be that some of these manufacturers buy whatever chemicals are being sold to them at the best price, and they are not exercising diligence on the characteristics of different plastics or on the needs of their target customers.

In the case of the pot I was trying to remediate, it has become a "lake" with open water right up to the container's rim. So there was no confusing perched water table with a blocked drain hole, for this one case.

I apply your diagrams on the perched water table and pot orientation every time I cook, such as draining water from beans. I tilt the mesh filter to an angle, to force the perched water table to a corner so that it will drain more completely/faster. I apply the same idea when using a sieve to filter soil. If I wash the soil in the filter, I tilt the sieve to 45 degrees to make the perched water table rush to the edge and drain out more completely.

1. Is the mosquito net on the bottom used to prevent the medium in the pot from coming out of the drainage holes? A piece of crock is no good? Yes, the net is to keep the soil from passing out of the pot. A pot shard will work too.

2. I have often read that you recommend the use of wicks. One thing is not clear to me: the wick is only useful where the vase is lifted in the air, right? If it is a heavy vessel that cannot be lifted, is the wick useless? There are 2 opposing forces that determine how much water remains in a pot. One of those forces is gravity, the other one, capillarity, is the sum of two forces, those being cohesion and adhesion. Cohesion is the tendency of a water molecule to stick to other water molecules and it the reason that water droplets tend to remain in droplet form instead of instantly flying off into space. Adhesion is the tendency for water molecules to stick to other objects - a face cloth, fence boards, a brick wall, ... . The sum of adhesion and cohesion = capillarity. When a sponge soaks up water or you dip a paper towel in a glass liquid, you can see the liquid rising against the force of gravity that held it within the glass, which shows clearly that capillarity can be stronger than gravity.

If you have a tall container with drain hole taped shut and the container filled with 100% grow media, it's gravitational flow potential (GFP), the weight of the water pushing downward, will be greater than the soil's capillary pull; so, when you pull the tape away from the drain hole, the soil will drain until the GFP and the force (pull) of capillarity are exactly equal. When you add a wick, you effectively increase the height of the PWT, because the wick is also filled with water. Increasing the ht of the PWT, as we have seen, increases its GFP, so the water will start to drain again until the forces of GFP and the medium's capillary pull are again equal.

The wick is useful when it dangles from below the pot or it is on a surface large with a strong capillary pull, like the earth or a large stack of newspapers, towels, cardboard, open-celled foam.

The difference between a wick and a siphon lies in the fact that a siphon depends entirely ob gravitational flow potential and continuity of the stream, whereas capillarity works in an infinite number of directions and doesn't depend on continuity of the water stream to start/ stop, or remain effective.

Al

Sounds like there is consensus some plastic canvas manufacturers are using different formulations. I bought a whole bunch many years ago and still have a few left and they have not degraded in any fashion. Old stock must be real plastic then. Next time when I do have to buy again I have to be careful.
Good point about making holes near the edge of the pot. I have been doing that for a while now for plastic pots. Soldering iron is a good idea - I have to try that. I had been using spade drill bits which often leaves a not so clean hole.

Heating the head of a 16D nail or a #12 or 14 screw and just melt it through works well too. I do it so often the soldering iron seemed like a good idea. It's always plugged in, and ready to serve, and all I need to do is squeeze the trigger.

I agree the formulation has changed and they don't seem to serve as well as they used to (plastic canvas).

Al

The wick is useful when it dangles from below the pot or it is on a surface large with a strong capillary pull, like the earth or a large stack of newspapers, towels, cardboard, open-celled foam.

I thought as much! Unfortunately all my ficus are very large and placed on the floor. However, I could apply the wick to this vase: this vase is placed on a grate below which there is an underground cave (30 meters below ground level) where my ancestors kept foodstuffs and which was used as an anti-aircraft shelter during the Second World War.

Can the classic fabric handles of shopping bags be used as wicks?

Following through on the ideas in this thread, I bought some wicking cord here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FS6TRXJ/

Does anyone make the plastic canvas or wire mesh material with a permanent right-angle bend in it? It's not a big deal to just use the flexible wire mesh but a better solution would be a rigid plastic screen with a 90 degree angle that would fit flush to the strange arrangement of draining holes on this pot.

I want to place the plastic screen inside the container and then punch a hole in that and run wicking chord with a knot at the end through the inside to the outside.

I just use a clip made with aluminum bonsai wire and hold the screen vertically against the hole. Same technique as used in bonsai to secure screens to bottom holes.

For the wick it will be better if you make a loop with it sitting at the bottom of the pot half the diameter of the pot bottom. The two ends can hang out through two opposite drain holes. That way it should have better contact with the soil.

@tropicofcancer (6b SW-PA) Can you post a photo of your clip made with bonsai wire?

Unfortunately I do not have a photo. But there are plenty of online sites/videos showing how it is done. Look for bonsai repotting posts. In bonsai, the technique is used to secure the screen on bottom holes. But it is also applicable to vertical holes.

Generally speaking, I use bonsai ideas and techniques to all my plants whether it is considered a bonsai or not.

I posted images to this thread above.

AL

Thanks Al, Forgot you posted pictures of screen tied to the pot. And I have seen that pic many times and still forgot.

I have a bucket of used bonsai wire for various odds and ends tasks like this.