Pots for plants you care about

sternus1 says...
Yep, I've done that.

What you don't want to do is use a masonry bit....I tried this and it was a disaster.

You want a steel bit running at very high oscillations. Don't start small and go up, you'll split the clay--same deal for trying to bore out the existing holes, very difficult to do without causing fractures.use the one bit the whole way, keep up the revs--high speed with low pressure. Don't push down, let the bit slowly do the work.Don't have your drill set to hammer either.

Nick1985Limey says...
That's a great idea.
$50 for a diamond holesaw, but I will have all of my pots with super draining performance. And I don't get shot for having ugly plastic pots.

Thanks mate.

This should make some nice noise, the neighbours will need some beers for tolerating me this weekend :-)

Markmelb says...
Was wondering if you seal inside of your terracotta pots with clear lacquer to reduce water loss - especially in hot summer drying weather - i did for some citrus in large pots years ago & seemed to work well for me.

Nick1985Limey says...
Thanks Bangkok, it's good to know what bunnings margins are - they are the only hardware store in many suburbs now and they absolutely destroy us on pricing wherever possible.

Only an electrician would know the true price, everyone else just buys one.

Julie says...
Mark, I have used Bondcrete for sealing bricks and terracotta. It's fairly cheap.

You don't even have to use it full strength, it can be diluted with water. I made signs for a community garden years ago - paper mounted on boards, with two or three coats of Bondcrete. They lasted for years out in the weather.

Bangkok says...
Especially terracotta pots will get very ugly if untreated.
I do several layers of that chemical about 5 minutes after eachother.
Make sure the stone is very dry so it sucks it all up.

To get good drainage i drill many 20mm holes in the bottom and sides of the bottom. Then inside the pot i lay some mesh on the holes, then a 3cm layer of pumicestone, then a blanket of coconutfibre-mat and then my soilmix.

Bangkok says...
Plastic mesh mostly with holes from 4mm.

Lately i use cocofibre mat so i can just easy transplant to bigger pots with the mat and all. It's not the doormat by the way, has long fibres.

I catch worms in heavy rain and throw them in my pots. Am i still normal or a fanatic? haha.
The creep up the veranda in hard rain and are very thin, they can creep through any mesh i would think.

I like worms though, do they harm plantroots?

I hate ants, now i 'm putting tanglefoot on all tree's. They live in the pots.
I also found Thai tanglefoot, much cheaper because no shipping.

Bangkok says...
Oh i see, i thought worms are good to open up the soil.

My pingan is dead now so today i put a starapple in the pot. The soil was muck but it contained a lot of clay from the bags of compost.
I didn't like the soil so i mixed a lot of ricehusks and charred husks and pumice in it.

After i watered the new tree the soil didn't drain at all!

So maybe the worms did that? Hmm well they are under all pots who stand on soil, not on the pavement.

But i guess worms hate urea or another fertilizer. Sometimes in our park they are all over the roads (which are very hot) and came out of the lawns. I've seen the gardeners use urea on the lawns so i guess it hurts them.

I don't use urea in the pots to spare the worms, so maybe i should use it to get them out?

I have one mango in a big pot with gritty mix and a little compost. I don't dare to use only gritty mix because it's so hot here and that mango also doesn't like very happy but it's just repotted.

I'm still thinking what i'll put in my big 200l planter. Worms can't go in them because they are 20 cm above ground.
I have a lot of pumice now, charred rice, ricehusks and don't know yet what else to buy. I can buy anything here now, i know all shops.

Also i found nice loam from some special place where they mine it to sell in bags for bonsai.
I think i'll mix it with that but that isn't very cheap.

I have a palm in a big pot but i'm sure it's totally rootbound. It grows well though but i'll replace it with a fruittree which likes shade, one day.

jakfruit etiquette says...
I aim for 1/3 or 33% coir, if all the other ingredients are essentially non water holding structural components ie chips gravel etc.
No particles need be more than 5mm.
Any pine bark etc needs to be composted.
In WA Jarrah hardwood chips probably doesnt need to be composted before using in a mix.
Vermiculite looses its structure easily, and holds a lot of water. Perlite is better, but expensive compared to broken up packing styrofoam,which has similar properties(but not water holding).
To the list you can add coarse sand, zeolite, rice hulls, inert gravel.