On 12 Mar, 18:23, "Dave Hill" wrote:
On 12 Mar, 17:03, "Geoff" wrote:





How detailed must one be?

Imagine an 8/9 inch plastic flowerpot with 6/8 drainage holes in its base.

Now imagine a sharp knife cutting through the shortest distance between each
of the preformed drainage holes to create one large oddly shaped drainage
hole.

Now imagine that the tops of each of 6/8 such flowerpots equally spaced in
a 3 or 4 foot diameter circle are sunk into the ground to a depth of about
an inch.

Now imagine small runner bean plants inside the upside down pots striving to
reach the light above them.

Now imagine a 7 or 8 foot long vertical bamboo cane going through each of
the pots' large drainage holes and stuck into the ground to a depth of
about 12 inches.

Now imagine the six or eight bamboo canes being tied together at the top so
as to form a wigwam.

Now imagine some very dry weather also that somebody pours water through the
large drainage hole to a depth of about an inch twice a day direct to the
roots of the bean plants so as not to waste water on surrounding soil..

If the stems & leaves of the plants and the canes are not too close to any
part of the flower pots, snails will not reach them and ants (which are
blind and follow scent trails left by their fellow wandering ants) will have
their scent trails washed away very often if indeed they ever find their way
in the first place!!.

Q.E.D.

I can't see why you would want to grow bean plants through the holes
in a flower pot, if you are trying to conserve the water around them
then growing through a black polythene mulch would be easier.
Also if you are watering twice a day then you are going to have the
bean roots close to the surface and thus prone to more stress which
can cause flower drop.
Why not punch some large holes in the bottom of 2litr Pop bottles and
sink these into the ground with just their tops showing then when you
fill them you would be giving 2 litres or so of water each time and
encouraging the roots to go deep.

Your method is great and I've used it but I think the added bonus with
Lionel's method was minimising pests. Though as Pam said, slug/snails
can hide in the pot (I've never had problems with ants (touch wood)).
I start all my beans and peas with 2 litres pop bottles cut in half
and I trim the edges badly and therefore they become sharp. Then I
screw these into the soil over my plant. I water solely the plant and
don't flood around and pest don't go over the sharp edges. I've been
happy doing this for years.