In article ,
Pennyaline wrote:

Billy wrote:
In article ,
Pennyaline wrote:

Omelet wrote:
Shel' dear. I always have put gravel in the bottom of pots to facilitate
good pot drainage. I was taught to do that by my Botany professor when I
used to work for him and take care of the class greenhouse. He also
always put a pot sherd over the hole or holes.

But, I use really big pots when I do that. 1 gallon on up to 25 gallon
depending on what I am planting. ;-)
But did you put in enough gravel or pot shards to hold the containers
down in a high wind? That is the OPs problem.

Actually, Omlet was responding to another of Shelly's ill conceived
constructions of reality, which by the way didn't address OP's problem
either.

I stated that keeping the containers in place during high winds is the
OP's problem. Neither Omelet nor I was trying to solve the OP's problem
through Omelet's response. She was responding to Sheldon, and I was
responding to her. No more, no less.

Well, I've not routinely had pots blow over in a high wind, but I put
them in a protected spot. Close to a building on the lee side of where
the wind is coming from.

Or I tie them to something if it becomes a regular problem.

The larger pots (5 gallon or larger) with a gravel lining never do blow
over, but that was not why I put the gravel in there. It's just a side
benefit. ;-)

I think my original point was that if they want to try weighting the
pots with gravel to prevent blow-overs, put the gravel in the _bottom_
of the pot instead of on top of the soil.

That way you avoid soil compaction, make the center of gravity lower in
the pot which should work better, and benefit pot drainage.

A win-win situation.

But if you are dealing with really high winds, say, 30 mph on up,
setting up some sort of tie ups for top heavy or top bushed plant pots
might be your only hope.

Or, as someone else suggested, bolting them to boards to widen the base.
I thought that was a very cool idea.
--
Peace, Om

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