In article ,
Livs wrote:

Thanks Billy, I've done this now with all pots, putting a layer of
broken terracotta at the base and creating more drainage holes.
Unfortunately it seems to have made no difference. The water just seems
to be sitting on the top layer and not even reaching the drainage holes.
I don't know if its the fact that I mixed in some water retaining
granules or that the compost was not bone dry when I first poured it out
of the grow bag and into the pots??? Or posibly I'm jut giving too much
water but I'd say I used a quarter of a small watering can on each this
tme and still the same problem. Grrrr

Makes no sense, unless the granules are swelling and creating an
impermeable layer. I've read that the granules can hold up to 500 times
their own weight in water. Try it without the granules. See how the size
compares now that they're wet, to when you put them in. If it doesn't
drain without the granules, it has to be the potting soil, or something
else is hermetically sealing the drain hole.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html