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"Gardens: Old wives' tales" from Saturday's Guardian
On Jan 11, 8:39*pm, Adam Funk wrote:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...wives-tales-ga... orhttp://gu.com/p/2yyd7 This was the one that shocked me: * Crocks in pots improve drainage * ... * False: a drainage layer in the bottom of pots reduces the volume of * soil available to plant roots. Don't add gravel or crocks, but * ensure pots have drainage holes. This was what we were taught when pots were made from fired clay and had just one hole in the bottom, by placing crocks over the hole you reduced the risk of the hole becoming blocked by lumps in the compost which was made chiefly of seived loamwith added sand, later peat was added esp when the John Innes Institute came up with their recipe for seed, and potting composts. With the introduction of plastic post you started to get 4 holes, and gradualy the number and size has increased and a small intermitent rim was introduced to stop the pot forming a seal on flat surfaces. There are times when I still put coarse peat or bark chippings in the bottom of large pots that are going to be sitting on the ground as I believe it helps to prevent water being syphoned into the pot and causing waterloging and thus stagnant compost. David Hill |
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