Flowerpot drainage, aeration?

[qdavid]

I thought the plastic pots I was buying were good. They have double bottoms with the holes in the bottom of the pot offset from the holes to the outside. Cool right? Wrong. They don't drain or get air for shit. My first seedling attempt died. So as I was remixing the soil with extra perllite and peat moss this time, I found the soil in the bottom of the pots still soggy, even after a week of no water. But I went ahead thinking the added perlite this time will help that. The seedlings growing now sprouted Sep. 23. They look alright, albeit small, but are under only two 25W cools for each pot. I had a couple more cool cfls going, but my cab temps got over 90F. My moisture meter was still reading off the chart when I shoved the prongs toward the bottom of the pots. Last weekend I drliled about 15 more holes iin the bottom of each pot but that moisture meter still reads wet on the bottom of the damn pots. So I guess I'll have to repot and put rocks on the bottom, and put a lot of perlite in the mix this time. The reason I'm hesitant about that is I'm disabled cause I have degenerative arthritis in two spots on my backbone from injuries. Anyway, any sustained physical activity is gonna hurt, either then or later and also repotting will traumatize my babies no matter how careful I am . But my medical marijuana grow is important and I'll do what I have to. Other than repotting, anybody have any other ideas I can try first?

qdavid Reviewed by qdavid on 10-13-2006. Flowerpot drainage, aeration? I thought the plastic pots I was buying were good. They have double bottoms with the holes in the bottom of the pot offset from the holes to the outside. Cool right? Wrong. They don't drain or get air for shit. My first seedling attempt died. So as I was remixing the soil with extra perllite and peat moss this time, I found the soil in the bottom of the pots still soggy, even after a week of no water. But I went ahead thinking the added perlite this time will help that. The seedlings growing Rating: 5

[stinkyattic]

Sure do what I do.
Just get a paddle bit and start drilling holes up the sides of the pot until it looks like Swiss cheese.
Seriously.

[qdavid]

Thanks. I'm gonna try it. I was using just real small bits before. There gonna be, sort of like, what Robin would say, "Holy Swiss Cheese, Batman."