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If I have a garden pot without a hole in it, is putting rock at the bottom really sufficient?

Or should I attempt to drill a hole in it? I am planting spider plants and according to many sites it needs good drainage.

Public Comments

1. I just ran into a similar situation. I'm opting for drilling a hole because the moisture, even though not in direct contact with roots, could build up in the soil above rocks and destroy the plants.
2. Drill some holes. Rocks will just fill with water over time and drown your plants.
3. putting rocks might reduce the amount of soil and humus available to your plant. why not have another pot for your plant and if you cannot buy another one, you can even prepare a homemade pot for it using any old plastic bottle or box or anything of similar sort. even more easier to manage and decorate. wish that solves your problem.
4. You really need drainage or the spider plants will eventually die. Some people will put on the bottom of the pot, rocks or even styrofoam to leave more room for drainage. Give yourself an inch or two on the bottom then cover with soil and definitely have a hole for drainage. Good luck.
5. I was taught to put a rock at the bottom of a pot to cover the hole and stop the soil washing out when it was watered and before the roots had bound the soil. That's the only reason for having a stone in a pot. If there is no hole in the bottom of the pot you don't need a stone. I'm guessing that you are growing this as a house plant, in which case you don't need a hole in the bottom of the pot, you just need to make sure you don't over water it. If you are putting it outside and it rains hard then the pot may fill up with water and cause the roots to become waterlogged and unable to breathe. You can save the plant by tipping the pot on its side and allowing the water to drain out. Or you can add a hole, it's easy enough in a plastic pot but clay pots will crack or shatter easily.
6. Putting "drainage material" in the bottom of pots is an out-of-date, now discredited practice. It actually makes drainage worse because it shortens the depth of the root ball and that causes it to retain water longer. I know that is counter-intuitive, but there is a simple experiment with a household sponge that will demonstrate this. Email me if you want to know more. (wcreed@HorticulturalHelp.com) Good drainage means having porous material mixed into and throughout the potting soil. Porous materials include, Perlite, bark chips, coir and sand. Others have correctly noted that excess water can build up in the bottom of a drainless pots out of sight and may cause root rot. Plastic pots can be drilled easily. Ceramic pots are difficult to drill into without shattering the pot. One solution is to put the plant into a plastic pot with drain holes and then set that pot inside the ceramic pot. After you water, you can easily lift the inner plastic pot out to see if there is excess water in the ceramic pot that needs to be emptied. The French term for this double-potting is cachepot.
7. If you don't want to drill a hole in a decorative pot, put some stones in it and plant the plant in a smaller plain plastic pot that you put in the larger pot, standing on the stones. This will leave space for excess water to drain out of the plastic pot and collect in the bottom of the larger pot and either evaporate through the airspace or be poured out.
8. You have to have holes for drainage or any plant will rot. if the pot is ceramic put it in water while you drill and it won't crack.