Drainage in pots

[ranunculus]

Thank you all.
Maggi says that there are several other horticultural myths like this one .
Can you name another one?

That Ranunculus glacialis flowers turn red only after they have been pollinated.  

[Gerry Webster]

As Maggi has noted, a raised bed is a good way to get rid of builders' rubble & other junk. I have made 3 such beds. I've never thought  that  rubble by itself  can 'assist drainage'  so, before putting in the soil mix, I washed in coarse sharp sand to fill all the gaps in the rubble.* I do the same thing with troughs & large, free-standing, terracotta, long tom pots but not with smaller plunged pots. I have lots of problems with growing plants but I don't think drainage is one of them.

* I also installed drainage pipes in the beds as Alberto suggests.

[LoisRichter]

Have any of you tried threading a cotton "wick" through the drainage hole of your indoor pots?
It seems to me that that would break up the perched water table and solve the problem.
If it does, then might a solution to the raised planter be to auger some hole straight down thru into the lower lever of soil and bury short lengths of rope in them?  I'm thinking that would give the water a continuous path to run down in several places.
Any thoughts on this idea?
-- Lois Richter in California.
(This idea came after hearing about using cotton wicks to get water up into African violet plants from a tray below the pot.)

[Hannelore]

Sorry - I found this thread just now.

Thank you all.
Maggi says that there are several other horticultural myths like this one .
Can you name another one?

From the grocery garden:
- Plant onions together with carrots because the onion fly doesn't like the carrot smell and vice versa: At the same time, when onions have to be kept dry to develop storable qualities, the carrots need a lot of water to become thick.
- Lettuce is not hardy. It is.

To add something to the original thread: When potting seedling for the first time and only for some time until the go out into the garden beds, I place a layer of toilet paper at the bottom of the pot. It prevents clay to be washed out and is almost gone when the planting starts.

Hannelore

[Michelle Swann]

Maggie, I loved the ape story x.

[Maggi Young]

Maggie, I loved the ape story x.

It's a  good  one!  Shows  how  we  need  always  to be  questioning the  world around  us.