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Making Holes in 5 gallon buckets?

I don't have my drill at the moment and I feel one of my bhuts needs to be repotted today. I need a way to make some holes at the bottom of the bucket. Any ideas?
 
Could always go outside and put a few 9mm rnds through the bottom? Problay not the best of ideas if you live in the city :P.

-J
 
Will you have access to a drill in the near future? i'm sure the plant can wait a day or two? If not do you have drill bits? if so you can use channel locks at the end of it to "drill". Hammer would work, take a exacto knife and score a circle and pound it out? Or maybe a car cigarette lighter? What about a gun? gernade? WMD?
 
is this enough holes?

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What justaguy said, but skip the stones/gravel. You would just be wasting space for more soil and roots.
And, i forget the science behind it, it supposedly doesn't assist with drainage.

Poke a few holes along the bottom sides, fill it with your favorite potting soil, and call it a day.
 
lol I only use gravel because last year I stupidly used a 1/2" bit to drill and put them in the ground when I realized the amount of soil eroding away through them. So you are probably right, but only an inch of gravel to get past the holes on the bottom of the sides doesn't take up much space for me
 
I think the science behind it was if you add gravel, you raised the perched water table in the bucket, meaning you raise the level of possible rot. Ive always had plants grow right through the bottom and into the ground so I would say unless you are using crazy huge pots don't worry about it.
 
i also notice while i was growing my habs as the days flew by that my soil was getting lower and lower due to watering them. i guess the soil seeps through the holes at the bottom. should i add the extra holes on the side? i don't really wanna lose a lot of soil.
 
Just make sure they are small, like 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. Your soil level lowering was probably due to compaction rather than losing it through the holes.
 
Compaction will happen. Mine actually got a hollow/empty ring around the edges top to bottom from the wash out. Even lowering all over is normal compaction.
 
That hollow area around the edges is probably due more to the soil drying out. If you use regular garden or potting soil, that will happen a lot. With pine bark mixes and things like that it wont happen nearly as much. Once you water the garden soil, it usually expands back and the gaps dissapear around the edges. That is another problem with using just plain garden or potting soil, if you try to water with those gaps, the water tends to run down around the edges and straight to the bottom of the container without soaking in. It takes a while for it to start soaking into the soil until the soil expands and seals the gap forcing the water to soak into the soil before running out the bottom.
 
I should have taken pics last year. The gaps and the runoff of soil told me it was erosion due to drain holes I could put a finger through. Oh the mistakes I learned from last year....and the ones this year are just a step higher. :rofl:
 
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