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?
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Making Holes in 5 gallon buckets?
- Thread starter misterbrownstone06
- Start date
millworkman
Extreme Member
Hammer and screwdriver?
Soldering Iron?
Screwdriver and a flame source?
Soldering Iron?
Screwdriver and a flame source?
.
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?
ok thanks
millworkman
Extreme Member
What justaguy said, but skip the stones/gravel. You would just be wasting space for more soil and roots.
I just used the biggest screwdriver bit that i could find for my drill and used it like a regular drill bit.
worked great.i couldnt find drill bits
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
millworkman
Extreme Member
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.
millworkman
Extreme Member
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.
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.
