Large outdoor pots

moonpenny

I want to buy one of those large (about 2ft 6ins) outdoor pots to plant up.
They are that thick plastic stuff - do I put a hole in the bottom?

How do you plant up one of these huge post?  Do I put a container inside and if so how do I fix it inside?

MysteryMe

I'm not quite sure what sort of pot you are referring to, is 2'6 the height or diameter? The pot will need drainage so make  hole in it. You can use a drill to make a hole. You would generally just fill up the pot and plant direct into it. 

moonpenny

Its approx 75cm high and 40cm wide at the top.
Surely there is a better way than filling the whole pot with potting compost?  It would take loads!

Misslayed

Plastic pots are very light, so in danger of being blown over in a strong wind. They definitely need a few holes for drainage, and I've put two or three bricks/rocks/stones in the base, with a good layer of gravel, then topped up with appropriate compost for the plant. 

Farway

moonpenny said:

Its approx 75cm high and 40cm wide at the top.
Surely there is a better way than filling the whole pot with potting compost?  It would take loads!

Depending what you intend planting in the pot, if shallow rooted, bedding plants for instance, then old bricks / rubble in the base, plus broken up polystyrene packing / will help cheaply fill the bottom part of the pot

Or just use garden soil for the bottom bit, remove any weed roots you spot such as bindweed

Anything intended to be permanent in there, like say a fruit treee, then it would be best to fill complete pot with compost / soil

Murphybear

Farway said:

moonpenny said:

Its approx 75cm high and 40cm wide at the top.
Surely there is a better way than filling the whole pot with potting compost?  It would take loads!

Depending what you intend planting in the pot, if shallow rooted, bedding plants for instance, then old bricks / rubble in the base, plus broken up polystyrene packing / will help cheaply fill the bottom part of the pot

Or just use garden soil for the bottom bit, remove any weed roots you spot such as bindweed

Anything intended to be permanent in there, like say a fruit treee, then it would be best to fill complete pot with compost / soil

We bought 2 fruit trees last year for growing in pots.  We found 2 large ones from the local recycling centre.  They had holes already drilled to we put lots of broken crocks and filled it with cheap compost from Wilco and mixed it with home made compost my husband had been nurturing.  I topped it with wood mulch which prevented it from being waterlogged in the winter and dried out in the summer.

They have grown massively in just one year.  They only cost £6 each so I’m very pleased.  I have no idea if we will ever get fruit but they look really pretty. 

[Deleted User]

I have several large pots, about 80cm high with a top diameter of about 50cm and have hibiscus shrubs in them.
They have about a 12cm fill of crocs and large stones in the base and the rest compost and soil, yes it takes loads but it's worth it for the visual impact they provide.

Murphybear

[Deleted User] said:

I have several large pots, about 80cm high with a top diameter of about 50cm and have hibiscus shrubs in them.
They have about a 12cm fill of crocs and large stones in the base and the rest compost and soil, yes it takes loads but it's worth it for the visual impact they provide.

We bought 6 bags of compost from Wilco, 3 for £10 which is pretty amazing these days.  It seems to be ok in spite of its low cost and looks and feels nice to handle.  I used some last year on my tomatoes and they grew like weeds.  I’ve just finished my 4th bag!

sammyjammy

Aldi do very cheap bags of peat free compost, its quite rough so would need mixing with something a little more refined, from memory I think its £2 for 40 litres.