The best practice for Watering plants in pots without drainage

If you are interested in planting in a cachepot but consider its watering, join us to show you the best practice for watering plants in pots without drainage holes.

Planting in pots without drainage is popular due to reasons that I talked about before (if you don’t read my previous article please read “Why do some plant pots not have holes? “To find the advantage of planting in a cachepot).

Here I’m going to show you how to design a professional strategy for watering indoor plants in pots without drainage. Hence, first I will tell you about the importance of drainage in planting and after that we will find out pro tips for watering plants in a cachepot finally, I will speak with you about how to improve the drainage in pots without holes. If you are ready, let’s dive into it.

 ➡ You can also hear the audio version of this article.

Do potted plants have to have drainage?

As you know, drainage is very critical for growing indoor plants. Plants don’t like their roots sitting in water. The roots need oxygen, if the packet air of soil closed during overwatering, the roots will be suffocated and your plant will die.

So, no matter whether you use a planter with or without a drainage hole, the potted plants have to have drainage. In pots with drainage holes, the pores in the bottom of the pot drain the extra water easily, but how you can create drainage in the container without holes?

Two factors play a critical role in drainage in pots that don’t have holes:

• Doing a correct watering strategy.
• Put drainage materials in the bottom of the pot.

Both of them are critical for growing your indoor plant in cachepots.

In the following, we will show you how to water indoor plants with drainage holes. To provide the second factor, please read “How to have good drainage in pots without holes”.

How to water the plants in pots without drainage holes? 

After planting in a cachepot, know you should design a good strategy for watering your plant to prepare its requirement moisture and avoid making soggy soil and root rot. So, you should know about the watering intake of your plant.

In the following, you can find three important watering tips for proper drainage in pots without drainage holes.

Finding your plant’s water intake in pots with no drainage hole.

Some plants need a lot of moisture and others will grow in almost dry soils. You should measure your plant’s water intake. Various factors are involved in this issue including:

• Your plant species
• The temperature of the room
• The season
• The amount of sunlight
• Wind and airflow
• The texture of potting soil
• The size of the pot

You can get help from an expert in this issue, monitor your plant and try to find it or use a soil moisture indicator. please read “Small indoor plants don’t need drainage holes” to tell you more details about this issue.

Controlling the watering frequency in pots without drainage holes.

Water your house plant less often! Since the cachepots don’t have a drainage hole, you should water your plant only when the top soil (2 inches of the topsoil) dries out. You can check it by touching the soil surface or as I show in the following short movie.

 

Water your indoor plant with less water in pots without holes.

Dependent on your houseplant you should water it with less water. You have to search how much water your indoor plant can take in one go.

Avoid over-watering in pots without drainage holes because the extra water doesn’t remove the pot and will accumulate. It will increase the risk of root rot. So, if you add too much water, you have to tilt the pot and try to remove the extra water.

Plants with shallow root systems absorb the water from the topsoil, so there isn’t any need for deep watering (such as cactus and succulents, for more details read “How to water cactus without drainage holes?). Hence, depending on the type of your plant, you should design a strategy for watering it to make proper drainage in pots without drainage holes.

Another practice is to have good drainage in pots without holes.

In addition to watering management, there are other practices that you have to do to improve the drainage in pots without holes. I cannot dive into it here, but you must know about them. Hence, I decided to list them and give you a brief overview in the following, although I strongly recommend you to read:

• How to have good drainage in pots without holes? What to put in the bottom of the planter without drainage holes?
• How to plant in ceramic pots without drainage holes?

After reading the above articles you will know all the things you need to plant in pots without drainage holes. So, let’s continue.

Apart from watering the other practices that you have to do to improve the drainage in pots without holes are:

1. Increasing the size of the pot. it is very important because will increase the capacity of your pot and keep the roots far from the extra water.
2.  Improve the soil texture by adding perlite, pumice, vermiculite, orchid bark, and horticultural charcoal, it will protect your soil from becoming compacted. So, the water moves easily through it and the drainage will improve (for more details read “How to plant in ceramic pots without drainage holes?”).
3. Add materials such as a layer of drainage rocks or activated charcoal at the bottom of your pot.
4.  Finally, you have to plant indoor plants that don’t need drainage holes. If you want to know, what can you plant in pots without drainage, please read the following articles:

• Flowers that don’t need drainage holes
• Herbs that don’t need drainage
• Small indoor plants without drainage holes.

The above practice will keep your soil moist without drainage.

Conclusion

In this article, I tried to show you the pro tips about watering plants in pots without drainage. I talked with you about the importance of drainage in growing indoor plants and directed you to a valuable source to improve the drainage of your pot even without the hole in its bottom.

Have you ever experienced planting pots without drainage holes? what plants? Can you add other tips about watering plants to our list? Please share your knowledge and experience with our readers below this page. in addition, if you have any questions about this issue, please feel free to ask me. I will answer you as soon as possible.