Stones or No Stones in Bottom of the Pot ?

Hey guys I'm going to be transplanting my baby soon...

The medium is Pro-mix w/ lime, perlite, and worm castings...About a 2-1-1 ratio.....

It's going into a 2 gallon pot with 5 rather large drain holes on the bottom (about 1/2" long)...

Question is: Should I put some stones in the bottom or not ? I have those small river rocks from Depot....

I was thinking of no stones in the bottom of the pot but rather I was going to put stones in the drain pan - this would raise the bottom of the pot of the drain pan therefore not allowing water to "pool" in the bottom of the pot...

I did a lot of research and it seems people are split on this one...

thoughts?

you could always put a layer of peat moss over the bottom, that's what I do. It also helps the roots cuz it's a little more solid when they get that low.

I use really small pots and if i put stones in they wouldnt hold water well or i would need to water too often. In larger pots i would use stones or in my case hydroton but my 7" pots dont need that, often i have to add soil with no perlite at the end of the grow to the top of the pot to retain as much moisture as possible. Peace

i'm split on this one!

Totally not needed, that's what the perlite is for.

But, experience is the best teacher. You could do it and find out for yourself, not really going to hurt anything.

Wet

I agree with Wetdog. Just drain your saucers after you water if water pooling up is a problem.

mouthmeetsoap said:

I agree with Wetdog. Just drain your saucers after you water if water pooling up is a problem.

Click to expand...

You can get a small hand pump to drain the saucers at your local auto parts store for like $1.

Also be careful to go very light on the lime at first until you know how your soil/nutes are going to ph. It was a mistake I made in the past and I would hate to see someone else do it.

I put stones. They were about the size of an egg, maybe a little smaller. I didn't use much and I just did it because I had read it on the forum somewhere lol. I have a decently size pot...15g? I can't remember haha. Like wet said, I don't think it will hurt so just go for it it you believe its necessary.(most likely not)

I just use a turkey baster to collect the runoff water....BUT...I wait like 2-3 hours to do that, as many times the soil will soak it back up. If there is just a little I don't even bother, as it will soon evaporate.

Wetdog said:

Totally not needed, that's what the perlite is for.

But, experience is the best teacher. You could do it and find out for yourself, not really going to hurt anything.

Wet

Click to expand...

I found that adding stones to my pots would cause the bottom soil to dry out way too quickly, much prefer perlite although if i had really big pots i would use a small layer of rocks as sometimes i find it dose help drainage. Funny enough i stopped this when i found that perlite did a better job and was a hassle transplanting with all them stones at the bottom. Peace