Growing with bottomless pots into wet soil- yes or no?

[Jermaineconcern]

So the plot of land I leased used to be a bunch of cat tails. I had about 100x100 feet brush hogged away. The soil is very damp, about 100 yards from a lake. If I stick a post 2 feet down, a little of the bottom gets filled with water.

I'm getting 30 gallon pots and making my own soil, but my plan was to cut the bottoms out of those pots so that my soil will meet that wetter soil on the bottom

My question is, even if I keep good aerated soil raised above the damp semi-marshy soil... once the roots grow past the aerated pot soil and into that marshy stuff, am I risking root rot running all the way up the root system? Or will it actually be beneficial as I won't have to water as much?

 

[redshift75]

You risk exposure to whatever can be in that soil from one day or the next. i dont see it as an issue as the roots tend to grow where they can cherry pick. so if they grew close enough to draw water, thats what they would do. But i imagine the real risk is how much moisture does it take before plants start to show "wet feet" symptoms. Even in wet feet it typically kills the furthest most roots unless it shocks the whole plant. Which it can cause it to die off. We are talking 2 foot though. Even if you did a 2x2x2'ft hole thats like 70 gallons of space. add that with 30 you just gave 100 gallons of good space. I dont see that giving you a lot of issues. If you end up with a wet season though..... Same for all outdoor growers. Hope some are good and the rest of em make it. :)


depending on your spacing. You could always do tarps around the trunk. like a christmas tree skirt. So you get runoff further away.

Will it hurt? probably not, since that requires it to grow through everything first.
Can it hurt? yes it can hurt the plant potentially if you get an overly wet season and dont have any drainage.

id say try it with and without and see which does it better. 30 gallon pot is nothing to shake a stick at and would probably just go a larger pot size or make my own air pot like Greatlakes does with 2x4s and window screen.

 

[Rooke]

So the plot of land I leased used to be a bunch of cat tails. I had about 100x100 feet brush hogged away. The soil is very damp, about 100 yards from a lake. If I stick a post 2 feet down, a little of the bottom gets filled with water.

I'm getting 30 gallon pots and making my own soil, but my plan was to cut the bottoms out of those pots so that my soil will meet that wetter soil on the bottom

My question is, even if I keep good aerated soil raised above the damp semi-marshy soil... once the roots grow past the aerated pot soil and into that marshy stuff, am I risking root rot running all the way up the root system? Or will it actually be beneficial as I won't have to water as much?

Hey there, I grow in the same type of conditions sounds a bit wetter where I am though. My pots last year were 35 gallon cut down rain barrels. I drill lots of 1 in. Holes in the bottom of them, now I have set them right on the ground in some of the drier areas and in the wetter areas on pallets but the ones on the ground seemed to grow bigger. I still fed them the same amount though. I’ve never grown open ended but the roots did grow into the ground like crazy through the holes. The one thing that I would caution you on is if they are sitting on the ground any type of ground borer can easily make its way into the mainstem of your plants. I don’t know if you have them where you live but I sure do. Hope this helps!

 

[redshift75]

The one thing that I would caution you on is if they are sitting on the ground any type of ground borer can easily make its way into the mainstem of your plants. I don’t know if you have them where you live but I sure do. Hope this helps!

Yeah that would be only real concern id see. open bottom grow beds are fairly common. Its more the environment its in and what that brings than anything that would be the final decider. I have lots of ground ones but i try to give them better options ;)

 

[Rooke]

Yeah that would be only real concern id see. open bottom grow beds are fairly common. Its more the environment its in and what that brings than anything that would be the final decider. I have lots of ground ones but i try to give them better options ;)

When I put them on pallets the roots air off and you can side a tray in the middle of the pallet to catch runoff which is a bonus. They definitely got dryer quicker than the ones on the ground. And didn’t get as big. Like you said 30 gallon is a decent sized pot and with good conditions and some tlc you can get good yields.