It's a vague phrase for which I'd ask for clarification also. You well know most don't consider a hole-less pot full of pebbles to have any kind of drainage, quite the opposite.

Civilians / new gardeners who haven't learned better think it does Purp, that's EXACTLY why & to whom I'm asking.

Might sound silly but would't the phrase. Drainage hole at the bottom of a pot be understood as. A pot with with one ( or more) holes at the bottom of a pot ?

Yes, I get drainage HOLE, but often that is not what they say, they just say drainage, w/ no mention of the hole, that's exactly why I ask.

I read it as the combined effect of the character of the soil and the pot combined. But I know it means different things to different people. To me it is all about how fast water moves through soil AND pot.

Asking folks to define it here won't put this knowledge in the heads/hands of anyone. I rarely am able to offer anything in the realm of advice without asking questions. Like you say, usually the facts needed to know what's going on are missing. When I ask for help, I usually get questions. Asking for help means you don't know what's going on, just the first step in trying to figure that out, so then a possibly appropriate solution can be suggested.

And if someone thinks they have 'good drainage' by about any definition by putting some rocks in the bottom of a pot with or without a hole, that should be discussed. Like, as an emergency, almost certainly the cause of any symptoms of distress.

UM... I would think that any container that has some type of outlet for water to drain out of would qualify wether the holes were on the bottom or the sides. Seems like most containers at nurseries have them on the sides.

Although most of my clay pots have them on the bottom which work fine.

Greg

I've not used rocks as a form of drainage but have used rocks to allow better water flow or movement.
I dont habbit asking for details regarding bottom drainage to anyone. Common sence to me is how a containerized root system would need some form of water movement and can usually benifit with some form of additional drainage.