The rule is that you should never allow a plant to sit for long periods in water. A plant should be watered thoroughly, the excess water allowed to drain off before being placed back on the saucer.

Roots can begin to rot if the potting medium remains saturated for long periods of time. Your goal should be to drench the whole volume of soil but allow it to drain rapidly.

Does that help answer your question?

Absolutely does, thanks.

Although I no longer see the point of even having the saucers.

The way that I do it is to fill the saucers with water, wait an hour or so and then empty the sauce if necessary or fill it with more water if it has gone down too fast.

Linda

I leave the water for the very few smaller pots that have saucers outdoors, most don't have them. They evaporate or the water gets drawn back up in a few hours. Since it's so hot they have to be watered every day and the water is never there for very long. If you had a cool rainy period, where the water remained standing for days, it would be different.

I no longer see the point of even having the saucers.

Because in extremely dry hot weather that water in the saucer will be quickly reabsorbed by the plant.

There is no one method fits all times. Wet cooler weather with lots of rain, yes you may need to empty the saucers. Hot and dry weather, no as the plant will use it within a short period of time.

Think of saucers as a poor-man's form of self-watering containers. We leave water in self-watering containers for short periods of time, right? So for much of the summer heat the water can remain in the saucers just note how long it takes it to disappear. If it is still there 24 hours later, dump it.

Dave