If you grow plants that like boggy conditions then, of course it will not need drainage holes. But, I THINK most houseplants like good drainage, but, hey, there are many plants i don't know about I'm sure.

I wanted to do this too for the exact same reason. Bcuz I use decorative pots without drainage holes and set the plastic nursery pots in them. But with that, I can take the plastic pot out and dump the excess water out of the ceramic outer pot if too much water collects. However if you're planting the plant directly into the hypertufa, you wouldn't be able to do this. So it's only okay if you are going to line the hypertufa pot with a plastic nursery pot so you can remove it and dump the excess water out like I do with my ceramic pots. But I feel like that would kind of defeat one of the main benefits of using a hypertufa, which is the porous nature of it. Like a clay terracotta, And unlike plastic or glazed ceramic, hypertufa is porous, so it's a lot healthier for your plant because it will draw excess moisture out of the soil. That's one of the key reasons I wanted to use them. So I wouldn't want to line it with plastic. The two solutions I can think of are to create a matching saucer to set the pot in, or even one that fits together with/looks like it's part of the pot, so that you cab dump excess water... Or to create a false bottom in the pot using one of those plastic saucers with the slits/holes in it, leaving room in the bottom of the pot for excess water to drain into and evaporate up into the soil gradually (kinda a similar concept to filling the bottom of a pot with rocks). I haven't used these ideas yet- This is purely theoretical knowledge. I'm only just making my first hypertufa today. So if anyone has any input I'd appreciate it!

Hey Jasmyn, I haven't made any Hypertufa for a while. I would LIKE to though, maybe next spring I will. I will have to buy new cement though. I have LOADS of Perlite though, too much. I will try and use as much as I can of it, IF I can use double perlite and no vermiculite I will. I don't know HOW I ended up with so much perlite, I think I couldn't find it and bought more. I now have a greenhouse and found SO much perlite, about 4 bags of it. With a good recipe, my BEST advice is to keep it moist for a good while while it cures. I can't recommend any certain recipe though, I haven't made anything for a good while. Keep it wet and cover it with plastic to keep it moist. I do NOT remember how long curing takes, I DO know it is measured in weeks. I have a whole bale of peat moss in my barn too, so just cement needed from what I remember the basic recipe is.

Cement, peat moss, perlite and or Vermiculite and water. I KNOW the amount of water was very little, just enough to mix the ingredients together barely. Post any pics if you can. Later.

Hi poaky,

Ok first of all, that is HILARIOUS to me because I have way too much Portland cement (my local hardware store only sells 94lb bags... I had to spend $20, have a worker carry it to the checkout and to the car, & it sat in my grandma’s trunk for days because we couldn’t even move it at all... 94lb doesn’t sound like a lot but the density of it concentrated into a single bag was ridiculously heavy), but had an inability to find perlite (local hardware store and Home Depot were both out when I went, 2 local nurseries didn’t sell it). I tried separating the perlite out of my old potting mix and as you can imagine it was ridiculously tedious and I gave up real fast. I have since bought perlite. I’m going to HAVE to figure out more ways to use up this cement.

I’ve still haven’t tried it yet. I always do this... I get so excited to try a project, I buy all the supplies (which is often a significant expense), and I’ve done hourssss of research on it (to the point of almost being a theoretical expert!), but still don’t try it. Why? Not sure, I think either indecision on what exactly to make, or lack of confidence/fear of messing up. But that’s dumb cause I often have SO much supplies that I can afford to mess up. And the fact of it being my first time means I should do the most basic form of the project! I did this with oil painting, acrylic pouring, eyeshadow, & building a catio... I hope hypertufa doesn’t become like all those did!

Thanks for your tips. Have you ever used coir instead of peat? I have questions about it, I posted them here on the hypertufa message boards. I’ll be sure to post pics! Look out for them coming soon!

Oh also kinda did that with growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers from seed. I did grow the cucumbers, African sunflowers(?), passionflower, and vinca... all of which were wildly successful to the point that I was throwing away cucumbers and passion fruits due to the sheer excess, but i literally have two cotton candy buckets stuffed full of seed packets that I haven’t even tried planting. Luckily I don’t think seeds expire.

Hi Jasmyn, SOME seeds do get way less likely to germinate after storage but SOME are fine after a couple of years storage. I know what you mean about Portland cement being ONLY available in 94lb bags, I am pretty sure that is how I must buy them also at Home Depot or Lowe's big box stores. I HAVE some in our basement, BUIT, it is about 4 years old and I've heard that it can "go bad" and after 4 years it MAY be unusable now. I have seen a place that makes concrete statues have a pile of cement in a pile outside of the store, so, I am thinking that IF they can store the cement powder in a pile outside, why can't I use the cement powder I have in my basement? Now, I was wondering DO I really need to buy FRESH cement ? I have MOST of one of those 94lb bags in my basement BUT, it HAS been opened and stored about 3-4 years. IF it is still good, I can try and make some things in my basement. I was just told that it isn't good any more. It is Portland cement.

I have grown the "BUSH" type cukes in 2 pots the last growing season, they re okay, but IF you want a bunch of cukes, grow the bigger vines. I only grow a few veggies, mostly Tomatoes, Peppers and sometimes a bit of leaf lettuce. The cukes were okay since I had only grown them in pots, the bush types are fine if you don't pickle them and eat a ton of cukes. I want to makle a decent size hypertufa "trough", and by "decent size" I mean the size of one of those "cement mixing trays" they have at a Big box store, I have one, I just need to find it. It is ABOUT 3 feet by 2 feet. I COULD use some dishpans as "molds" BUT, I want a bigger "trough". I have heard that IF you add a bit of acrylic paint to your mix, it will make it stronger, BUT, I can't say that it will work out great since I have never tried adding that to my mix. I DO have some old acrylic craft paints, so, MAYBE I'll squeeze a bit in my next projects mix, I have NOT made ANYTHING for a while myself. I made that "cats head" I mentioned, and THEN a strange and maybe "looking like blob" dragon or creature, that I "carved" out of a mass of hypertufa that I put into a 5 gallon bucket. I can't find ANY of the 2 creatures I made, I have an area of weeds and THAT is where the 2 "blobs" are. Cat and dragon blob. I can't post pics anyway. My computer doesn't seem to recognize the disk when I put it into my computer, so, I can't post pics. This wasn't always the case. My brother did an "update" on my computer and since then I can't post pics.

AS for using "coir" any Coir I have I use for mulch around my trees. I do have LOTS of Coir, BUT, it lasts so long as mulch that I wanna keep using it as MULCH. Also, the recipes I have have NO recipes using coir, BUt, I love it as mulch it lasts for years usually. I have also heard that "Elmers glue" can add strength to a mix, BUT, I would NOT try it without finding some mention of it online in a recipe. Good luck with your project Jasmyn. I may try something soon too.