ken.....How does "pot in a pot" help containerized hosta?

bkay2000

7 years ago

Faye and I have been batting this around in another thread. Her experience using this system in her summer pots is positive, but she fills the whole big/outer pot with plantings, keeping the center/small pot contained either to store the bulb or overwinter the hosta that is used in the center pot, if I understand correctly. She fills the outer pot with annuals, I think. That makes perfect sense to me.

What doesn't make sense is putting a hosta in a small pot in the center of a larger pot to contain the roots and make it more "pot bound". I don't care what kind of potting medium you use for the inner and outer pots, if there is nothing growing in the outer pot it's going to hold moisture. The inner pot cannot drain through the soil in the outer pot unless that outer pot is drier/has more porous medium or you fill it with non-absorbing objects. You could rig up some kind of system so that the center pot could drain directly out of the larger one, but that has not been mentioned.

I keep thinking that if there is no planting in the outer pot, the only way to dry is to evaporate moisture directly from the soil or through draining. Plantings in the outer pot would add transpiration as a way to move moisture out of the potting medium.

The "pot in a pot" system without any thought of a way to drain the outer one sounds like a good way to rot a hosta. I've not tried the "pot in a pot" system, so have no personal experience with it. Is my logic is failing me?

"'Splain it to me, Lucy".

bkay

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

7 years ago

you understand why you wouldnt put a pandoras box in a 50 gallon ceramic pot.. correct.. whats the logic???

but if you wanted to put 75 minis in that giant decorative pot... how would you accomplish it.. with the caveat of the first paragraph???

just time enough for for the Socratic method.. lol ...

ken

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Comments (7)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
7 years ago
i wont be able to get to this until tomorrow ... so please.. if anyone else can chime in... i would appreciate it ...

ken
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n2hostas (Kansas)
7 years ago
Is there a hosta name Socrates? Or Ken??
bkay2000
Original Author
7 years ago
Well, no you wouldn't put a Pandora's Box in a huge container. Nor would you put a 75 minis in a 50 gallon pot. It probably wouldn't work, as the drainage would not be adequate unless you lessened the depth with some nonabsorbent material or you used a really light soil mix. I'm not sure a really, really light soil mix would drain well enough to accommodate those minis.

I wouldn't put a pot in a pot, either, expecting it to solve drainage problems.

bkay
Jon 6a SE MA
7 years ago
It could keep the roots warm and would look nice???
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
7 years ago
i finally figured out why i seemed to be stumped by this ...

i brought this up in some other post.. in some other forum ...in regard to the need.. in my MI ... to protecting pretty pots ...

i can not leave damp/wet media in a ceramic pot.. or there is the potential... that when the GROUND FREEZES .... the wet media can expand ... and POTENTIALLY crack or explode a ceramic pot .. and that is complicated by whether the interior of the pot is also glazed ...

so my solution is pot in pot ... and removing the media... letting the pot dry in fall ... and storing it empty ...

in a different post about ceramic pots... i mentioned that if you are doing annuals ... they can bolt.. for lack of a better word ... and come august or so.. look really ugly ... and if you have them pot in pot ... you can have a number of pots of plants.. and switch them out ... if some get ugly .. or if you just want to change the look of the pretty pot ...

i have little direct experience with intense pot culture.. you and babs are way out on the learning curve on that stuff .... and i dont feel i can even be in the conversation in regard to such ... and that is part of my hesitation in responding ...

ken

ps: i am also aware of peeps using pot in pot under maple trees.. so you can pull out the pot with the plant.. cutting maple roots ... and slip it back in ... though that guy was in horrible OH clay ... under norway maples... and he solved the problem by moving.. lol ... and taking his potted hosta with him... lol .. i dont recall drainage issues.. but presume in his horrible clay.. it was a problem ...
bkay2000
Original Author
7 years ago
Pot in a pot like you are describing sounds useful and workable. In fact, Babka does the pot in a decorative pot all the time. She grows all her hosta in nursery pots (at least she used to) and uses the decorative pots on her deck. (I stole her photos long ago, so I have evidence.) Wet Terra Cotta pots won't survive our winters, either. That's why I use terra cotta colored plastic pots. So, I agree that pot in a pot used those ways you describe will work well.

Somewhere along the way, I got the impression some were advocating using a large pot for a hosta, but putting it in a smaller pot inside the large one, as that would help drainage.

My logic tells me, that a small pot filled with plants inside a large pot of dirt (it would work if the big pot was filled with empty pop bottles up to the bottom of the small pot) with no plants in it might as well be planted in the big pot. Other than confining the roots, the small pot serves no purpose. It will not help drainage.

bk