Not something I would encourage you to do, as allowing a pot to sit in a saucer of water for any length of time at all is asking for trouble. In fact, I avoid purchasing any sort of plant pots that do not a have a fully detachable saucer.....and generally I prefer to get pots that have no saucer at all!

Let me clarify by explaining further.
I don’t like my houseplants without an attached matching pottery saucer to sit in a detachable plastic saucer that’s full of water.
I have to protect carpet and furniture.
So what I do is tip the excess water out of the attached pottery saucer into the detachable plastic saucer.
Basically I use my pottery saucers as feet to keep the excess water that’s in the detachable plastic saucer away from the bottom of the pot.

You don't really have to explain your use of the saucer to us, it's not at all necessary to respond to an impudent challenge that does not answer your question. Saucers are great for keeping water and ick off your furniture and windowsills. Dropping them is a mess. Attaching them is handy. Here's a solution.

Most marine epoxies will be just fine for attaching these, and can be purchased at any big box stores. Follow the instructions for the marine epoxy you choose.

Sometimes you can have a bit of trouble finding smaller amounts of marine epoxies (although I see a $5.50 one-ounce marine epoxy on Amazon which will easily do 10 saucers). Any waterproof glue will do very well, but bond strength will vary by glue type.

Most other five minute epoxies will do just fine as well and form a permanent, very strong bond.

Simply let them bond for a full day (they'll stick in five minutes, but bond is one hour, with full bond in 24) before exposing them to water. While not technically waterproof, they actually do just fine with intermittent exposure. I use epoxy for outside bonds (out of sunlight, which does degrade it). It lasts just fine in rain, snow, cold, heat, and so on.

You can offset the pot from the saucer if you like using any item of regular size, like those glass flats from the dollar store to assure that the hole to saucer bit doesn't get clogged, or just directly epoxy it. Most attached saucers do have an offset, so I'd suggest adding one.

I like the idea of using those flat glass marbles. I was wondering what to use to raise the bottom a little from the saucer if it didn’t already have a raiser. Thanks.
Also, thanks for the information about marine epoxy. I was at a loss for the word “marine”, or I probably would have figured this out on my own. I was wondering about clear aquarium sealant, but forgot to ask about that.
I’ve been quitting caffeine, and haven’t been able to function right for days. The headaches are horrendous. So, sorry about not being able to “brain” because of having the “dumb”.

Heh, been there, done that, slugged a cup of tea. :-) When I had to cut back due to my arrhythmia, I titrated myself off over the course of two weeks. No headaches. Only minor brain freezes. I think only two people died, and I never was connected to th... Er.

There shouldn't be much in terms of leachate from the epoxy, that I think about it (source: I've been the writer for thermoplastic extrusion processes, so I kind of do plastics), but for those who are doing this in the future, I might empty the saucer the first dozen times or so just to be absolutely sure. Post full cure, it's really not of any concern and if you can't smell it, your plants probably can't find it either.

I've used epoxy to repair pots that fumblefingers here has dropped, and haven't had any issues even with plants that are sensitive to Creative Chemistry. Soil and water just doesn't get that acidic or alkaline under most conditions.

I've used this glue for all sorts of outdoor projects. It holds up pretty well against water.

Wouldn't the wick provide a similar pathway back into the soil for the water that we'd be trying to avoid?

I'm also not clear on the additional draining properties; wicks can help things drain out, sure. But they'll help the soil suck up the excess from the drainage base as the soil dries out if the saucer isn't emptied pretty promptly.

Just for an example, the plant I watered this evening dumped a bit into its saucer, which it already re-absorbed as the dry medium dampened and became able to hold a bit more water. The saucer is now empty as the soil drew the water back in. In this case, I'm fine with it.

Wow! That’s some really good ingenuity!

Morpheus Do you remember where you buried them though? lol

The wick increases gravitational flow potential of excess water in the medium, and is not allowed to dangle in effluent collected in the saucer. The planting is watered thoroughly at the sink, then allowed to drain with the wick dangling below the pot. When the planting has stopped draining, it is returned to the collection saucer. Ideally, the wick would be inserted through a drain hole located at the sidewall, and the pot tipped 45* so the drain hole is situated at the lowest point, B + E below.

Al

It's an interesting concept, I suppose.

I decided not to do this after all. Thanks for the advice. It gave me a slap back to reality. Lol

Was looking for this thread for than one reason. Thanks hobby to bring it up top.
To work as drainage aid, the entire wick outside of the pot needs to be free in air and not sitting in a pool of water. That is what Al is getting at. And it does work well.

"To work as drainage aid, the entire wick outside of the pot needs to be free in air and not sitting in a pool of water."

Thank you for the clarification. That was how I tested.

So, for the complete experiment:

* About 3" of wick, extended more or less vertically into the pot (within 20 degrees of vertical).

* Extended about a quarter inch below the base of the soil (probably slightly more than I could have in some pots as I don't have this much clearance in several)

* 3 wick types; spun glass, cotton, uncoated, cotton, waxed. While wick sizes are a bit opaque, they did vary from around 0.25 to 0.6" (glass being the most trim but with by far the most threads).

* Fairly well-packed soil of the stuff in my leftover bin, which was 80% Miracle Gro Moisture Control plus about 20% sand. I let it dry between tests, which is why it did take me a while an dI kept reporting increasing results over about a month.

The results: With all three controls, the drainage was always within 10% of the same amount of water...and it was pretty much random as to whether it favored the wick or the control in terms of drainage, implying the difference is how much I packed the soil.

So if I didn't follow some cryptic rule somewhere, let me know. But for now, I'm saying that quarter inch dangling tail doesn't seem to help much. Now if I touch it or place a surface in contact with it, of course it drains away water by capillary action--but I don't want it pulling the water back into the soil later on, so leaving a tail in the water doesn't seem like a good idea.

Morph: The results: With all three controls, the drainage was always within
10% of the same amount of water...and it was pretty much random as to
whether it favored the wick or the control in terms of drainage,
implying the difference is how much I packed the soil.

That basically summarizes it. The more soil is packed higher it is capacity to hold water. And so higher amount will wick out. Of course if it is packed too much then it will also reduce its overall water holding capacity. I am not sure what is 10% referenced against. Is 10% wicked water? Is it referenced to volume of pot. If it is the volume of the pot then it is on the higher side of retained excess water. But with MG peat based soil that is probably expected.

As rule of thumb the wick needs to extend about the same as PWT of the wick. To be effective the PWT property of the wick should be better than the soil and for most cases that is easy to achieve. A standard strand from a mop will do. Peat based mix will need a longer wick (guessing 4-5 inches or so) and for 511 mix 2 inches should be good enough. Second the wick inside the pot should be near the bottom of the pot. To ensure effectiveness it is usually laid in a loop at the the bottom of the pot as Al illustrated in his pictures.

It does not take a lot of water to keep the PWT region saturated.

ETA: To keep the experiment of soil properties it is best to have the wick hanging outside of the pot quite long. 6" should probably do it.

Ah, thank you, that explains it. A mop strand is, typically, cotton, so my cotton wicks would have been fine. Glass and coated cotton would have been the wrong choice.

"I am not sure what is 10% referenced against. Is 10% wicked water? Is it referenced to volume of pot."

Ten percent of total water added to the pot (until it overflowed just a bit on the control side, which is...well, I tried to keep it reasonably consistent). So if I added 250 ml total (for example), the amount draining out of each pot was within 25ml (less than one ounce) no matter what, with no particular preference as to the wicked pot or the control. (Checks notes) The uncoated cotton wick did have a 17ml preferential drain to the wicked pot (0.57 oz). The total amount drained was greater, but that drained from the control side as well.

Still not that significant, but I suppose if somebody wants to go to the trouble, that's great (I tend not to have plants that are this touchy, or if I do, they go into very sandy soils).

I could retry with pure sand (low PWT and very low ability to hold water) with just a small amount of peaty mix as I still have the spent wicks and only need to retest the cotton.

Since I decided NOT to do this, I’ve decided I’d like to remove all attached saucers instead.
I’m sure some sort of super-duper-extra-mega-strength glue was used to attach the saucer to the pot.
How do I go about “ungluing” then?

Epoxy? Soak in nail polish remover, in a sealed bag. After several days, it will hopefully release. Hopefully. This will remove most superglues as well. I'd do this somewhere where you don't have to run the risk of breathing that crud.

That can be used to remove spilled epoxy or superglue on stone, Corian, and a lot of other surfaces as well (check for colorfastness), but can take quite a while to do it. Days to a week covered with plastic, renew nail polish remover as necessary since it evaporates easily.

Weak bonds can sometimes be cracked just with a flat-bladed screwdriver tip. That's sometimes easier after the nail polish remover.

Many planters and saucers are made with HDPE plastics and they are notoriously hard to glue together. If they are indeed glued together then it is going to be weak. Another method to attach them is by hot weld where they literally fuse the material together. At least good quality ones will use this method. The only way to take these apart is to physically cut them.

I’m just talking about the ceramic ones.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a plastic planter with a glued-on saucer. All of mine pull right off their pegs and pop right back on.

You are right, most plastic ones pop out. But I have a few plastic ones that are one piece - thought you were talking about those. I have a few ceramic ones too but they are also one piece - in fact the bottom of the pot itself is the saucer in mine. The holes are on the sides.

Wanna hear something ‘funny’? I’ve done a complete 180* and have been trying to sell all of my planters with attached saucers.
If a pot came with a loose/unattached saucer, I’ve been setting those aside (storing).
But to top it all off, I’ve been opting for cache pots. 😂
Now, since I’ve done a 180* and sold most of my planters with attached saucers, I’ve been left with two.
And I’d like to remove them if I could.
Should I attempt removing them by soaking in pure acetone? - But will that hurt the ceramic glaze?
Or, could I attempt chipping them off with a sharp small chisel & small lightweight hammer on top lots of cushioning?

Acetone will not hurt the glaze. But it does evaporate very quickly. Obviously do it outdoors. So you will have to cover/seal immediately to give it some time to work. I am not sure if a chisel will work but you can give it a try also. If it is indeed epoxy then heating it can soften it up. Use heat gun at low setting to heat up to about 200F. Work in small sections alternating between heating and hitting the area with a chisel.

I always love a good follow-up update! Yay!

Getting a turkey baster that you only use for plants to pull the excess water out of those last 2 trays sounds a lot easier to me. Should be under $5.