I’ve done it and it worked fine. Skip the soil in the socket pot. How does your soil normally drain?

tj

I will put a potting mix into the main pot that will hopefully drain well, but otherwise we have a lot of clay in the backyard soil.

I haven't done it so maybe my comment is worthless Lol..but to me any pot inhibits drainage compared to growing in the earth..1 or 2 pots would both inhibit drainage right?..

tropicofcancer..good points..did I follow you correctly..you use the dug in pots for seasonal plants?..so for the winter is there an empty hole?..I'm trying to see the benefits of a buried pot..I can see the added stability..I love the color and style of my pots and like that they show..hosta growers (I haven't) sometimes use spin out bags to reduce tree root competition..

Thanks for your thoughtful and detailed reply! Right now I think I am leaning towards putting a couple of bricks into the socket pot, that way my main pot is "propped up" a bit. In theory, water would then be draining into an empty void, which would then drain into the ground below. And if the roots get sneaky about poking out the drain holes, maybe they will encounter a bit of air pruning there. Of course, I don't know if the soil from the main pot will just wind up washing into the socket pot. I thought about adding a screen or landscaping fabric to the bottom to prevent that, but I don't know if that will just make the plant get waterlogged.

"I will put a potting mix into the main pot that will hopefully drain well, but otherwise we have a lot of clay in the backyard soil."

I would NOT recommend doing this with a clay based soil! Whatever drainage benefits the potting soil may offer will be negated by the clay. It ls tricky enough to plant directly in a clay soil and expect good drainage and decent establishment.......amending the clay planting hole makes it worse. And that is essentially what you are creating here - a well amended planting hole in a clay soil, only defined by the edges of the containers.

Google "soil bathtub effect" for more detailed information.

Would most likely work pretty well in a silty or sandy loam soil but very poorly in clay.

Elana..fyi..I have lots of pots on my deck during the summer..I know they drain well because they make a mess on my deck 🙁..but I'm ready this year..I purchased 24 of these from Dollar Tree for $1 each..I was surprised to see someone selling them for a lot more on Nextdoor..
could you explain your reason for digging in pots?..not fully seeing the benefits..

There are a lot of reasons people do this, but in my case I have a particular plant that I don't want to worry about getting blown over and I want to leave it outside year round. Though it is theoretically hardy to my zone, I feel it is borderline when kept in a container above ground. I wish I could just plant it in the ground, but for reasons I cannot. But I can bury the planter in the ground, which will provide protection from both wind and the temperature extremes without requiring me to winterize the pot every year. Plus it will just fit more into my landscape in the way I am imagining if I bury the pot. You can Google "pot in pot planting" for other rationales. :)

thanks for explaining..a top heavy plant that could fall would be a pain in the neck..I'm sure people have their reasons to do pots in pots..I just haven't had any situations where it's a solution for me..

FYI: The nearest black hole to earth is houzz.com. Just ate my post.

nicholsworth: I do not leave a hole behind for winter. Either I fill it with mulch or insert a pot with spring bulbs. When they are done around May/June I replace with similar size pots with tropicals. It is some work though as I need to adjust the hole size and fill back (with mulch) also.

As gardengal said this method will not work well if it is a lot of clay soil or poor drainage for whatever reason. But you can try the pot in pot with a brick or stones to prop up the inner pot and check for water pooling and how long the water remains pooled inside, if any.

Immediate benefit of pot in ground is cooler root temperatures and stability under windy conditions.

In bonsai world digging in pots is used for several purposes. One is that the plant develops faster. Lot less stress during peak summer heat. And many of them can be winterized in-situ with a bit extra leaf mulch for extra protection. They can be turned around for more even development. I have many such plants including maples, elms, boxwood, junipers, pines, etc and some borderline hardy experimental ones too.

Some of my friends have hard clay and they get around it by using a large raised bed of hardwood mulch.

To your black hole comment: ha!

And yes, I figured if I propped the main pot up on a couple of bricks that should create more than enough opportunity for water to drain away into the ground below. :) My yard drains a little slow, but not THAT slow. In any case, it'll be an experiment!