Polystyrene chips

I hope you plan on removing every peice of plastic from the soil before you dispose of it I dont think general waste enjoys taking big sacks of polluted soil, usually you have to pay for that. Its not treated as hazardous though because the main way of plastic disposal right now is either a landfill or selling it to corrupt africans to dump in their rivers and if it were hazardous this would be illegal.

The sheer amount of plastic waste weve produced over the last 50 years is obscene, I believe as of 2020 global accumulated plastic mass eclipsed the weight of all plant and animal life on the planet which is incredible, no wonder gulls bellies are full of the stuff. I wonder how much is in us. Not as bad as the lead and asbestos poisoning everyone over 50 had at least

Best thing for drainage is construction sand and aerati8n, the whole "rocks at the bottom" is a myth. What actually happens is the bottom of the soil line is raised and water gets trapped in the soil above unable to conduct away by capillary action, actually making it drain slower. What rocks at the bottom does help is discourage roots from going to the bottom of the pot and accidentally plugging the drainage hole, I had this happen with a few houseplants like spiderplants which grow big white rhizomes. Anything bit of hard matter at the bottom will help with that.

 

The gardening programs and magazines still tell you to put old crocks at the bottom of the pot, how many of us have a ready supply of those?

Yes the plastic waste is scary; there is research ongoing into how much is ending up in us and it's in all our organs including our brains. But good for perspective to remember lead and asbestos. Apparently the IQ of whole generations went up after lead was banned from petrol/paint etc. There was also DDT which was sprayed around with wild abandon when I was a child. The reconstituted granite used for kitchen worktops is the asbestos of today; the workers who have the cut the stuff are getting terrible lung conditions.

 

I've never used crocks at the bottom of pots, it just takes up space for compost and root room.

 

Yes, I've come to that conclusion. I guess if you've got one of those pots with one huge drainage hole you need them to stop the soil falling out.

 

Two old crocks here.

 

I just put one big bit of broken pot over the hole, that way if its a plant that you might want to pot on you can push a stick up through the hole, and if its not too potbound, push it up out.

 

I use net, tulle or bits of hosiery now if covering larger pot holes and doing this can deter insects too.

 

I've done this a few time using various fabrics; I found that sometimes the roots would go right down into the fabric and be inseparable, so it's preferable to use a biodegradable fabric. Squares of hessian are good, and can be dried out and reused several times.