Everything I grow in my pond is in containers – water lilies, bog plants etc. I’ve noticed on a number of occasions that plants in containers with holes in the bottom of the pots do much better than ones planted in containers with no holes. A couple of times when adding new plants to the pond I used containers (by accident) that didn’t have the holes. In both these cases, I was stumped as to why the plants just didn’t grow the way they should have. When I took the plants out of the pond to do further inspection, I discovered my mistake. I was really surprised to see the plants had all the symptoms of root rot. After transplanting to containers with the holes, the plants flourished.
I seem to remember reading an article about this somewhere, but I can no longer find it. If I remember correctly, in containers with no holes there can be a buildup of some sort of toxic organic compounds or maybe an acid that can lead to the root rot symptoms. When you have the holes, these compounds dissipate with the constant supply to fresh water to the root zone.
Does this make sense? I’m always surprised to see many of the informational sites on water gardening recommending the use of containers with no bottom holes. That’s always been deadly for me.
Comments? What kind of containers do you use?