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Mini Bog- to drain or not to drain

I have recently have purchase one of the large black plastic round rigid pond liners to make into a mini bog.

I currently have my collection in a large plastic pot that sits in a second lower pot that acts as the water reservoir.

Is there any benefit of completely sealed pot --- versus having the pot, with drain holes, sit in a water reservoir?

I would only water with RO or rain water, so mineral buildup won't be an issue.

Thanks,

m
 
well, you should have a drain hole so you know when youve refilled it enough, and so when it rains it doesnt flood and wash out your peat mix. ive seen people without and there doesnt seem to be any difference as long you keep an eye on it. oh, that and it depends on the plants of course :)

~b
 
I'm trying something new this year. I have an undrained planter and filled a couple of inches at the bottom with lava rock and then put a small PVC pipe in the center and packed the soil mix around it. I figured that I can guarantee that I water it all of the way down this way rather than just the top few inches. I haven't done any drainage on the side, although I am thinking about it for when it rains for days on end.
 
drain.... horrible incident last year when it didnt stop raining for 3 days. all my little drosera seedlings were floating around the bog and over the sides. plants were uprooted... pretty bad. but it all drained in a few mins. and the hole was about the size of the thickness of a pencil. put it about 1/3 or 1/2 the way up...so it still retains some water.

Alex

EDIT: forgot to mention...my bog was undrained.
 
The little minibogs I make, I have drainage holes a little over half way down. You will not get a mess such as Alex described.
 
I will definitely add the side overflow drain holes for the heavy rains. And the pipe to the bottom is a good idea too.. i think i saw a site that did something similar so that you can water it completely and it can also be used to test how much water is sitting at the bottom by using a thin clear tube and "dipsticking" it down the PVC, sealing the end of the tube with your thumb, and pulling it up to see the depth of water.

I didn't describe the second option very well... the drain holes would be at the bottom of the pot..... the pot then sits in a second lower water reservoir pot. Similar to just having a single CP in a pot.. that sits in a tray of water... just on a larger scale.

So are there any benefits from this set up versus just a sealed pot (with side overflow drain holes)?

Thanks for the responses

matt
 
For the planter than I'm using, it would just look better to not have it sitting in a tray of water. That's about it.

I'm curious to get an idea of what the ideal size of the side drain holes would be. Alex's pencil sized hole worked, but I'd like to try for something larger. I just would prefer to not have everything drain out.
 
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