Burying Pots Outside-Would it Work?

[Barry]

I have several pots of carnivorous plants which are now dormant. I was wondering if it would work to bury the pots outside in the spring, so that only the tops of the pots with the plants are exposed. In other words, the plants would be at ground level

It would seem to me that this would help keep the plants from overheating as they might if I just set the pots out in the sun. Also the soil inside the pot would be acid and the plants would not be exposed to the regular soil outside the pot.

I am wondering if anyone else has tried this.

Barry in Baltimore

 

[noah]

You will have problems if:

1. You have a sprinkler system or a ground water level higher than the bottom of the pot. You would get unwanted minerals, chlorine, etc. into you cp pot.

2. You have a lot of critters which are more likely to eat your plant than to be caught by it. A lot of ground level bugs (snails, slugs, earwiggs, etc.) like to eat cps.

If neither of these scenarios will be a problem in your case you should be fine. Hope this helps.

Noah


(Edited by noah at 1:41 am on Mar. 10, 2002)

 

[RamPuppy]

I agree with Noah, your exposing the plants to a little more risk...

but really, when you think about it, this is nor much different from building a bog, just a whole lot smaller. Perhaps you should consider buying a kiddie tub and burrying it, going 'all the way' so to say.

 

[Barry]

Hmm. I might wait until my plants are bigger to prevent them from being eaten before I try this.
I did look it up in The Savage Garden today and there is a section about burying pots. He says he does this with undrained pots and it seems to work for him, so I might try it with a couple of my plants. He said to cover them with plastic when watering the yard.

Seems like burying the pots has both advantages and disadvantages.

 

[PlantAKiss]

Barry

Here in Virginia, my VFTs do well outdoors except for one thing...SQUIRRELS! They get in the pots and dig the plants up (in spite of the fact that my DOG is outside...[sleeping on the job no doubt]. It doesn't seem like they eat the bulbs (as they are known to do with other bulbs) but I've lost a bunch of them because they were dug up so many times I just gave up on that particular pot. I haven't figured out what to do. I had to "cage" the remaining VFTs and sarras just to get them thru the winter. So just be aware if they are in the ground, they will be even more available to those marauding, grubby little paws!

Suzanne

 

[Barry]

Suzanne, I had the same problem last year. A squirrel or a rabbit dug up my plants and left them on the ground. I think I will buy fencing to protect the pots this year, with fine wire mesh to keep everything except the insects out.