How to make drainage good in a plastic bucket w/o holes?

[hear]

I have a 10-15 gallon bucket going to prepare for citrus. It has no holes in the bottom and want to know what is a good idea to make sure there is proper drainage.

[Sylvain]

Don't make holes in the bottom but at the bottom of the walls. When I say bottom I mean the very bottom.
diameter ~2 cm (less than an inch) every 10 cm.
This will solve many problems like root rot and roots circling around the pot.
Moreover, it as a 'air pruning' effect.

[poncirusguy]

I also have holes like this arount the sides from the bottom up 4 inches of the side.  In hot wheather I use clear packing tape to seal the side holes off to limit drying out.  Unfortunately I failed to get a picture with the side holes

[millet]

Holes on the bottom of the side walls, will as Silvain wrote increase drainage, but I doubt it will have much in the way of air root pruning.  Roots grow as a bullet goes, meaning a root will continue in the same direction until the root hits a solid object force the root to go in a different direction.  A circling root will continue to circle.

[Sylvain]

No, the holes produce dry zones all around the bottom and when roots reach this zones they stop growing and induce growth of lateral roots.
Believe me or try it.

[millet]

Sylvain, I have tried it. Lets  just agree to disagree.

[Sylvain]

> Lets just agree to disagree.
I know you like this sentence very much like "roots grow like bullet" (for strait).
But it carries no information.

So, you tried it and what happened then?
For your information, in Europe (I don't know for US) all modern professional pots have this holes.

[millet]

Sylvain, once again I agree with you in that having holes on the side walls of a container is a good method for allowing water to drain from the container. Where we differ is weather they are good as a method of air root pruning. Some time back I also drilled holes in the side walls thinking that they would provide air root pruning. They did not.  Later, reading in the text book "Plant Production in Containers-11"  written by Carl E. Whitcomb, Ph.D. the author's trials also showed that doing so did not produce air root pruning. I then started purchasing and growing in actual Air Root Pruning containers manufactured by the Root Maker Corporation. and I can attest that Root Maker containers do an excellent job air pruning the roots.

[Sylvain]

The aim of this holes is not to drain water but to bring an air flow through the potting soil.
After few months of use an air pocket is formed around the holes, then the roots never cross that pocket.

This is for a regular commercial soil or compost. As you use a special coarse mix, maybe it behaves differently...

[verax]

You need drainage in the bottom. There are a variety of ways to create holes in the bottom of a plastic container. You should think of one and give your plants the drainage they deserve. 

Verax