On ground, drainage is a plant question. On the third floor of a building with a common drain, it is a neighbour question first. Water that leaves your pot has to stop somewhere, and if that somewhere is the flat below, the plant is the least of your problems.
Three ways to stop the drip
- A saucer under every pot. Obvious, and still the thing most often missing. Match the saucer to the pot base, not the pot rim.
- A self-watering planter. The reservoir sits under the soil and the level window tells you when to top it up. Nothing leaves the pot at all.
- A tray under a whole row. Cheaper than saucers for a rail of small pots, and easier to tip out.
The two mistakes
The first is leaving the saucer full. A pot standing in its own runoff is a pot with roots in water, and after a week that is rot. Empty the saucer half an hour after watering — it takes seconds and it is the single highest-value habit on a balcony.
The second is drilling a hole into a pot that was moulded without one. It cracks glazed ceramic almost every time. Buy the version with the hole already in it, or use it as a cachepot with a plastic liner inside.
What we stock for this
The self-watering planters we carry have an internal reservoir and a visible level window rather than an open base hole, which is why they turn up so often in orders going to rented flats. Every listing states whether a drainage hole and a saucer are included, because on a balcony that is the deciding fact, not the colour.