dumb question about pot holes

[miamicuse]

OK this may be a very dumb question so please excuse my ignorance.

I have always seen plastic nursery pots with holes at the bottom.  Sometimes one single hole in the middle, sometimes three or more at the bottom or right at the edge.

I bought a new plant last week from a nursery and it has two holes not at the bottom, but about 2 inches from the bottom along the side of the pot.  I was just curious if that is something done for a specific purpose.  What comes to mind is by doing so the bottom 2" of the soil will stay moist?  Or if the plant roots grew it will not grow out the bottom hole but out of the side where it will be noticed?

[PalmsandLiszt]

It might be to stop plants with long taproots from growing out of the holes in the bottom and into the soil on which the pot is sitting. What was the plant? I'd not like to put a palm in a pot where the bottom 2" are potentially anoxic sludge.

For plants with very long and sensitive taproots like Welwitschia, you can drill lots and lots of tiny holes in the bottom to provide enough drainage while the root keeps circling the bottom of the pot rather than growing out of it.

[Fusca]

  On 1/6/2023 at 3:31 AM, miamicuse said:

I bought a new plant last week from a nursery and it has two holes not at the bottom, but about 2 inches from the bottom along the side of the pot.  I was just curious if that is something done for a specific purpose.  What comes to mind is by doing so the bottom 2" of the soil will stay moist?  Or if the plant roots grew it will not grow out the bottom hole but out of the side where it will be noticed?

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These pots are typically used for water-lovers like Ravenea rivularis, Archontophoenix cunninghamiana, Syagrus romanzoffiana and Phoenix roebelenii but I've also seen them used for Bismarckia nobilis.  I think they're used for Bismarckia to prevent them from rooting into the ground because they are quite sensitive to root disturbance.  I think you ID'd both reasons.  :)

[DCA_Palm_Fan]

Fully concur with Fusca.   These are used for water lovers and to prevent aggressive rioters from rotting into ground they might sit on.  Although sometimes the roots just break though.     
 

my Cyrtostachys Renda came in a pot like this.  Obviously because these palms are water lovers and almost aquatic.  These pots hold a lot of water in the bottom.  

[Patrick]

Makes sense to give the water lovers a reservoir on the bottom....