My neighbor Sal told me to put marbles in the bottom of my tomato pots and he was dead wrong

Grant Singh · 2026-09-22T20:50:02.789224+00:00

Sal has grown tomatoes on his balcony on Delancey Street for like 20 years so I figured he knew what he was talking about. He said a layer of marbles at the bottom of the pot helps drainage, so I did it with 4 of my 6 pots back in April. By July those 4 plants were wilting way faster than the other two and when I finally dumped one out, the marbles were sitting in a soggy mess because the water couldn't drain out of that layer at all. Turns out the marbles just raise the water table in the pot, which is the opposite of what you want. Anyone else get handed this same bad tip, and did switching to plain pots with holes fix it for you?

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My neighbor Sal told me to put marbles in the bottom of my tomato pots and he was dead wrong | Balcony Veggie Gardens - Librear