Are the experts wrong? Do pebbles in the bottom of your pots help with drainage?

Placing pebbles in the bottom of potted plants to help with drainage, has been done for a very long time. In recent years, I have heard from a lot of experts in the gardening world, that adding pebbles to the bottom of your pots doesn't help with drainage. In fact they have said that it makes drainage worse! I have a background in chemistry, and with their explanations as to why it's a bad idea; it all made sense to me. I wanted to see it for myself and to demonstrate it for all of you to see. I approach this pseudo-experiment from a few different angles. The results surprised me and I think more experimentation is definitely needed.

[@Orangeshebert]

Fun experiment! Enjoyed it very much. Happy gardening!

[@1curious.gardener]

Thank you!

[@Handles_AreStupid]

One flaw you might not have thought of: the soil isn't compacted or rooted. Once the pot gets rooted, the water will have a harder time flowing down the sides of the pot, which would slow it down. Roots would also act as finer particles would when increasing surface tension. This means that even if it turns out that larger rocks are good for drainage, once they are rooted, they will act as smaller rocks would.

[@moomoo3031]

cool video! Im thinking that watering a pot from the bottom like we're supposed to do, just put it in water deeper than the rocks? I always have put a big flat rock over the big holes in big planters so the soil doesnt all run out but the excess water can.

[@jamesbrown7521]

Water finds the lowest point

[@exhaustus7437]

Darcy's Law, Container Dynamics lol They proved this stuff in the 80's and people cope for 50 years? lmao