How To Pick A Drip Tray For Your Bonsai

If you are growing your tree indoors, then you will need a drip tray to catch the mess that is coming out of the bottom of the pot.

Picking one is fairly easy, but I will go through some things you should consider before selecting one.

Buy A Pot That Comes With A Drip Tray

To make things simple you can just buy a pot that comes with a drip tray. You then don’t need to worry about anything as it will be the right size, colour and material.

If you are going to buy a pot with a drip tray, I would try and get one that is two separate pieces. Then if you decide you do not want to use the tray, you can.

Some pots are attached to the tray, and whatever way they are made they are just kind of one whole thing and you can’t separate them. These pots are fine, but I am not a fan of them myself as you don’t have the same access to the bottom of the pot if you want to pass wire through. I would always rather have the pot and tray separate.

(You can read more about – Where Can You Buy Bonsai Pots?)

Find A Drip Tray That Goes With A Pot That You Already Own

If you already own some pots, you can buy drip trays separately. Most bonsai shops that sell pots will also sell drip trays.

A lot of the time the seller will have the pot and tray that match, so if you are buying a pot, consider buying the tray too. You might think you don’t need it at the time of purchase, but you never know what you might do in the future so it can be worth buying it. Although, if you are certain that will not need one, don’t worry about it. You can always try and source one at a later date if you really need to.

The only problem with buying a drip tray separately is that it can be difficult to get one that will match exactly with your pot, but you can usually find something that will work.

You also have to remember that not all pots are made with matching drip trays, so for these pots, you would always have to source a drip tray separately and it may not be an exact match, but as I said, you can usually find something that will work well with the pot you have.

What Can You Use As A Drip Tray?

If you can’t find an “official” bonsai drip tray, then you can use a lot of other different things. When you look at what a drip tray does, it just needs to catch some water that drips out of the bottom of the pot, so really anything that can fit this criteria is going to be fine.

All I would suggest is that whatever you use is firm and waterproof. You don’t want it dissolve, or rot away and you will also want it to be quite firm so that if you ever pick it up, it doesn’t bend under the weight of the water that has pooled up …if it’s not firm then it is going to bend and spill the water everywhere, making it pointless.   

You Can Use Anything As A Drip Tray

When you actually think about it, pretty much anything can be a drip tray, so if you didn’t want to buy a proper one, the list of options is extremely long.

I have used seed trays and plates. I have also used a large “drip tray” that is for mechanics, to catch oil … if it can catch motor oil, it should be fine to catch some water from a couple of bonsai pots.

I have also used the drip trays for those long window planter flower pots. I put one of these on my kitchen windowsill and then was able to put a couple of bonsai across the whole window.

You can also use the lids from plastic containers, such as butter. Most of these types of containers have lids with a little lip, so you can turn them upside down and they will work as a drip tray. They can be a little inflexible, but if you use small ones, they are normally fine.    

What Size Should A Drip Tray Be?

When comes to the size of the drip tray, it really doesn’t matter.  So long as it can cover the footprint of the pot, it should be enough.

I would maybe want a little bit more than the footprint, so that there is a little bit of overhang of about 1cm, but so long as it’s not smaller than the pot you will be fine.

I’ve use trays that are much wider than the pot and it is fine and in fact you can place multiple trees on the same tray. If you look at my grow tents, the floor is just one huge drip tray. This way I can put my trees back in at any angle and it doesn’t matter, they are all covered by the one large drip tray. 

I also used one of those long drip trays for window planters which spanned the length of my windowsill perfectly, then I could place whatever I wanted along it, it wasn’t limited to a certain number of trees.

I guess this really comes down to aesthetics. I don’t mind if my drip trays are big and shared by multiple trees, if you don’t like this, you could get smaller individual ones. Just make sure they cover the bottom of the pot and then a little extra to be sure and you will be fine.

What Material Should A Drip Tray Be?

The material of your drip tray doesn’t really matter, so long as it is firm and water proof, although the reality is that it’s either going to be ceramic or plastic.

Any drip tray will be made out of these two materials and if you are using anything else, they will probably be made from these two materials too.

The material you pick really comes down to the aesthetics and what you think works well with your pot. Plastic can be ugly at times, but not always, so just use whatever you think looks best.

What Colour Should Your Drip Tray Be?

The colour of your drip tray completely comes down to aesthetics. The colour doesn’t change how it functions, so really it all comes down to how good it looks and what you like.

Ideally you want your drip tray to be the same colour as the pot, but as I’ve already mentioned, not every pot is made with a drip tray. This means getting the colour to match can be tricky and you might be best to just go for something neutral.

A lot of the large plastic drip trays found in the gardening section of shops are black. I think these can look okay, but they also don’t. The other alternative colours are usually green or orange and I think they look too garish, so often black is the best option.

Really you need to look at your pots and try and match it with a colour that will work with it, or at the very least, not clash and look like an eyesore and distract the eye away from the bonsai.      

Does A Drip Tray Need Stones?

Really a drip tray does not need stones. If you have a slightly deeper tray that you could fill with gravel, then this would be called a humidity tray.

They are pretty much the same thing, they will both catch water that is dripping from the pot, so if you want to add stones you can. You can make some arguments that the stones are better for the trees as they allow water to evaporate around them, creating humidity, but you can also use them for aesthetic reasons too.

If you are using a drip tray designed for a large flower pot these are usually deep enough to add a layer of gravel. This can help take away from the plastic look of them, but of course the rim is still visible, so while it can look better, it’s not perfect.  

This is really something you should play round with it, some simple aquarium gravel can make things look better, but not always, but that is for you to decide.

(You can read more about – Do Humidity Trays Actually Do Anything For Your Bonsai?)

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can see picking a drip tray is easy. If you can find something that matches your pot, that’s great, but if not, you should be able to find plenty of other options that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing.

(You can read more about – Do You Need A Drip Tray For Your Bonsai?)