Hello from Malaysia,

Here is a beginning vegetable garden we're growing in our school. Working with students from ages 5 - 13.

We are currently growing chili plants and cilantro. here is a picture of our chili plants after 2 weeks of growth and after transplant.

Is there an easy way for drainage for these type of containers?

Thanks

One way to help drainage is to watch your watering closely, giving enough for plant needs but not too much that soil is saturated and roots drown.
Without punching holes into bottom of bottle, I can only think of helping drainage by placing a layer of rocks on the bottom of the bottles before putting in soil so that excess water can drain away from soil and roots. Of course roots may want to travel down into rocks if in need of water.
Nice project for kids and challenge to come up with best methods for plant survival and growth success!

Hello jheight2 from Malaysia, so nice to meet you. And to ATP.
I love what you are doing in the classroom with the children. I hope you will keep us updated on the project your are doing.

Soon you will need to transplant each seedling to a large container, as they will need the room for their roots to grow. You can use any sort of recycled container for this purpose, like 2 or 3 gallon plastic containers? I would make sure they have holes in the bottom for the excess water to drain off.

Following Bev's suggestion..you can try putting some holes about an inch to 2 inches from the bottom of your container, then put a layer of clay rocks, then your usual layer of soil. That way when you water, the water will stay at the bottom, will be a reservoir of water for the plants. The holes will act as a spill over point, so it will not oversaturate your soil above, and still provide air around the root zone. With the plastic container you have, you can visually see also the level of water pouring below.

The clay rocks can wick the water too from the reservoir, so it will keep your veggies roots moist.

I use this set-up, though without soil, just clay rocks on a plastic container with two spill over holes for my spider plant, and so far it works. Maybe experiment with a small container and see if it can work for your veggies before you implement on your entire set-up.

With the possible excess water spilling out of container holes, I wasn't sure how that could be handled given that containers are suspended in the air (as pictured in first post). Good luck with the project!

Well, that is the reality of these type of containers, drainage has to come out somewhere..otherwise, rotted roots. And consideration too is the prevailing humidity levels there. My set-up works here, since it is very dry, and low humidity.

Unless they plan to do multiple levels of these containers, then the excess dripping water can go to the next container below.