Pots on pots!

I’m struggling to get stuff out of the house due to the cold nights. I don’t want to keep potting on indoors so I’ve been wondering…..
Can I place a tomato/cuke/courgette plant, in its pot ON TOP of a larger plant pot and let it root through the bottom of the pot? Obviously, I’d sit it into the compost of the bigger pot. I don’t have enough really big or deep pots.
I’ve done this before but by potting on into bigger pots with bottoms cut out.
If I don’t cut the bottoms out, would the roots just circle round or would they find their way out.
This might not be optimum but I’ve no extra cash for bigger pots or compost.
Hope I’ve explained this ok!!
Cheers!

 

I'm struggling to see the advantage?
Are these plants eventually going to be planted out?

 

Surely, if you do that, you will end up breaking those roots that grow into the second pot, when you eventually plant out.

 

I've done something similar with cherry/plum toms. I put the pots onto seed trays of compost, with holes, which were then in another tray without them. They had to stay indoors anyway due to the climate, and that gave them enough room and moisture etc as they grew. The roots could spread and anchor them well, although I still had canes etc for support.
We had a large conservatory, and they were on the sills. It worked perfectly.

 

I did it last year with a thunbergia with ambitions of world domination.It was to late to repot as it was already attached to the fence.
Following encouragement - I think from @fairygirl , I stuck the pot in an old washing up bowl filled with compost. I probably poked through a few drainage holes. I don't remember. The plant continued to thrive and when I removed the pot in the winter, I could see that the roots had found the new compost.
I'm not sure I would use this method except in an emergency!
I sometimes try out unfamiliar plants by putting the pot on top of the container to see how it does regarding light etc. If it seems happy, I repot it properly. If not, it goes somewhere else - or dies.

 

So it stays in the two pots all season, I was thinking it was a stop gap idea because it was too cold to plant out but needed potting on.

 

It's a similar idea to placing plants in pots on top of grow bags which are laid either horizontally or vertically, depending on how much root space is needed.

 

The difference is, you are not planning on moving the pots on growbags, but if you are going to plant out the pots, it strikes me as a bad option.

 

If the plants in pots are to be removed later from the larger pot or growbag below, it's definitely not a good option!

 

Surely the answer would depend upon the size/location of the drainage in the larger pot. I have seen it done with old clay pots where the central hole is "improved" with a hammer, allowing the inner potted plant to find its way down. This is done to make a sump to take liquid feed/compost tea for gross feeders. Too fussy for me !

 

Some garden centres give away used pots, they are usually in a container tucked away somewhere.
My Community garden also has a used pot box.
Failing that I have used cut off milk bottles, big yogurt pots, big tins and fertilizer buckets to grow plants in. You can make holes in the bottom of them with a soldering iron or a heated nail for plastic containers or a drill. A hammer and 6 inch nail works well for tins.

 

I agree - it's only suited to plants that aren't going to be eventually planted out, either in the ground or in a larger container.
My toms are mainly grown inside as our climate here isn't ideal for a reliable crop in most years.