Here are my first two homemade self-watering planters (my instructions are here). The one at the front has Mesclun Mix and the one at the back has a Gourmet Heirloom Leaf Lettuce Mix.
Both were planted last Saturday (it's now Wednesday) and both are sprouting nicely.
The planters are working really well! No additional soil has leaked into the reservoir besides the soil that leaked when I first filled the planter. I still haven't had to refill the reservoirs (they're quite large for the size of the planter) so care of these should be really easy.
Nice! How come the planeters needed so much masking tape? Could the tops not just sit in the bottoms? Might make for easy refilling if you could just slide the tops out - though you'd have to be carefully with soil leakage I guess.
ReplyDeleteApparently roots don't like being exposed to light -- the masking tape was the easiest way of covering up the pot. I'm starting to wonder whether I should cover the reservoir section as well to stop algae growth.
ReplyDeleteBased on over 12 years of experience growing a wide variety of plants in a wide variety of clear sub-irrigated planters, there is no evidence whatsoever that light bothers plant roots.
ReplyDeleteYou can easily manage algae growth with diluted hydrogen peroxide. Algae is not a parasite but it does compete with the plant for oxygen.
Also, if you constantly top off the reservoir in low light you will likely drown the plant. Constant fill of the reservoir only works when the light is so strong (outdoors) that the plant can use all the water it can get.
Plants have no intelligence (like animals) to stop drinking. You (the "self") provide the intelligence based on measuring the soil moisture.