Self watering pot

Ok. It was requested (by my friend Jan) to post how I make these pots out of recycled plastics. I have three more pictures to post, so please wait to post questions/comments until after I get them all posted so they will all be together. Something simular had been posted a while back but I searched and couldn't find it. I did find two other posts that were related so I bumped them up. This is a twist on texas watering method. My plants love these planters and roots grow down into the perlite and out the bottom.

tish

Gather parts that will fit together for the top and bottom and a smaller part such as coffee creamer cup, small solo cup or little flower pot. You can use anything your imagination can come up with....the plants don't care, ha. You can also use the lids by cutting a hole in them the size you need to fit the nesting container inside.

Basically, you take the part you will plant your plant into and cut a hole into the bottom. Doesn't have to be centered or perfect, just big enough to fit your "wicking" section into - which you will glue in place. If you are using the larger plastic containers, a small plastic flower pot works well for the wicking part and has holes alread there. If you are using something smaller like yoguart cups, small solo type cups are good, but you will need to punch or melt some holes in these so they can draw up the water. If you don't have the smaller solo cup and need to use a small flower pot like this picture, just use less water in your resevour. The plastic planter used here is a fruit cup. I love those peach in peach gel! yum


This message was edited Feb 23, 2011 10:39 AM

Last pic. Okay fill the bottom part with perlite and plant your plant into the top part. Then set it into the nesting resovour....this can also be a decorative ceramic pot...if it has a hole, you can put a plastic bag in there or a plastic cup to hold the water. Can also paint the containers...I know there have been threads about this. The water level you will have to figure out. Start with less water and add more as you go along until you find how much works well. I would say you don't want the water level to be much higher than a little over half the wicking cup part. Ok. ready for questions...I know I don't explain things well and probably left out some things.

very nice,might have to try this

I've never really tried the texas watering method, but this works better for me than yarn wicking .. I think the plant roots like the extra moisture and air in the perlite.

Thanks for the pictures Tish.

This is a lovely self watering pot and a cute little beaded AV made by our dear Jannich.

Thanks for your pic too Lynn.

Sista Jan is pretty creative...Tish too :) Thank you so much for the instructions!!!

Connie

Thanks for suggesting I post it here Tish.I have no talent,but obviously you and Jan do.

Tish, you have shown how do something I have been pondering for weeks!

Wally world has some containers (supposedly handcrafted) in housewares that I have been trying to figure out how to use for my trailer violets and espicia.

Short of drilling holes in the container I was stumped!

This works perfectly!

What makes this double "duh!" for me is, I developed the eBucket system for outdoor planting that works perfectly on this exact principle! Talking about being shortsighted, now I understand what "there are none so blind as those who will not see" means.

Thank you
Lane in SC

Jan emailed me the instructions for these. I've made about ten so far. My little plants are really thriving!!
Thanks so much Jan and Tish!!

Melanie

You have to thank Jan for asking me to post this again. The old post seems to have disapeared.

Now it never occured to me to make a larger one for outdoor plants! So I guess we are evenly stumped there! I will definitely look into that because it sounds like just what I need here with the summers so hot. Even having a douple layer of nesting pots will help with heat drying out the pots issue. Duh for me too, ha. My daughter, who is slightly gifted, definitely not from me, ha...accuses me of not thinking outside the box....I do look over the edge now and then though.

Those are very creative!

Here's my tip.
I have had hubby drill holes in some of my cheap AV self watering pots the type from Walley world for just this purpose. I use extra perlite/charcoal in the bottom, add a wick and then my regular soil mix on top. My Av's love it. It is amazingly easy and I like it because they are more stable than the Oyama pots or plastic pots.
I had tons of the Walley world type pots from when I first started growing AV's and hated not to use them. This has worked very well for me and I like the way they lok on the shelf.

MsC

OK, now I get it! Thanks for the photos & the explanation. I have a couple of the Oyama pots in white, and while my AVs liked them, I wasn't exactly in love with the way they looked. This design lets us be much more creative!

MsC, I've got some "self watering" pots that I need to drill, so I'm glad to know you were able to do yours that way... These are big versions that I got at Olly's, thinking I'd be able to use them for other houseplants (too big for most of the AVs I've grown), but after killing a couple of ferns it became clear to me that they just don't absorb the water from their reservoirs! Sheesh. I've had other pots with the opposite problem, soil stayed swampy rather than moist, so drilling and wicking is the way to go with them I think. Thanks!

I've stopped using yarn or mason's twine for wicks... Instead, I cut strips from a microfiber terry towel. Sam's Club sells bundles of bar-mop sized ones (I use them for lots of things).

I like the idea of using a cup of perlite for a wick, especially inside some of the pretty cache pots I have... I just got some at the dollar store that hold a cottage cheese bucket nicely, with room at the bottom, so I'm going to try this with them. Thank you!

Hiya CritterO !! Good to see ya here.

I might add a note that we used a ceramic drill bit and I soaked the bottom in soapy water before we drilled them. We used the smallest drill bit we could find and for the most part didn't break any. The first one we did chip because we tried to drill too fast.
Anyway, I love the way AV's look in them and it's made all the diffrence for my violets.
I still use other methods depending on my mood or where they are going to be grown.
Trailers I like in the pan pots with the plastic deli style waterer. It kinda helps to stair step the AV's on the shelf, too.
The only violets that really like those huge pots are some of the larger AV's like my TIGER...it really loved my big fancy ceramic pot. The last one I grew got to about 18 inches!

I've just started on a new AV collection so my TIGER is just a Tigger for now. :)

MsC

I drilled some of mine too....I use the acrylic baby yarn in everything, I've had no luck with other wicks. I also use perlite in the pot before I add my potting mix (I put perlite in the bottom of every pot no matter what) I think I had to pay about 11 dollars for the drill bit?..but it was worth being able to use the ceramic pots.

You can also make these without the little perlite pot at the bottom and just fill the bottom of the resouvor with perlite...it does't hold as much water this way, but the plant roots love the extra moisture and air and grow all the way down. If you do this, be sure to put perlite into the bottom of the plastic pot you pot the plant in...it will wick the water right up. I discovered this when I needed something to raise the level of the pot in a planter that was too deep and I thought perlite?... I thought of trying this with the ceramic self watering planters, but I'd have to drill a lot more holes in the bottoms I think.

I love the oyama pots...I set some of them down into ceramic planters...although its tricky to find ones they will fit into. I just can't buy pots for all the plants. The trick with self watering pots, plastic or ceramic is to repot often...the fertilizer salts and such build up and have no where to go.

Thanks Tish, Jan, and Lynn! This is great. I'm getting started when our club show is over.