I know that this might be a silly question, but how do you guys pour the excess water out of the shoe boxes or whatever you have them in without the cups/leaves falling out. I have thought that I could drill a hole a little way up and that way I would not have to tip it very far. But if you have any trade secrets on how to do this, please let me know.
Jesse
A silly how to
Your idea about drilling a hole sounds like a good idea! I've just been tipping it so the water pours out from one corner... if the box isn't quite full, sometimes a pot or two will tip over, but it's generally not a problem. A little bit of water left in the bottom isn't a big deal, either... but I'd say not more than a dribble under thumbprint pots, not more than 1/8 inch under 2 inch pots, and not more than 1/4 inch under 4 inch pots.
That is what gave me the idea of the hole. If we only need a half inch of water, then we make the hole just a little bit higher and then when we are done, we just tip it a little bit and it all goes out the hole. And we could even plug it with a cork if we need to.
Jesse
the past president of the Gesneriad Society highly recommends the use of a turkey baster to get rid of the little bit of excess water down there :-)
Oh wow that's a great idea Keyring ! Thanks.
That is a great idea.
Jesse
Jesse we tried dumping but plants dump. So we do it the hard way. Take each one out , dump and put them back. At this time if they are dirty I give them clean boxes or trays. Dirty ones get bleached every couple weeks.
But the turkey baster sounds pretty easy :)) Latly sense end of December I have been shipping boxes of plants to DG's Friends . So each week 20,30, 60 plants come off. plants get rearranged and new trans-plantted babies get light room. Yippee. Have not cleared an empty space yet, let alone a shelf or stand.
I am still thinking of the method of drilling the hole. For example, if you usually fill the box with ¼" of water, then I will drill the hole just above that, which also serves as a monitoring system to make sure that I do not over water them. I was also going to go to HD and get some rubber stoppers or corks just in case i need to fill the trays deeper. Hopefully this will help. I will let you know how it works. One question I have is how often do you do this? Every day, every two days, etc?
Jesse
I generally water my AVs once a week. They like to dry out for a couple of days between waterings, but preferably not to the point of wilting. Vigorously growing little plantlets in those 1 oz cups sometimes need watering more often for me, especially if they're not covered to hold in a little extra humidity.
I'd drill that hole maybe 1/2 inch or even 1 inch from the bottom, near a corner of the box. You'll be able to tilt the box a little to get extra water out the hole... but that much tilt shouldn't tip the pots around the way tilting the box enough to get extra water to spill over the top lip of a corner does.