You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
i drilled a few holes in the cap, cut off the bottom, filled them up and stuck them in the containers. just refilled when they got close to empty. it is really hot here and hard to overwater anything.
Check out the Self Contained Box Gardens forum, and peruse the eBuckets thread.
The self watering eBuckets have built in reservoirs that allow the plants access to water when they want it. you can hook up a simple drip irrigation system and run a watering line to each bucket.
Here is where some of the ongoing threads came from. Try paging down to Post #6792900 on July 8, 2009. That is where gessieviolet posted a series of photos on building a reservoir into a 5 gallon bucket.
I place it top up and leave the cap on. I drilled four small holes near the bottom on the sides of the jugs.
I leave the top on to prevent evaporation but loosely so it doesn't create a vacuum and keep the water in the jug. It takes about 24 hours to seep out.
Theoretically it will put the moisture at the roots and cause the roots to search deeper for moisture. I can also add a diluted fertilizer in this manner.
I keep the jugs covered with mulch to prevent algae growth and because I water with rain water, I filter it to prevent anything from blocking the weep holes in the jug.
Before I got my large greenhouse I had set up the small house I had with bags , hot water bottles and large juice containers hung up in my old tights, then a friend who was disgusted at the sight of all the tights hanging around got me the bags from doctors supplies that are used for patients who need a drip set up into an arm or whatever, this had the tubes and little screw to adjust the flow of the water dripping into the soil, it worked really great for seedlings but for full grown tomato, cucumber, peppers ect, it was as suggested previously a lot of time consuming refilling, sometimes when a friend phoned me, husband would say "Oh she's out in her operating theatre, it did look a bit like a Dr Spock Lab but don't be put off, it works great for a small set up.
All this gave rise to a much larger new greenhouse and needed a new watering regime set up, however it became a full time job and I ended us using the hosepipe or watering can as the tap is beside the greenhouse, the water pouches are absolutely great IF you only have a small amount of plants needing this type of watering.
I unfortunately HAVE to grow tomato, cucumber, peppers etc inside the greenhouse or I wont have these produce, however the last few years have been a failure due to lack of sunlight and heat so you get the picture why I have a large greenhouse.
Set up your own trial and adjust where required, just dont depend on this untill you have done a whole season and be ready to abandon it IF it's not working, your plants will tell you in a day or two IF they are happy.
Good luck WeeNel.
