by Jake Robinson
I originally made my own two-bucket self watering, self feeding vegetable planter. They work quiet well, however, after some thought I have designed a single bucket system without sacrificing the watering feature that a two bucket system offers.
In a two bucket system the bottom bucket is where the water is stored for the plant. The top bucket contains the soil and allows the water to wick up through holes that are drilled in the top bucket's bottom. A larger hole allows a 'wicking cup' to sit the bottom of the 'top' bucket so some of the soil rests below the water line which allows the water to wick up into the upper bucket.
I have redesigned this system to allow the use of a single bucket which then saves time, labor and material. You eliminate the need for an extra bucket, or better yet you get two planters for the 'price' of one!
Here are some of the advantages of this type of system.
1. Use less water versus the same vegetable planted straight into the ground (about 70% less) One reason is the bucket has a lid and only a small opening where the stem is keeping the water from evaporating as fast as open ground... plus you just put the exact amount of water until is starts to flow out the overflow hole - then you stop watering
2. Use less fertilizer. Because the fertilizer strip lays at the top of the bucket, the lid prevents rain water from leaching it out. When adding fertilizer to a vegetable planted straight into the ground, the fertilizer will leach out very quickly causing you to use more, pollute water runoff as well
3. NO WEEDING!!! Because the lid is on it keeps weeds from growing. This saves time a
nd labor
4. You may have to still worry about bugs - but not those who burrow and less likely the crawling type bugs as it is harder for them to get to your plants
5. Produces more fruit. It has been proven that a properly designed planter will produce more fruit as it gets just the amount of water and fertilizer it needs and will last all growing season
6. Saves space - these planters can be housed almost anywhere, in your yard, driveway, back deck - anywhere they can get sun. I planted my garden very early before spring really had come. I moved them into my garage when the weather forecast called for close to or freezing temps. Then I wheeled them out with a dolly into the sun for the day. This way I was getting ripened veggies way before my neighbor's garden
7. Extended production. You can bring your plants in when first frost is forecast then put them back out for as long as the weather holds. Giving you extra bounty into the fall. It is not unheard of for some plants to be brought indoors once the weather gets too cool and continue to produce indoor using a grow light.
8. Can be reused... at the end of the growing season you can remove the plants... and next year just lay a new strip of fertilizer and plant again.
9. Easy to maintain. I water my plants in the morning and in the evening... it takes just a minute
10. When it rains your plant will not get over watered and hey, plants love rain. I usually shower my plants down after sundown each night as well
I originally made my own two-bucket self watering, self feeding vegetable planter. They work quiet well, however, after some thought I have designed a single bucket system without sacrificing the watering feature that a two bucket system offers.
In a two bucket system the bottom bucket is where the water is stored for the plant. The top bucket contains the soil and allows the water to wick up through holes that are drilled in the top bucket's bottom. A larger hole allows a 'wicking cup' to sit the bottom of the 'top' bucket so some of the soil rests below the water line which allows the water to wick up into the upper bucket.
I have redesigned this system to allow the use of a single bucket which then saves time, labor and material. You eliminate the need for an extra bucket, or better yet you get two planters for the 'price' of one!
Here are some of the advantages of this type of system.
1. Use less water versus the same vegetable planted straight into the ground (about 70% less) One reason is the bucket has a lid and only a small opening where the stem is keeping the water from evaporating as fast as open ground... plus you just put the exact amount of water until is starts to flow out the overflow hole - then you stop watering
2. Use less fertilizer. Because the fertilizer strip lays at the top of the bucket, the lid prevents rain water from leaching it out. When adding fertilizer to a vegetable planted straight into the ground, the fertilizer will leach out very quickly causing you to use more, pollute water runoff as well
3. NO WEEDING!!! Because the lid is on it keeps weeds from growing. This saves time a
nd labor
4. You may have to still worry about bugs - but not those who burrow and less likely the crawling type bugs as it is harder for them to get to your plants
5. Produces more fruit. It has been proven that a properly designed planter will produce more fruit as it gets just the amount of water and fertilizer it needs and will last all growing season
6. Saves space - these planters can be housed almost anywhere, in your yard, driveway, back deck - anywhere they can get sun. I planted my garden very early before spring really had come. I moved them into my garage when the weather forecast called for close to or freezing temps. Then I wheeled them out with a dolly into the sun for the day. This way I was getting ripened veggies way before my neighbor's garden
7. Extended production. You can bring your plants in when first frost is forecast then put them back out for as long as the weather holds. Giving you extra bounty into the fall. It is not unheard of for some plants to be brought indoors once the weather gets too cool and continue to produce indoor using a grow light.
8. Can be reused... at the end of the growing season you can remove the plants... and next year just lay a new strip of fertilizer and plant again.
9. Easy to maintain. I water my plants in the morning and in the evening... it takes just a minute
10. When it rains your plant will not get over watered and hey, plants love rain. I usually shower my plants down after sundown each night as well
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Signing UpStep 1: Materials & Tools Needed
Here are the materials needed:
A plastic bucket & lid ( this item is a square bucket)
Plastic PVC pipe - approximately 36" long at least 2" diameter to 3" dia
Plastic PVC pipe - 1" dia
Potting Mix - very important, do not use dirt, soil, potting soil - use only potting mix - if you google 'Earthbox' you will see the inventor has determined several important aspects for proper growth of plants.....
Fertilizer (I prefer organic)
Lime in pellet form (if planting certain vegetables)
Tools needed:Drill w/ a 1/4 inch bit
Utility knife
Hand Saw or Hack Saw or Reciprocating Saw
Magic Marker
Tape Measure
Ideas on where to get Buckets: I got these nice square buckets from a local barbecue restaurant... I believe many barbecue joints use a similar vendor. They get many of their food and ingredients in these buckets - baked beans, margarine, slaw, sauce etc. The location I get these from has 30-60 at any given time as they don't throw them away and generally use them but will give them to you if you ask. Make sure you get the lids to go with them.
PVC: you should be able to go to a construction site and ask to pick up scraps - I got all my scrap that way. You may also find short pieces at a big hardware store like Home Depot or Lowe's as they will cut PVC for people and have short scraps left over and generally will not charge you for it.
Let's get started
A plastic bucket & lid ( this item is a square bucket)
Plastic PVC pipe - approximately 36" long at least 2" diameter to 3" dia
Plastic PVC pipe - 1" dia
Potting Mix - very important, do not use dirt, soil, potting soil - use only potting mix - if you google 'Earthbox' you will see the inventor has determined several important aspects for proper growth of plants.....
Fertilizer (I prefer organic)
Lime in pellet form (if planting certain vegetables)
Tools needed:Drill w/ a 1/4 inch bit
Utility knife
Hand Saw or Hack Saw or Reciprocating Saw
Magic Marker
Tape Measure
Ideas on where to get Buckets: I got these nice square buckets from a local barbecue restaurant... I believe many barbecue joints use a similar vendor. They get many of their food and ingredients in these buckets - baked beans, margarine, slaw, sauce etc. The location I get these from has 30-60 at any given time as they don't throw them away and generally use them but will give them to you if you ask. Make sure you get the lids to go with them.
PVC: you should be able to go to a construction site and ask to pick up scraps - I got all my scrap that way. You may also find short pieces at a big hardware store like Home Depot or Lowe's as they will cut PVC for people and have short scraps left over and generally will not charge you for it.
Let's get started
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When adding lime to sand. The lime does not increase the volume of the final product so in the construction field based on VOLUME the denominator is still 4. 25% of the void left by sand contains lime.
However in the pure mathematics world solid objects are not thought to occupy the same space also by MASS Mr. Robinson is correct.
Lime is thought to fill all voids left by sand in 1:3 ratio, so if the final mix is one to one part lime and sand then Volume of the final product would be increased. But in this case 1:4 or greater say more common ratio 1:6 lime to sand there will be not enough lime to coat all the sand, so no change in volume.
As a former math teacher the construction trades use of ratios and percentages confused me until I realized this. Also slope and percent of grade have this same departure from pure math.
Do you ever have a problem with your buried pvc irrigation pipes becoming clogged with soil? ( It would significantly add to the cost, but would filling your pipes with LECA stone be a benefit?)
You use potting soil, and - from what little I have handled it - it seems to have properties that would assist in distributing the water - vertically -to the plants roots. If someone were to use a mixture of top soil and compost, do you think the water would properly reach the root system?
if you add regular soil it may compact too much - but i can't claim i have knowledge of this...
an alternative is to go to a construction/household salvage store and get some window screens and cut out a swatch to lay over your PVC - this would certainly keep the mix from drifting below...
I did not have a problem with any of my containers clogging... remember you will be 'feeding' the water down the tube and it will saturate the bottom area and leach upward... you will have some soil down in this area (i cleaned mine out from last year and found a bit but not enough to harm the operation)
The biggest issue is having too many roots and not enough soil... if your container is smallish (like mine) the plant eventually fills the whole container with it's roots system and then may have a tendancy to starve for room to grow...
I am purposely planting fewer plants per container as to make sure they get a full growing area...
hope this helps, if not let's try again... cheers, jake
I have used Nylon tights before as wicks for self watering house plants.
I'm going to add the LECA stone inside the PVC to reduce the soils penetration. I like what you said about a layer, but if it is above your drain hole or reduces the waters contact with the soil - I'm afraid it might impede the travel of the water to the plant roots.
I didn't think about relistate problems for the root growth. I'll definitely go one per bucket now.
Thanks
1 unit of lime + 4 units of earth = 5 units total
1 unit lime / 5 units total = 20% lime by volume.
I don't think you'll have problems with PVC since most home's water lines are made of them... you can use about anything to 'lift' the soil up from the bottom as long as it allows for water to accumulate... hope this helps.. cheers,
planted my 3rd seasn about 3 weeks ago... started with 4" tomatoe plants and now they are about 2.5' tall!
this season I am watering once per day... play it by ear... just make sure the mix at the top is not drying out...
if you need 'more' water in the watertable... you might want to move the hole a bit higher..
just take some duct tape and cover the old hole and drill another one a bit higher... this will allow you to get enough water to restrict how often you have to water your plants...
if you will be leaving town you could do this... fill up tube until water comes out... then start watering at the top - if you water it enough the water will soak the entire system until water again starts flowing out the bottom hole...
if you're leaving town - then you would have the 'most' possible water for your plants.. or show one of you neighbors how to water and ask them to come be and water once per day... cheers, hope this helps
One feature of the commercial Earthbox is an overflow drain in the side of the box, just above the water storage area. Did you have any problems with someone getting over-enthusiastic with watering? I used a 3 inch piece of soft vinyl tubing, which fits snugly in a half inch hole drilled in the bucket.
I drilled a 1/2" hole just at the top of the water area in all my containers so it will not let it overwater just like the earthbox... so no problems over watering... i didn't insert any tube into the drain hole... it worked fine without it.. worst case just ram a screwdriver in a few times if it drains a bit slow...
hope this helps... let me know how yours turns out...
cheers,
Now, if only I knew how to prune tomato plants!
Thanks.
and, here's how to 'prune' tomato plants...
look for what are called 'suckers'
anytime you see a 'branch' limb off another limb - look for anything growing straight out of the 'V' that is formed... it will be a very small new growth..
just pinch it out with your fingers at the base of the vee... these 'suckers' will not produce and only suck off the growth of the rest of the plant...
so, anywhere you see a vee -look for a new 'green shoot' and pinch it off (pinch hard as if you just pull it - it could split the 'skin' of the limb down below the vee and injure the plant...
as to whether you should always pick a sucker read this article and notice the pic which shows what a 'sucker' looks like;
http://gardening.about.com/od/totallytomatoes/qt/Tomato_Suckers.htm