You can do a "trial" at any time, before you put in plants, to see if the cotton rope wicks up into the top of the EarthTainers. Question: How elevated is the dock surface above the nominal water level?
Another more elegant solution would be to use a hole saw and drill a 2 inch diameter hole into the center side of the EarthTainer, about 8 inches up from the bottom, and feed the 2 inch diameter cotton rope bundle through the hole. Fan the ropes out like a Japanese fan on top of the first layer of 4 inch deep Potting Mix to the outer edges of the walls. Then fill the rest of the EarthTainer with the Potting Mix.
This should provide a dispersed wicking pattern in the EarthTainer. You may still need to use supplemental watering into the water reservoir on very warm days, but most of the required moisture will be drawn into the EarthTainer via the cotton wick on a continuous basis, without manual watering.
Fun Stuff!!!
Raybo
