[FarmerShawn]

I grow some stuff in Earthboxes, which use a bottom well of water which wicks up into the soil as needed. It works wonderfully, so I decided to try a homemade version. I got a five gallon pail, and a cheap plastic colander that fits inside nicely. With the colander in place, I drilled a fill hole in the pail just below the top of the colander. When I put my potting mix in, the soil in the colander will be below the water line when it's full, allowing the water to wick up as needed into the rest of the pail. It worked exactly as expected. I filled the bottom of the pail to overflowing through the fill hole once a day, and the soil above stayed perfectly moist all the time, never soggy. I used no mulch, but I certainly could have. I am not sure if you'd need to add some peat or coir to your potting mix to make it wick properly (mine has some in it). But it was easy and cheap to construct, and dead easy to maintain. And I didn't have any BER. Also, it makes absolutely no difference when you fill the bottom of the pail, as long as it gets done daily, especially as the plant gets big.