The easiest self watering container as of yet?

[CLa]

Figured I would share some more pics of my plant.

The container has to be like 4 gallons size if not less, Its one of those containers that they sell you trees in. I'm going to put them to use8)

Three good steps I made:

1: Put some sizable rocks to fill in and reduce the area of large holes, making them smaller so the soil dirt mix etc wont run into the watering pan.

2: Crushed beer cans, (hehe yeah I know its what i had at the time) I used them to prop up the container from the bottom of the watering pan about 1/2 - 1 inch high. (next time I will use something else.) So there is also a patch of roots growing out the bottom hole which is in the center. I do have to water like every day, I try to keep the water level right above the bottom of the plant container, maintaining that consistency so the plant will be so used to it in hopes that the fruit will not crack.

3:A small handful of fertilizer 2-3 inches below the top soil line hugging the wall of the container to keep it away from the main root stem.

Currently the plant looks like this now:


Here is what the bottom of the pan looks like, roots growing out from one of the corner holes of the plant container into the water:



And here is the ripest Black Krim. (currently about the size of a small size baseball I'd say:



If I put one of these outdoors, then of course I would have to cover the container and the outer watering container below with Black plastic of some sort. (OR, drill a hole in the side of the outer container, and allow it to collect the rain) But it could get messy in there, have to think on that one)

[landarc]

Impressive, all I can say.

[MawkHawk]

Holy Moly, that's a huge plant for indoors. What are you using for light?

Also, if you have to water everyday then doesn't that defeat the purpose of a self-watering container? I thought the purpose of self-watering is to allow you water less often. No? Or is the reason to provide consistent watering?

[CLa]

Hi Mark, When they say self watering, what they mean is the roots get the water as they need it, instead of you forcing the water onto the roots. However some people do set up a watering system on a timer which would work great for this idea, then you could leave the house for weeks.

I should mention that once your plant has roots growing out of the container like you see in the picture, you could water once every 2 or 3 days I would think, but you would have to revamp my idea, and make sure there is more space between the bottom of the plant container and the bottom of the watering pan. say 3 inches? That would be like 3 gallons at least.

Light source, you see it, the window, faces the morning sun, but after 12:00 noon, the direct sunlight is gone. So just to show you that a plant can grow even with a few hours of sun. However, It has been slow, cool temperatures (during the coldest days we kept the door closed to the room so it stayed around 45 F at times.) Seeded this plant in November.

[Worth1]

That does it, I'm tearing out the south walls of my house and putting in bay windows!!!!

Worth

[amideutch]

CLa, that plant is definately a happy camper. What you can do is fill the cavity between the inner and outer container with those small clay balls they use for hydroponics and drill your drain holes in the sides and then you can put it outside. That would keep evaporation down and keep the animals from using it as a watering hole. Ami, doin it on the other side of the pond.

[MawkHawk]

Amazing that it has grown so large indoors. Excellent work!

[CLa]

Thanks, not a bad idea Ami, and maybe go 3 or 4 inches up at least with those clay balls, then sit the container on top of that and drill the drain holes about an inch higher then that level. 3 or 4 inches at least because I would think those balls would take up a good bit of space reducing the actual water content in the pan.

[amideutch]

CLa, The balls are pourous and absorbe water as well. You won't loose as much water as you think. Ami

[CLa]

Ahh yeah that would work, if the price is right..