Self watering wicking troughs

davidstcldfl · November 25, 2012

Hi, This is a self watering trough system, using the wicking principle. Anyone familiar with Larry Hall, will recognize the design. I just finished building it a few weeks ago.

Before I get into the system it's self, let me mention why I built it. Maybe I'm really trying to convince myself that it's ok....

First, you have to understand, this is the 'third location' I'm growing tomatoes....

I am growing a few at home, in 5 gallon buckets, along my chain link fence. I would of built the troughs at home, but I'll be moving sometime in the near future.
I've been driving to my friend's aquaponics farm in Winter Park (FL). I like helping him out, plus, it's a great place to grow 'more tomatoes'.
This 3rd location, belongs to one of two brothers I'm friends with. (they have adjoining properties)
I stop often and have coffee with one of the brothers in the morning. 'The other brother' happened to have this empty shade house...just sitting there.
I figured, I'm already there a few times a week. Plus, It was 'begging' for something to be grown in it...It was more then I could stand.
Well, it sounded logical to me anyway....

So here is the shade house. It's 30 x 50 feet, and it does have running water, but no electric.

a Narcoossee shade house.JPG

I built two troughs, that are 2 ft wide by 16 ft long. They're lined with a thin liner, I bought at a local hydroponics store. I've used a mixture of nursery pots and poly grow bags. Since the nursery pots were 'free', I had to give them a try.

a narcoossee nov 2012.JPG

Some of the tomatoes are....paul robeson, black cherry, purple eva, and cherokee purple. The plants all seem to be doing well. The onions are the only ones that don't look happy. Perhaps I should of used taller nursery pots for them....maybe they are too wet ..'?'

a narcoossee troughs 1.JPG

I tried to get the water level to be a little less then 1 inch. The floor of the green house wasn't very level. I tried to level out the beds. But, I was trying to get them done quickly, as it was getting later into our cool weather growing season. Much later then I really wanted. But, I had tomatoes sitting in small pots, which should of already been transplanted .
I got the valves from US Plastics. I'm glad I bought the ones with adjustable floats.

a narcoossee float valve.JPG

November 25, 2012	#1
davidstcldfl Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Central FL zone 9b Posts: 96	Self watering wicking troughs Hi, This is a self watering trough system, using the wicking principle. Anyone familiar with Larry Hall, will recognize the design. I just finished building it a few weeks ago. Before I get into the system it's self, let me mention why I built it. Maybe I'm really trying to convince myself that it's ok.... First, you have to understand, this is the 'third location' I'm growing tomatoes.... I am growing a few at home, in 5 gallon buckets, along my chain link fence. I would of built the troughs at home, but I'll be moving sometime in the near future. I've been driving to my friend's aquaponics farm in Winter Park (FL). I like helping him out, plus, it's a great place to grow 'more tomatoes'. This 3rd location, belongs to one of two brothers I'm friends with. (they have adjoining properties) I stop often and have coffee with one of the brothers in the morning. 'The other brother' happened to have this empty shade house...just sitting there. I figured, I'm already there a few times a week. Plus, It was 'begging' for something to be grown in it...It was more then I could stand. Well, it sounded logical to me anyway.... So here is the shade house. It's 30 x 50 feet, and it does have running water, but no electric. a Narcoossee shade house.JPG I built two troughs, that are 2 ft wide by 16 ft long. They're lined with a thin liner, I bought at a local hydroponics store. I've used a mixture of nursery pots and poly grow bags. Since the nursery pots were 'free', I had to give them a try. a narcoossee nov 2012.JPG Some of the tomatoes are....paul robeson, black cherry, purple eva, and cherokee purple. The plants all seem to be doing well. The onions are the only ones that don't look happy. Perhaps I should of used taller nursery pots for them....maybe they are too wet ..'?' a narcoossee troughs 1.JPG I tried to get the water level to be a little less then 1 inch. The floor of the green house wasn't very level. I tried to level out the beds. But, I was trying to get them done quickly, as it was getting later into our cool weather growing season. Much later then I really wanted. But, I had tomatoes sitting in small pots, which should of already been transplanted . I got the valves from US Plastics. I'm glad I bought the ones with adjustable floats. a narcoossee float valve.JPG Last edited by davidstcldfl; November 25, 2012 at 04:43 PM. Reason: re-loaded pictures