Saucers/trays to hold water under containers?

tlintx · June 23, 2013

It's not quite that cut and dried!

With the method above, if I'm reading right, you're basically bottom watering. You fill the tray, the moisture is distributed through the growing medium fairly quickly, and the tray runs dry. Repeat as needed. So nothing is standing in water.

Another option would be to use the bottom couple of inches of soil in the pot as a wick, similar to the Earthtainer design. In that case you'd want the reservoir to stay full, but not be more than a few inches deep.

Either way, you want a soil that wicks well without getting compacted or soggy. Like Raybo's mix (from the earthtainer guide). People have experimented a lot with different variations.

June 23, 2013	#16
tlintx Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: SeTx Posts: 881	It's not quite that cut and dried! With the method above, if I'm reading right, you're basically bottom watering. You fill the tray, the moisture is distributed through the growing medium fairly quickly, and the tray runs dry. Repeat as needed. So nothing is standing in water. Another option would be to use the bottom couple of inches of soil in the pot as a wick, similar to the Earthtainer design. In that case you'd want the reservoir to stay full, but not be more than a few inches deep. Either way, you want a soil that wicks well without getting compacted or soggy. Like Raybo's mix (from the earthtainer guide). People have experimented a lot with different variations.