EarthTainer Advice

[SaberTooth]

I'm going to try to build the EarthTainer and was looking for some advice. Can anyone please give me some advice on what wicker basket to use? Can I buy any general 5x5x4h plant basket in quantity so not to loose money on shipping? Is there a local place where I can find something to use (I've searched Lowe's and Home Depot and Petco with no luck)?

Is there other things people build/install in place of a wicker type of basket?

[rnewste]

Saber,

You can get the standard wicking baskets at any Hydroponics Store. Ask for a "5 inch Net Pot". They run about $2.50 each.

You can also fabricate a homebrew one using a container from a Deli Counter, and cutting it down to a 4.125" height. Be sure to drill lots of small holes in it to let in the water from the reservoir.

Raybo

[dice]

Earl made some where he drilled holes in a piece of 3-4"
abs or pvc pipe and placed that under a hole in the container
mix support shelf where one would put a net pot for wicking
if one had one. I think I still have one self-watering container
like that.

He simply filled that piece of pipe with sphagnum moss or
container mix or whatever, so that it extended all of the
way down to the bottom of the water reservoir in the
container, and it acted as a wick. I find that it works even
better when using some landscape fabric between the
container mix and support shelf. I just jam enough of
the landscape fabric down the hole to hold a net pot's
worth of container mix inside the piece of drilled pipe,
which acts as both a support for the support shelf and
a wick. Mine has 1/4" holes drilled in the pipe to allow
water to circulate into there and reach the wick. The
water penetrates the landscape fabric without problems,
and it wicks up water as well as my other self-watering
containers that have net pots to hold the wicking material.

(Net pots are cheap and handy, though, if one has a
hydroponics store anywhere close by.)