Self-Watering (mostly) Shelves

[dfollett]

I'm growing micros to keep me busy this winter. I glassed in a patio that faces due south and has no trees or other obstructions, so it gets full sun through the fall, winter and spring. I am supplementing the micros with lights - the regular indeterminates in Earthtainers only have the light mother nature gives them.

I knew there was no way I'd keep those in small pots alive through the winter if I needed to water them daily. So, I figured out a way so that I can get by only having to remember to water them every 10-14 days or be able to leave for 10 days without asking the neighbors to come over and water the plants.

ChrisK, who provided me with the micro seeds to try (take a look at his "Micro-tomato crosses" thread in the Crosstalk section - interesting plants) suggested I post this information here. I'll give a quick explanation and if anyone is interested in additional information about what I used, where I obtained it or how much the cost was, I'll be happy to provide more details. Any suggestions on how to improve it would also be welcome.

I'll describe the photos:

Photo 1 - (Before taking this photo, I had removed ten 1-gallon pots with 9"-12" micro tomatoes that were covered with flowers and fruit from the bottom shelf to better show the shelving and be able to take the photos. I didn't clean anything up, so things look a little messy.)

I started with a 48" x 18" shelf I purchased at Costco and two 6-tube 4-foot T-5 lights I found on ebay. The lights fit exactly and securely between the shelf brackets on each end of the shelves. I have one plant tray on the bottom shelf and the other on the middle brackets that hold the top and bottom of the shelf together. I suspend one light at the highest bracket position of the shelf (actually, I start it low as I need to when the plants are small and raise it as they grow) There is room for for one gallon containers and 22" of plant height. I do the same thing with the lower light. At its highest position there is room for 18" tall plants.

Photo 2 - Each shelf has a 43" x 22" x 2" boot tray I found at Gardner's Supply. Inside that tray I put four 10" x 22" seed starting trays with holes in the bottom (only to support things and not take up much space from water and still allow water to be everywhere).

Photo 3 - On top of the seed starting trays I put a piece of a rubber mat (I think it is made for wiping boots at a doorway, but was something that seemed would work to support the capillary mats.)

Photo 4 - I laid two pieces of capillary mat under the inside of the seed starting tray in the center of the big tray and up over everything both directions to nearly the outside of the tray. In my first attempt, I put a single piece of capillary mat across the entire thing and down the sides under the inside tray to wick up from the outside. Turned out the capillary mat against the side of the bottom tray constantly caused water to drip down the sides and made a mess everywhere underneath and kept the shelf under the tray constantly wet. This way with the capillary mat up through the center and across nearly to the outside, it doesn't leak at all.

I then covered that with plastic to slow evaporation and cut holes in the plastic where I set pots that have holes on the bottom to accommodate wicking. The growing media needs to be well packed to the bottom of the pot so it is in contact with the capillary mat.

You then have to completely saturate the mat, water the first time through each of the pots sitting on the capillary mat to start the wicking process and fill the bottom tray with water. You also need to make sure you add water to the tray before it it is completely dry. If the capillary mat dries out, you need to do this process again to restart it.

I'm sure the length of time between each watering will vary based on temperature, humidity and plant size, but with the 10 plants overcrowding at the size they are, mine easily go 10 days. The initial fill/saturation used about 7 gallons and the pots were already moist.

Anyway, it is not something you would put in the living room, but it works great in my sunroom. I think a variation on this theme could be made to accommodate starting a bunch of seedlings and potting up.... but that's for another day.

Photo 5 - (Unrelated) Saturday's picking from the regular tomatoes in the Earthtainers in the sunroom. I'm learning that the timing needs to be right to get ripe tomatoes this time of year. They don't seem to set much fruit from the last part of November until I'm not sure when (days too short I assume?). If you plant them too late, you end up with lots of stretched out plants with nothing but leaves on them. Planted early enough with fruit already set, they ripen up just fine through this time of year. Cracking and cat-facing must come from the wide temperature swings we have in the summer. I get a lot of both. However, I don't see any of either on what I grow in the winter.

Photo 6 - One of ChrisK's micro-multiflora plants grown on the bottom tray of this contraption - notice the 'multiflora'. I've never seen so many flowers in so little space!

Anyway, its been fun.

[JamesL]

DF,
Great post. Thanks for sharing. That massive boot tray is a good find.