cloning Self watering bucket/earthbox/diy clone questions.

Jerry Rigatoni

Jerry Rigatoni

On the topic of watering, overwatering, and letting things dry out:  
 
 I have peppers growing in plain old 5 gallon buckets (not self watering).  When it came to watering I used to just let them get wilty.  Then I employed the "finger poke" method to decide when to water them.  I have found lately though the "lift the bucket" method is more to my liking.
 
Folks with self watering double bucket setup (or similar), I was wondering somethings if you could spare some experience.
 
1:Do you let the reservoir completely empty so the soil will dry before starting a new watering session?  Or does the plant just "take what it needs" if you keep water in?
 
2:If the drilled holes in the (bottom of) the top bucket are for the roots to dip down into the reservoir, would it be a bad idea to let the reservoir dry out, leaving the roots dry?  
 
I have 2 self watering buckets with Basil going and I keep water in the reservoir and they soil stays moistish, so it has never been less than moist with water in the reservoir.  
 
 I feel like these questions might be might be obvious to more experienced folks, but I really like to hear other people's personal way of doing things.  
 
I am still new here so I wasn't sure if I should bump this thread:  
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/54589-diy-guide-how-to-make-off-grid-hydroponic-self-watering-container/
 
Or start a new discussion.  Please let me know if there was etiquette here I missed.  Thanks folks!   
 
Edit: I may have worded the title poorly.  By clone I meant something homemade and functionally similar/identical to the earthbox. 
 
I'm a first time grower of anything so take it for what it's worth but I decided to go with that set up and it feels now incredibly easy and effective. I had them in straight soil through seedling then transplanted them and they've done really well.
If you read further in the thread The Pepper Rancher explains that yes, the roots making it down to the reservoir is an important part so you'll want to keep it pretty full all the time.
My set up is one 5gal bucket and I use the lid to create the reservoir, there's pictures in the thread. The size I made is kinda small for this type of set-up but I've found I can go a week between watering and there's still a lot of water in the reservoir.
I just transplanted a little adolescent Bhut today so we'll see how well he adjusts.
Good luck!
 
i let them do their own thing and water when i remember to put some in the bottom.... i do not expose the top of the soil to air so i am not sure when it gets dry but my plants have never wilted even in 100* weather
 
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i build my own self watering bins out of 18 gallon sterilite bins and slotted drainage pipe so potting soil could soak up the water. It works great for lots of things except peppers in the long term. At least down here in miami where we get a lot of rain, it's very easy for them to get root rot. I had a scotch bonnet in one for about a year but it died because of root rot. Trying to recover an aji mango too as we speak that the rain got to. transplanted it into a pot, so we'll see
 
IF using the self watering containers you don't want to let the reservoir go dry -- Doing so can cause the wicking cup to stop being able to wick water throughout the bucket - the plant roots will create the siphon action and only get the water the plant needs as long as you build the container properly. (ie. you want the drain to be slightly below the bottom of the soil surface so there is a bit of an air gap to provide oxygen to the roots and so that the soil in the actual container is not sitting in water ( you want the wicking cup soil in the water but not the rest of the bottom of the bucket.
 
BamsBBQ said:
i use plastic net cups, seems to work great for me
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I got some from a local grow/hydro shop for 33 cents each for the 5 inch.  Now the hole saw is a different story!  
Edit:  Some unnecessary blank space.
 
I did it with a jigsaw because I didn't want to buy that size bit, just trace the outer ring of the net cup and stay inside that. The holes I made were funny looking but worked perfectly fine.
 
harbor freight...i picked up a set for $10.... it has paid for itself many times over. i think i have made 10 grow buckets
Jerry Rigatoni said:
I got some from a local grow/hydro shop for 33 cents each for the 5 inch.  Now the hole saw is a different story!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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