water Watering

Honey Badger · Jun 21, 2018

I have about 25 chilli plants in total. They are in individual pots and so far I bottom water them. I'd put a pot in a tray filled with water and it would sit like that 10-20 minutes or untill it 'drinks' all the water. I have only 3 trays for this and it takes a while to water every plant.

The other day I simply didn't have the time and watered from top but would prefer bottom watering if there is a nifty solution.

They are sitting on a pallet and I have to water one by one but would love to speed up. How others dealing with this, any ideas, suggestions?

Chilidude · Jun 21, 2018

By using a capillary mat perhaps.

Honey Badger · Jun 21, 2018

Chilidude said:
By using a capillary mat perhaps.

Had to google it, seems like a good idea. Thanks.

cartaysm · Jun 21, 2018

This is another option
http://albopepper.com/SIP-raised-bed.php

You can do it in a 30-gallon tote, he has lots of examples, and it works really well.

Honey Badger · Jun 22, 2018

How about I insert a piece of plastic tube into the pot? I could damage roots slightly but the plant will recover surely. I could pierce tube so it leaks into medium...

Or shall I just carry on like before: put a 3 pots in 3 trays (I only have 3 suitable trays), let them soak the water and repeat till all 24 plants had a drink?

nmlarson · Jun 22, 2018

Honey Badger said:
How about I insert a piece of plastic tube into the pot? I could damage roots slightly but the plant will recover surely. I could pierce tube so it leaks into medium...

Or shall I just carry on like before: put a 3 pots in 3 trays (I only have 3 suitable trays), let them soak the water and repeat till all 24 plants had a drink?

It seems like you want to avoid individual watering. Wouldn't putting tubes in each pot still require watering each pot? How about using something like a cheap kiddie pool? Water a dozen pots at a time?

blueapplepaste · Jun 22, 2018

nmlarson said:
It seems like you want to avoid individual watering. Wouldn't putting tubes in each pot still require watering each pot? How about using something like a cheap kiddie pool? Water a dozen pots at a time?

Those kiddie pools are pretty cheap at Wally World. You could get two or three and be able to keep all pots in a pool and then just fill the pools up and not even worry about lugging them in and out.

cartaysm · Jun 22, 2018

Yeah I wouldnt just shove a tube in as SIP beds are designed with a water resovior. My suggestion would be building a container to hold them all and have one watering source. The baby pool was a good idea

nmlarson · Jun 22, 2018

Saw you're in the UK and thought you may not know what I was referring to as a "kiddie pool.". What I was talking about are rigid plastic wading pools, like in the photo. Not the inflatable type.