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Thanks. I think they will be safe. I hope to make my grow buckets with as much free and/or salvaged materials as possible. I think I could get the cost down to almost nothing. Having said that, if you value your time and you don't want to spend it looking around for things that might work...

Thanks for the response. I understand the use of metal pipes for well water. I have well water on my property. I cannot imagine that thin aluminum pipe would ever be used to supply potable water because it would not hold up over time. However, I am just considering using the aluminum pipes as...

Thanks for the feedback. I'll have to look online for more info. I would prefer to use those metal pipes as fill tubes if safe. In any case, I might have some free fill tubes to go with the free buckets I get from Harbor Freight. That continues to bring down the price of a grow bucket build.

Speaking of tall fill tubes, I recently salvaged some metal pipes that I think might make great tall fill tubes like in your pictures. Most of them are about 52 inches long, and they are 1-1/2 inch in diameter. Here is a quick picture of them... My only concern is if it is safe to use metal...

:lau I have three acres of lawn/wooded property, so I only mow on days ending in "y"! Mostly I toss the grass clippings into the chicken run. However, every once in a while, I will use some grass clippings as mulch on my raised beds.

I use grass clippings and/or wood chips. Works pretty good for me and I don't have buy anything. I probably prefer the grass clippings as they can just be cultivated back into the soil at the end of the season. You don't want to mix the wood chips into your growing soil. I get some weeds from...

If I was a better gardener, I could probably just stick my finger in the dirt and know if it was time to water, or not. However, the reason I got started into sub-irrigated planters was that I am not so good at "old-fashioned" methods of gardening. In any case, the water reservoir method just...

:clap Those peppers are looking much better than anything I have going on this year! You bucket system seems to be working well. I do have a couple of questions/comments on your buckets. First of all, do you have any way to visually tell how much water is remaining in the bottom reservoir? For...

I think my overflow hole is either 1/2 or 3/4 inch. It just needs to be big enough to not get clogged. I agree that 1/4 inch is probably too small. IMHO, one overflow hole is enough as long as it does not get clogged. FWIW, I have never had any of my drain holes clog up. But I am sure I used...

I bought some less expensive potting soil mix this year and regret it. It might be OK for established plants, but it was not a good choice for seed starting. Too many big chucks of woody stuff in the potting soil mix I bought. I think last year I used Miracle-Gro potting mix and really liked...

I noticed that you have a number of plant starts in those red solo cups sitting inside a dish pan. Do you punch a hole(s) in the solo cups and bottom water them? Have you ever tried the double solo cup method? Just wondering because your plants look so good to me.

I understand the importance of using what you already have. For those who have to go out and buy a PVC pipe for a fill tube, they might as well buy a larger pipe which would make refills easier and faster with a garden hose. Especially if they end up making lots of these self-wicking buckets...

If you have your 5-gallon self-wicking planter outside, you need some kind of overflow hole in the side of the bucket. I don't remember you mentioning that, so forgive me if you did. Anyways, if you don't have that overflow hole in the planter, then you risk drowning the plants in your bucket...

I am signing on to this thread because it's something that I have been thinking about for a while as well. There are a few things that I can add to the discussion that might be helpful to others thinking about 5-gallon self-wicking buckets/pots. First of all, Harbor Freight has free 5-gallon...