The great 2024 wicking bucket/pot experiments

[21hens-incharge]

I have seen the videos with the automatic watering systems set up. It's intriguing but not enough to get me to do it. I would need a lot more buckets to feel compelled to set it up.

I think if I were looking to set up a ton if buckets I would more likely set up big sub irrigated planters instead.

It's hard to get pictures of the buckets since they have all those potatoes leaning over on them right now.

One thing I am concerned about is winter storage....

We get deep cold and extended time near zero here. I don't want to lose them to water freezing and cracking them.

Maybe once things are all harvested I can lean them to drain what I can out then set them in the greenhouse to hopefully dry out before our cold hits them to hard.

 

[Sally PB]

That is what I discovered with my sub-irrigated planters. Not only do I only have to water them about once a month, but the plants just do so much better in them because they always have access to as much water as they want. It's really a great system.

Just an unrelated observation here...

My neighbor has potted tomatoes on her back porch. She keeps on top of watering, yet they look droopy by mid-afternoon. I'm wondering if the (ceramic) pots let the soil heat up too much.

 

[gtaus]

I have seen the videos with the automatic watering systems set up. It's intriguing but not enough to get me to do it. I would need a lot more buckets to feel compelled to set it up.

I think if I were looking to set up a ton if buckets I would more likely set up big sub irrigated planters instead.

Understand. I think it makes more sense if a person had lots of buckets and/or if that was their primary method of growing plants.

I keep pondering the issue, myself, and have been trying to think of a way to set up the wicking bucket(s) from the start in a modular way so that if I wanted to move to an interconnected system with automatic water level control, all I would have to do is to daisy-chain plug in each new bucket into the water control line. I think it would be possible.

The biggest advantage to your 5-gallon wicking buckets is that each bucket can easily be moved. My elevated sub-irrigated planters are 2X4 feet and they are unmovable unless I completely empty them of all water and soil.

I have considered making some 4X4 foot raised beds into wicking beds. The problem I have is that the heavy liner, to survive our northern Minnesota winters, is rather expensive. To save money, currently all my 4X4 foot raised beds are using the hügelkultur method with logs in the bottom half of the beds. The logs act like a giant water battery. Not quite as good as a true water reservoir like in your wicking buckets, but a pretty good system just the same. And, I don't have to worry about the water freezing in the winter and cracking a liner.

One thing I am concerned about is winter storage....

We get deep cold and extended time near zero here. I don't want to lose them to water freezing and cracking them.

Maybe once things are all harvested I can lean them to drain what I can out then set them in the greenhouse to hopefully dry out before our cold hits them to hard.

Yes, that would be of concern to me as well. However, with a 5-gallon bucket, I think you could stop watering the plants at the end of the season and just let the bucket dry out on its own. Or, maybe you could tip the bucket on the side of the overflow drain hole to get all the water out. Then, just cover the bucket with a large plastic shopping bag to keep out the rain and snow during the winter.

One of the issues I always think about, concerning draining a wicking bucket for winter, is where to put my overflow and/or drain holes in the bucket. I haven't settled on a solution to that issue yet.

From experience, I can tell you that a 5-gallon bucket left open to winter rain and snow, will fill up with water, freeze, and crack the bucket.

 

[gtaus]

Just an unrelated observation here...

My neighbor has potted tomatoes on her back porch. She keeps on top of watering, yet they look droopy by mid-afternoon. I'm wondering if the (ceramic) pots let the soil heat up too much.

Those ceramic pots don't hold any water. The water just drains through the pot and the only water retained is what is in the potting soil. Tomatoes are heavy drinkers. I can see a person watering the tomato plant every morning but the potting soil being all dried out by mid-afternoon. Especially if you live in a hot area.

That's the great advantage to having something like these wicking buckets with a built-in water reservoir.

Another thought is to fill the bottom of a ceramic pot with branches or wood chips, that will soak up water and hold it for later. There are a number of YouTube videos on making hügelkultur pots. The people who make them on YouTube seem to like them.

I have thought about making a wicking bucket using 4-5 inches of wood chips on the bottom of the bucket, with an overflow hole at 3 inches. The important thing about a wicking system is to have that magical 1 inch of air gap between the water level and the soil. That prevents the entire system from drowning out itself. Over time, I am sure that the wood chips would decompose and compress, so you would have to empty and rebuild the hügelkultur wicking bucket at some point. That's where using plastic bottles have the advantage. The plastic would not decompose in our lifetime.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I have found attractive giant pots at Costco in early spring without drain holes. That's what my African daisies are in on the front porch. We turned them into self watering pots. So far so good there too.

 

[Smokerbill]

I'm setting up a wicking bucket system to grow a tomato cutting from a plant that might have the dwarf mutation. It's a Roma tomato that's less than 2' tall. The other Roma plants from the same packet of seed are now 4 or 5 feet tall and growing right next to the suspected dwarf.

I thought that growing the cutting in a bucket would help rule out conditions in the raised bed that might have caused that single plant to be so small. If the tomato cutting also grows to a small size in the bucket I think it would help verify that it is a dwarf.

I'll post later explaining how I plan to set up the wicking system. It's kind of hard to see, but here's a pic of the short Roma plant which is on the left side behind the vertical stick. The plant to the right is another Roma from the same packet of seed.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I'm setting up a wicking bucket system to grow a tomato cutting from a plant that might have the dwarf mutation. It's a Roma tomato that's less than 2' tall. The other Roma plants from the same packet of seed are now 4 or 5 feet tall and growing right next to the suspected dwarf.

I thought that growing the cutting in a bucket would help rule out conditions in the raised bed that might have caused that single plant to be so small. If the tomato cutting also grows to a small size in the bucket I think it would help verify that it is a dwarf.

I'll post later explaining how I plan to set up the wicking system. It's kind of hard to see, but here's a pic of the short Roma plant which is on the left side behind the vertical stick. The plant to the right is another Roma from the same packet of seed.

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I keep coming back to this and side eying my tomato plant that wasn't supposed to be a cherry tomato but definitely is. I don't even have any cherry tomato seeds here.

I look forward to your results with the cutting.

In my bucket set up...

Those peppers are staying strong.
My half barrel jalapenos are struggling and dying. Everyone I talked to around here is also having a very bad pepper year.

The potato plants have fallen over onto the bucket peppers so unfortunately I can't get a picture.

As I so often say about my garden...there's always next year for tomatoes. Those "early treat" are producing but nothing like I had hoped.

 

[Smokerbill]

@21hens-incharge , I'm still waiting for the tomato cutting to start showing signs of growth so I know it's making roots. It would definitely be cool if it's a dwarf plant.

I'm going to use a storage container for the reservoir with a piece of OSB on top, hole cut out to fit 5 gallon bucket.

I'm still trying to decide between using the yogurt container or a section of the nylon rope as the wick. I'll probably go with the yogurt tub packed with potting soil. But maybe rope would be better. I just don't know.

I'll put a fill tube in through the OSB somewhere and rig up a float that will let me know when it's full enough. I have plenty of landscape fabric to line the inside of the growing container.

 

[21hens-incharge]

@21hens-incharge , I'm still waiting for the tomato cutting to start showing signs of growth so I know it's making roots. It would definitely be cool if it's a dwarf plant.

I'm going to use a storage container for the reservoir with a piece of OSB on top, hole cut out to fit 5 gallon bucket.

I'm still trying to decide between using the yogurt container or a section of the nylon rope as the wick. I'll probably go with the yogurt tub packed with potting soil. But maybe rope would be better. I just don't know.

I'll put a fill tube in through the OSB somewhere and rig up a float that will let me know when it's full enough. I have plenty of landscape fabric to line the inside of the growing container.

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I would use the yogurt cup. When I did self watering strawberries in 2 liter bottles the wicking ropes were good for most of the season then failed.

 

[Smokerbill]

I would use the yogurt cup. When I did self watering strawberries in 2 liter bottles the wicking ropes were good for most of the season then failed.

That's what I needed to know. Thanks! I'll use the cup as a wick and save the rope for tying stuff up. It's usually in the bed of the truck for securing loads.