Plants: Day 41

Even with all of the excitement over the offer on the house and all, we still have the responsibility of getting our urban-garden going.  Plants do not wait!!!

In the past couple of weeks, we have been transferring more and more seedlings from their seed starting homes to bigger pots to let them grow and expand their wonderful root systems.  As time has gone on, the first batch of seed transfers are now big enough to get transplanted into their final homes.  You might have noticed, but throughout this process we have been researching the heck out of everything; it's always nicer to learn from everybody else's mistakes before yours!

The main thing that we have learned about tomatoes is that they are not a fan of wet and dry cycles; so water once every couple of days does not produce the best tomatoes.  Well, how do we provide water for them on a consistent, as-they-need-it type of schedule?  Well, that is where the idea of self-watering containers come in.  Now, don't confuse the idea of self-watering, with self-regulating containers (like I did at first....).  We still have to put water into the containers on an almost daily basis (especially once the hot, humid weather starts), but what these devices do is to provide water as they plants use them.  How, you ask?  How much would this amazing device cost, you ask?

Three letters: DIY (Do-It-Yourself!).  Thamara found a brewing place in town that was willing to sell us 5-gallon buckets for $1 a piece; sweet!!  And, so it was time to start the process of  creating some self-watering containers.  The following pictures will show the basic requirements we started off with for the containers.

First, a wick to let the water up to the dirt

All of the needed material

A pipe to transport water to the well

Next, a false bottom with two holes

So, that is a complete one-bucket self-watering container.  You then fill it with potting mix (pre-moistened), and you're all set to go with planting the seedlings into the buckets.  Again, with tomato plants, we bury the seedling past the first set of leaves.  Then we add a bit of fertilizer, and bam!, a self-watering tomato planter.  Lots of room for the roots to grow, and the plants can draw water up through the soil form the well under it.  You just keep adding water through the pipe, and it keeps drinking as it needs it.

The setup so far....it's getting a little crowded.....