indoor gardening advice wanted
I'm planning my #gardening on a small south-facing glassed balcony, essentially a greenhouse. It will likely get a dry and arid climate during summer so I'm looking at #lowtech low maintenance irrigation techniques. Anyone have experience with buried clay pots or ollas?
(image from Gardening With Less Water by David Bainbridge)
boosts appreciated
indoor gardening advice wanted
@rra @plants i hqve not tried the terracotta plant thing though i imagine it will bw effective provided the vessel with water is made our of porous materials, but watering thru wicks seems cheaper and faster to arrange+u would not have a problem with less planter space/roots growing into the water vessel. For wicking all you need to do is take a piece of cotton rope/fabric and put it thru the drainage hole(s) so that most of it is inside the pot but a piece hangs out. Then put the hanging out piece in a water reservoir (preferably level with the pot) and voila, youve made a self watering planter!
indoor gardening advice wanted
@praxeology @rra you're describing exactly how half of commercially available self watering works :) add an indicator of how full the water reservoir is and you are golden!
indoor gardening advice wanted
@praxeology @iamegg this sounds like a nice design for multiple individual pots. I went with a 'wicking bed' design in the end. Large clay pots are too expensive around here.
indoor gardening advice wanted
@rra @iamegg Did you find any interesting designs for this? I'm interested in doing something similar, also ideally without tubes. I recall seeing one in a book I had from the library here – it had a long covered trough with holes cut in the top for individual planter pots which hung down but did not touch the bottom. Each pot then had a cloth wick that extended down into the trough which would be automatically or periodically refilled with water (+ maybe fertilizer).