Justaguy, Tom Mobley has a had unbelievable success with just 14 14 14 in his pot n pot method. I am totally new at this business, my dad who just past away this year at 99 always had a large veggie garden in NC, but I was never interested until now at 72 ! I have put some MG in the water once they started blooming, but this first big beef is unbelievable (seems to be my favorite word this morning :>)). Our weather here is very subtropical, I have two very large mango trees that people said would not survive this far north and west (away from the Atlantic and gulf stream), but put them on the South side of my 12 cbs wall of the hangar and they have done extremely well. People keep tomatoes producing here from fall until June when it apparently is so humid that they fail to set new fruit. Typical day high here summer is 92 and 90% humidity and 70 low at night. Lots of rain in summer, we've had zip where we're located here west of port st lucie this winter and spring. Sorry about how dark the pictures turned out and with my palmetto background it is really hard to see how large the first bigbeef is in the bucket. Will try again to make a picture. bernie

Im using two sub-irrigation planters from Walmart with my standard 1:1 perlite and peat-based potting mix or pine bark fines with some CR fertilizers and top dressed with a thin layer of compost. Neither the planters nor my potting mixes smell. IÂm, however, not using these self-watering planters as you are or as instructed by Earthbox. The Misco Wal-Mart self-watering planters IÂm using have exposed and removable bottom water reservoirs. Since I am gardening under semi-protective shelter on a balcony and for various unique and horticultural reasons, I opted not to use and cover the potting mix with plastic mulch during this trial period. My potting mixes in these planters are not protected from Texas downpours and humidity. Under recent prolonged rainstorms and not being able to deliver and retain the necessary fertilizers to correct prior nutritional deficiencies, my transplanted gardenias showed emerging water stress - increased yellowing and browning of the leaves; hence, I also chose not top off the water reservoirs after the first week of use. A few days ago, I relocated the pots to let the potting mix dry out between rains to facilitate the movement of oxygen to the roots more efficiently and only filled the reservoirs partially with a weak acid-loving fertilizer solution. Any visible progress was slow. Instead of risking damaging the roots by watering and delivering the needed soluble nitrogen and micronutrients to the potting mix and the roots or further delaying supplementing the needed fertilizers and micro-nutrients until the potting mix moisture is ready, I also made due with a temporary weak concoction of acid-loving fertilizer foliar spray. The temporary foliar spray made a quick visible difference. The two gardenias have stabilized and are both doing well in the Wal-Mart sub-irrigation planters and with empty and partially filled water reservoirs. I project based on my short-term experience of using the Misco sub-irrigation planters so far with my fairly light mix and under my current wet growing conditions, topping off the water reservoirs may only be necessary periodically during vacation or hot and active growth periods in mid-summer growing conditions. Odor invariably has to do with soil moisture control and air movement. The wet rag smell is due to poor aeration, which can be caused by many factors such as, waterlogged growing medium, overpotting  little or no water and air movement due to reduced plant respiration and transpiration, emerging bacterial/fungal population, the use of plastic mulch for the wrong plant, climate/zone/season, or on the wrong SW planter, stale, unmoving, under-utilized water in reservoir over prolonged period of time, or any combination of the above. In theory, all passive sub-irrigation planters, small or large, closed or open, and without the use of air and water pumps, work off the same principles. Unless a design violates and neglects some physical laws in a major way, any differences in the effectiveness between planters should not be significant enough that they can't be easily accomplished in another way or managed by proven horticultural practices. Moreover, any advantages over hands-off effectiveness and good designs of one sub-irrigation design over another may be neutralized and less essential as in meeting the diversity of growing conditions and horticultural needs of different plants. In any case, itÂs more economical and effective to increase soil aeration (and/or the effectiveness of capillary action) by modifying the potting mix directly rather than shopping for the best sub-irrigation planter. Even if one has the best passive sub-irrigation planter on the market, the composition of a potting mix is still a leading consideration with respect to the needs of the plant and specific unique growing conditions. Other than the viewable exposed water reservoirs (an advantage or disadvantage depending on perspective) that may compromise the health of roots in extreme micro-climates and temperature fluctuations, or may subject them to attacks from insects (not an issue yet in West-Nile country Texas but the opening can be covered or insulated), I kind of like the simplicity, the functional flexibility, and the prices of WM's welf-watering planters, especially when the same laws of physics apply in all passive sub-irrigation growers. While there has been a lot of intervention on my part with this current semi-open sub-irrigation setup exacerbated by frequent downpours while trying to correct certain nutritional deficiencies in the first few weeks of this trial period, I am satisfied with the progress made by my gardenias in the Misco Self-Watering Planters. There is some appeal in branding a method or a planter as hands-off user-friendly, but my primary interests in using sub-irrigation planters and hydroponic systems in gardening are not for hands-off benefits but to be surrounded by nature, eat clean nutritious foods, grow things well with less efforts and higher yields while conserving resources  water and fertilizers to reduce environmental pollution. There is no buyerÂs remorse so far, but without testing the planters over at least one summer and winter and in other pot sizes, itÂs still too early to reach a verdict about the value of the purchase or future purchases.

I would use a standard pot, but just make sure that it is large enough so that the volume will hold moisture more than a day. Twice a day watering seems excessive! Even in dry California, where humidity is 10 percent and temps are between 90F and 100F, I don't water my Citrus in small pots more than once every 2 - 3 days. I'm using 5-1-1 and modified Gritty Mix, as well, and love it. Josh

Hi Rina, You are right. The past 2 weeks it has rained a lot and I had to build a temporary shelter for all my potted plants - even the ones without the outer container. Drainage is not a problem with the addition of the coconut coir. Some of my bottom containers have holes that make sure only 2 inches of water remain there. The one in the photo does not have holes because the space between these 2 containers is narrow and I don't want to keep on adding water every 2 or 3 days. I grow tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, swiss chard, kale, various herbs, etc. Bell peppers, strawberries and zucchini are doing exceptionally well in this setup. Younger plants [with few and small leaves]not so well.