Of course the obvious answer would be to put a bigger catcher (with a wider lip) underneath the container. But I know you already though of that. :)
Or water more slowly & watch for the first signs of it draining? That's what I use to do when I lived in an upstairs apt.

I would suggest posting this on the Balcony Gardening Forum, and see what those who deal with this situation every day do.

Evaporation is unlikely.

The water container is also likely to start smelling worse than you or your neighbors would like.

Your best bet is to get a drip tray that you can attach a drain hose to.

The drain hose can be led to some of the landscaping on the ground or sometimes it can be directed into a drain pipe.

There are hydroponics shops around that sell adapter fittings that may let you adapt your present drain tray to take a hose or vinyl tubing.

Should be less than $20.

Drip trays that are more attractive than your pan are available, too.

It's up to you. (and maybe your spouse)

Do not cut back on your watering.

The average person in an apt. with a balcony has no "grounds" to drain water to unless maybe the are 2nd floor and can try to get away with that, nor is there any drain pipe and certainly a resident with a balcony below is not going to be interested in seeing a tube go by their balcony on the way down to the ground. I certainly couldn't run one down 18 stories - that would be like 150 ft worth of tube.

Aside from getting a bigger drip tray, you could put some plastic tarp underneath the container and saucer/tray and perhaps secure that to the base of your rail to catch the uh ohhs before they go rolling over the side. Even bricks along the opening might help. You may also want to consider doing things that will not require you to water as often (eg., mulch, use moisture-retaining crystals, etc). I have also found that since I have astroturf on my balcony floor, that alot of the overflows that would normally go flying over the side, get trapped by the turf (unless there's alot of excess). So consider some indoor/outdoor carpet or astroturf as some extra assurance.

And do stop by the Balcony Forum when you get chance. We like filling up other people's balconies when our own are filled. LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: Balcony Forum

Balcony section...got it.

I guess I should have looked around more before I started whining.

Thanks

Jenny brings up a good point CorporationsRule.

Do you live in a High Rise or a Low Rise?

Out West, here, the low rise apartments surrounded by landscaping are much more common than the high rises.

Nevertheless, the highest I have seen anyone run a hose to the ground was seven stories in New Jersey.

You have to use common sense in any installation like this. The tubing or hoses have to be clamped, wired or otherwise secured to the side of the building.

In the case of the gentleman in NJ, he screwed several regular garden hoses together and because of the location of his balcony and the shape of the building he was able to run off the side of his balcony and around a corner into a sort of recess that ran up the building.

This was not one of the newer, boxier types of buildings, so there were plenty of small projections that he could wrap wire around to keep the hose from banging in the wind.

This was a few years ago, so as I recall, he went to apartments on the way down and asked if he could reach out the window and attach the wire to his hose. He grew great tomatoes and I'm sure his willingness to share helped him considerably.

Many people simply find the downspout for rainwater and just drain into that.

Depending on your building, the maintenance staff is often able to help figure out drainage issues. I have found that the ability to grow too many great tasting tomatoes greases a lot of wheels.

Sometimes, if you are high enough, you can find some place to lead the tube that the wind will evaporate the water into small enough droplets that no one will notice.

Personally I would suggest covering the bottom of your balcony with something (I used linolium) and then make it so that the water cannot drain out the edges. Then, you put a hole in, stick a drain tube in there, and put it off the side of your balcony so that when you overflow, it will land on the ground rather than your neigbors balcony. This is of course assuming that you are close enough to the ground that it will drip, rather than be blown all over the place by the wind.

Alternatively you could get a wet/dry shop vac and vaccum it all up then pour it down your sink ;)

There are many apartment buildings that have individual balconies that stick out and are not contiguous and that might allow for a getting some tube to the wall separating balconies, to drain. But there are others like mine where all the balconies are contiguous down a row separated with nothing more than a partitition (in my case, an opaque glass one). And those who who are on the ends (like me) might be able to pull a drain tube off, although I doubt the management would approve. I think condo places are more amenable since those are a person's home.

Interesting ideas in this thread!

Personally, one thing I do to avoid this situation is water at night when I can, late enough that my neighbors below me aren't awake. That way any water that might get on their balcony will more than likely not be noticed, as its just going to drain off or evaporate before morning anyway.

ROTFLMAO Skratch! :-D

Why not just dump the drain pan's contents down the toilet every now and then? My DH has an oil drain pan with an attached lid (one piece construction) that has a drain in the center to go into the pan part, and then there's a plug for the center drain and a spout with a plug on the side.

When the oil drains into the lid, it drips into the pan from the center drain, then you put the plug in the lid and carry it to wherever you dump your used oil and use the spout to dump it w/o worrying about it splashing all over.

Another idea would be to create some sort of a "funnel" that all the drain holes drip into, then put an old milk jug underneath, so all the drips are coming out in one spot. Might even be able to make a funnel out of some heavy-duty plastic sheeting (visqueen or tarp) -- use a staple gun to attach it to the bottom edges of the planter with furring strips, and have them all gathered together in the center to drain into a pitcher that you could then dump down the toilet.