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Growing Roses in Self-watering planters

13 years ago

Has anyone had any luck growing roses in those planters that have the water aquifer in the bottom? They are pretty expensive and I am not sure that they would be worth it as my understanding of roses is that they get most of their moisture through their feeder roots near the surface. The water reservoir is obviously at the bottom of the pot. I am interested because I over-ordered roses (see previous post) and am going to have a bunch of roses in pots this year. I commute 100 miles so there are days in the summer where hubby waters. If I can reduce his burdens while I am gone by using self-waterering planters, this would be a good thing. Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

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Comments (5)

roseseek
13 years ago
I had the self watering pots with roses on my balcony in Canyon Country, CA for a few years. The pots kept the plants alive, but you're right. Unless they get water through their feeder roots, they don't look 'happy'. It was hot and windy there. Unless I watered the soil, there was no keeping buds and flowers looking acceptable. I didn't lose any plants...until the fire in 1996 which took everything away. Kim
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jumbojimmy
13 years ago
I had horrible experience with those self-watering pots. And I promised myself NEVER to buy them again!
You see, roses grow very quickly and they don't like their feet wet.
The one I had has this black plastic layer with tiny holes that you put inside the pot. When it was time to transplant my roses, all the roots had penetrated through those tiny holes and they wrapped themselves around the black plastic layer. They looked suffocating and their roots were wet all the time.
Ordinary, cheap plastic pots are much better than those self-watering pots.
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I use Earth Boxes and Gardener Supply Self watering containers for veggies as well as raised beds. I prefer the SWC because I can locate them near my kitchen door. For a newbie gardener I think a major advantage of self watering containers is there is no way to over water and fertilization is very simple if one uses the Earth Box methodology with a cover. Perhaps buying her an Earthbox (get the bare bones kit for around $30) and if she is internet savvy, the URL to the Earthbox site (earthbox.com). I recommend the EB above all others including homemade for absolute beginners because it has very simple instructions and they also have a forum for people to ask questions. Nobody else offers this. You can even spend a little more and get one earth box kit that has caster wheels if moving it around will be necessary, potting mix and fertilizer all included. There is literally nothing to do besides put in some plants and add water to the reservoir. In other words, there is just growing, no thinking about what potting mix to use, what fertilizer to use, how often or how much to water, none of that. Plug and play system.
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You don't say if the animal was trying to access the water reservoir or somehow attracted to it. If it wasn't interested in that, then it means that a self-watering planter is not important here. It is the animal. If you know what the animal is that was doing that, you can try to discourage it somehow. And in case it was attracted to the chamomile, then if you don't have it this year, you may also be OK.
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montana_rose
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you both for your comments. I am going to save my money and buy some cheap pots instead.
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saldut
13 years ago
How abt. large cheap pots and use a drip system, where you run a line to each pot and it has a drip-emitter for each pot ? the emitter can be adjusted to regulate the water-flow... just an idea.... sally
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karl_bapst_rosenut
13 years ago
The drip emitters are a good idea. They're relatively inexpensive and reusable. The cost would be less than buying the self watering pots. Dripworks has a good system or you can often find a cheaper version at the big box stores.
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