Hi again JAG2! Your wicking idea to draw up ground water sounds ingenious Thank you. The idea was actually from a friend of mine but I thought it was a great idea too :-) One thought I had is that the wick system draws water up. I wonder what effect this will have on Co2 in the rootzone? If I only water the top of the containers (eg. "soil drench") a few times a month will I be promoting Co2 toxicity in the rootzone? ...and I would love it if you would post back later in the year and let me/us know how that works out for you. I will definitely do this for you! Given that you will be joining your container to the earth, my above comments are not as relevant so don't worry about it. In what regard? Do you still suggest I use ProMix? Or are you referring to the auto-watering system? The only thing I am somewhat uncertain of is joining the container to the earth only via a nylon wick. [snip] From playing around with the concept of capillary action my only concern is that the wick may not be able to move water upward fast enough to replace what the container uses. Me too! ;-) So that's why I'm going to add at least two "wick tubes" to each of my containers. Another thing I'm going to do is "rain scape"[1] my containers. If all else fails I can hand water them from above (if I have to do it the old fashioned way ;-) ) I will be feeding with nutrients via. hand watering by soil drench about twice a month. I hope the soil drench once every few weeks will expel enough Co2 from the air pockets. How long does it take for the rootzone to become Co2 toxic (for lack of a better term)? Still, it sounds like you have thought this through pretty well and all that remains is some experimentation. Thank you. And thank you for your assistance, your further thoughts and opinions are very welcome! [1] "Rain scaping" (my own term, I don't know real title) is big in Ethopia where they simply make two "mounds" of soil about 5-20 feet uphill (does not need to be steep) jetting outward at opposite 45 degree angles from the container/plant. All this does is funnel the rain water towards the container/plant. In Ethiopia they make a little moat around the container/plant by encircling it with the dirt mount thus allow the water to gather and slowly be absorbed. Heck, it may be a good idea to put piece of "capillary mat" under my containers with about 2-3" extra on all sides. I can encircle the "moat" around the capillary mat which should help the plant absorb the rain water more effectively with less run off and wasted rain water...Yah, natural passive hydroponic outdoor container gardening! :-)

It is pretty easy to make earthworm castings in your own home by raising red wigglers. There is lots of good info at the vermicomposting forum. Of course, you will need to buy or find some red wigglers first and wait while they turn your kitchen garbage into to "Black Gold".

If I were you, I'd reserve the castings for potted plants. As long as you have earthworms in your garden, the roses in the ground are already getting some. If you want more castings in the garden, encourage more earthworms by adding things to the soil that they like -- used coffee grounds, unfinished compost, etc. If you don't have a lot of earthworms already, you can also order them. When I recently added composted manure to my beds, I found it to be full of little red wrigglers. I'm hoping they make their way down and start munching on all the leaves and tree trimmings lying under the mulch. It's not that castings would be bad for the garden, it's just that they're a somewhat expensive amendment to add when a garden full of "living soil" would be producing it, anyway. Pots, on the other hand, don't have that benefit. :-) ~Christopher

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that plants grown with vermicompost (or in the presence of large amounts of worm castings) are not as attractive to sap-sucking insects like whitefly. (It's not insecticidal but just a matter of the plants being less attractive than other plants due to some characteristic the castings give the plant.) Unfortunately there isn't very much scientific evidence to back that up, but maybe in the future; the science of vermicompost is in relative infancy. Consistency is the problem. It seems likely that it's happened in a few cases but figuring out why and how, and then making sure your particular batch of castings/compost will do the same thing is difficult and so any attempt is a crap shoot. If you are willing to believe it, then aphids would also be kept at bay since they are sap-sucking as well. The good news is that like any compost worm compost/castings are good for your plants whether they actively suppress diseases and pests or just enrich the plant, so I say it's worth a try. I will second the suggestion to set up your own bin and make your own. It's pretty easy. There's a great vermicomposting forum here on gardenweb and several scattered throughout the internet that will be happy to give you any info you'd like. For now though, buying some castings and doing an informal experiment might be a fun and educational project, as long as the castings aren't too overpriced... Here is a link that might be useful: Vermicomposting Forum