Btw, I tried to resolve this mystery in one of my other posts on "Container Soils - Water Movement and Retention" and seeking comments from the experienced ones. ----Quote---- Moving on I am thinking of trying out Self watering containers. I was just wondering as to why it works and why the water is not being wicked up infinitely and result in root rot. The reason that I came up with and I would need the the experts confirmation / comments over here is this 1/ A self watering container is constantly sitting above water and after all the soil in the container has just enough moisture, the water keeps on wicked up until PWT levels are reached (an a portion of it may well be inside the pot itself). Now since the soil at the bottom is constantly in water, the roots do not grow into that PWT area and remain above that level for entire life cycle of the annuals (veggies) and they keep on getting the moisture and the air at the precise time that they need. 2/ On the other hand if we were to keep a container already having roots reaching the very bottom of it (the container) in a saucer full of water, because of the PWT the water will get wicked in through the drainage holes and getting the plant over watered since the roots in the PWT area will rot. 3/ Now that would mean that to make a very easy self watering container would be to let the container sit in the water saucer (perhaps an inch deep) and the potting soil will wick water up and also maintain that PWT. In order for roots to not reach the PWT area, we must ensure that the saucer is always full of water. (Ofcourse the container should be deep enough to allow for both PWT space and the enough free soil space for the roots) Am I reasoning it correctly? ----Unquote--- I did get a reply but I am still trying to understand it :) You know a newbie can have trouble understanding everything the experts say....

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

Thanks for bumping. I am building the 18 gallon tote SWC. What is the middle smaller pipe for in the very first picture, filling ? I am thinking about putting the filler tube inside one of the corner 4" pvc support. Originally, I was going to put the 14 gallon tote inside the 18 gallon tote. This allows about 6 inches of space for aeration and water, which is plenty, even too much if you ask me. It seems 14 gallon is plenty of space for the mix. But I am thinking 4" is plenty for the aeration and water rather than 6". I don't mind filling every other day. It's only 5 containers and eventually probably set up automatic watering. Anyways, so there I was at lowes getting ready to buy the rubbermaid 14 gallon tote. Then I see the sale price for 18 gallon at $6 and 14 gallon at $7.47. Sheesh, paying more for less material. http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productList&N=4294961544&Ne=4294967294&Ntk=i_products&Ntt=rubbermaid+gallon So I decide I am just going to put one 18 gallon into another. I will use 5 piece of 4" X 4" support to allow more space for water but at the same time give almost 18 gallon of potting mix. There will be small gap the 18 now won't sit snug on top of the other one. Comments welcome.

actually, the Gardner's Supply Self Watering Container has niether aeration pipes nor an aeration screen. I don't have an empty one, but when one finishes I will post some pictures. they are doing great for me and NancySil (of PVC trellis for earthbox design fame) has also used them for years. I have 5 of them side by side with a real Earthbox, and they are doing as well as the Earthbox. Joe, why don't you get one for next year and try it...may stir your creative juices some more!!!! I will try to remember to let you know if they go on sale at GS. I have pictures of the interior of the Johnnie's Self Watering Container you show on your site, if you would like them... I also have some photos of the new ones from Johhnies, which I don't like as well because it is slightly smaller than the old one, not as easy to patch if holed by a moron with a weed eater, and only has one water exchange spike into the bottom. I am making some of my own containers with 5 gallon buckets from HD and Lowes, some 5 gallon square pickle buckets, and also more from 4 gallon drywall compound buckets, which have the singular virtue of being free - every drywaller is dying to get rid of them w/o having to pay for disposal...a neighbor has a drywaller acquaintance who will even drop them off in his yard!!! I am using a standard design such as most are using, but have standardized on using 2 10oz clear solo cups in the base for water absorption....obviously much less volume is needed since the new style Johnnies has only one small spike of maybe two ounces going into the water, and it is supporting a giant Druzba tomato quite well, thank you....just can't really get my mind about that, though...in any case, I think it is probably impossible to have too much volume in the water absorption probes, but fatal if no water is getting into the root zone, so I have choosen to err on the side of excess. anyone with 70 tomato plants (almost all in containers) for a family of two cannot be accused of excess in any other way!!! Michael P.S. also have a lot of happy friends!!!