Completing the Self Watering Containers at My Parents

Posted on May 10 2009 - 8:15pm by Mike Lieberman

After getting the news yesterday that the vegetable gardening season already started and some plants should already be out, I need to get moving quicker.

I went out to visit the ‘rents place today in Staten Island to make all of the self-watering containers at their crib.

All of the materials were there, so it was just a matter of putting everything together. At their spot, I have am going to have two containers and two buckets set up. Each container took about a half hour to put together regardless of the size.

There are two 30 quart containers that are about 17X12X11. In those I built room for a 3-4 quart water reservoir.

Also going made two buckets a five gallon that’s about 15″ diameter and 14″ height. I built about a 1.5 gallon reservoir in that. The other bucket is a little taller at 15″, but it’s more square shape. The reservoir holds about 3-4 quarts of water.

Each of the containers was marked at the bottom with the reservoir size, so I know for the future.

The biggest challenge is still cutting out the circles, but it’s getting somewhat easier. Cutting the circle around the pipe was a bit of chore. I am hoping that duct tape will sure things up.

At this point I have two concerns. The first is the level of the water reservoirs. Are they too much? Not enough? I have most of them measured off at about one gallon. That’s all part of this project though, documenting and learning for the next time.

The other concern is that the wicking containers and vinyl tiles will be able to handle the weight of the soil. I am thinking there will be some leakage of the soil into the water, but the soil won’t be as heavy because it won’t be water logged.

7 Comments so far. Feel free to join this conversation.

  1. Erica May 12, 2009 at 8:18 am -

    Between the tough guy pose with watering buckets and the lovely throw pillows, you would almost miss the awesome framed picture of Lady Liberty. Love it! If you can get a salad from this living room, you are my hero.

  2. Mike Lieberman May 12, 2009 at 8:38 am -

    Need to get my fire escape set up this weekend and then my Gram's in Brooklyn. A salad is the goal, then I'll done the cape.

  3. Bob June 7, 2009 at 11:44 am -

    Instead of using copper pipe, I would use 1″ PVC pipe, a lot cheaper and easier to cut.

  4. Mike Lieberman June 7, 2009 at 4:23 pm -

    Bob thanks for the comment. I stayed away from PVC pipe because of the harmful potential to leach plasticizers and chemicals into the water, soil and vegetables. Thought that copper would be safer.

  5. Bob June 7, 2009 at 6:44 pm -

    Instead of using copper pipe, I would use 1″ PVC pipe, a lot cheaper and easier to cut.

  6. Mike Lieberman June 7, 2009 at 11:23 pm -

    Bob thanks for the comment. I stayed away from PVC pipe because of the harmful potential to leach plasticizers and chemicals into the water, soil and vegetables. Thought that copper would be safer.

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