homemade dirt plate: 4 plastic shot glasses with 2, 1/8th inch holes drilled in the bottom of each shot glass. Next, get a plastic plate and cut to size, slightly smaller than the circumference of the 5-gallon bucket. Next, cut holes in the plastic plate, slightly smaller than the circumference of the shot glasses' rim, add glue to the rim of the shot glasses, and press onto the corresponding holes in the lid, allow to dry. Done.
Suggestions: # For better wicking, lightly press the lower half of the soil in the bucket to make it a little more dense. # The "dirt plate" can be made from the inner part of the bucket's lid, with a hole in the middle, to which you can attach the small pot that the plant came in as a support, (one big "leg" instead of four small ones). # Just like @Merry Davis suggested, insert a used coffee filter to prevent soil from clogging the water chamber. Add the used coffee grounds to the soil for extra nutrition, it also improves soil structure much in the same way Bio-Char does. # For a "mulch plate" you can use the potting soil bag: pull it over the top of the bucket, (after filling with soil, of course:), and use the outer rim of the bucket's lid to hold it in place. When you're ready to plant, just cut a little "X" in the bag with a knife, and insert the plant. This way, you're REUSING and RE-PURPOSING, (two of the 3 R's:), all the parts of your bucket, the potting soil bag, coffee filter and grounds, and the small nursery "disposable" pot, saving yourself some money, and reducing waste at the same time :) Good luck :)
I am 100% container gardening this year other than my squash and cucumber beds. I have nearly 40 buckets with peppers, tomatoes, etc. I created wicking buckets out of 5 gal buckets (Home Depot, Walmart, Lowe's, etc). Everything is successful so far this year and I'm having a LOT more yield with the wicking buckets in comparison to the plan 5 gal buckets I have with drainage at the bottom of the bucket. I used drainage tubing and landscape fabric to make my wicking bottoms. I love using buckets!
Hi, I like both designs. I would like to comment on the handling of DRY planting medium. Legionella pneumophila Bacteria can be inhaled with the dust from DRY soil; or planting media. At worst, it can cause a form of Pneumonia that has proved to be fatal for some. It is easy to avoid this risk by ensuring that the planting medium is damp... Simply spray the medium with some water and mix it in before filling your planters, etc. No dust, no risk... Thanks for your time, God bless.
Did not know that and I have sinus, breathing issues so wear a disposable (uncomfortable) mask outside if windy and always around dirt. Thank you so much.
Last year, I created my own bottom watering system, that I used in both buckets, and totes. My system not only grew fabulous plants, but it was ENTIRELY made from repurposed trash, and therefore, COST ME NOTHING!!! I guess I will need to figure out about making a little "how to" video, to share! EDIT- I now put a video on my channel, how I made my bottom watering system, FOR FREE!
Good ideas. Needs some improvements. First, you planted those basil plants waaaay to close to each other. Second drill holes into the sides of the soil cups for more water wicking. Third pack the soil into the cups, greater density, more wicking. Fourth, install an irrigating tube for a true SIP.
I like the dirt plate. Thx for reviewing. I'm going to go to the website. Really looking forward to your book. I have the land but not the time so really looking at the 5 gallon buckets as a way to streamline gardening for me. I've learned by trial and error that veggies need lots of water in containers and that's where I have failed in the past with my containers.
Just a small modificatio, I use similar diy wicking planters. In the "holes" where dirt cups are, I put coffee filters im, so the dirt doesn't go into soil, which could possible block.draim holes. Whatever works!!🍃🍃👍
@@lauraw79 I am presuming that your bucket and it's growing medium all need changing or cleaning once a year anyway. The coffee filters should be checked at that time also. A bit of research might shed some light on whether or not u could find better quality coffee filters, relatively cheap enough to last through a growing season.
If you want to level up. Start in spring with black buckets then when it gets hotter, put the black bucket in the white bucket. Doubles as extra water reserve if you set it right and reflects more light. I use to cook the shells in my fireplace but I found using less and not cooking them won't lime the soil as hard and the grit in the organic matter behaves like soil and slowly releases the right amount.
I have been doing this for many years and the second version is what I basically used I also used it for my window boxes that normally would need watering every day. What I never had was the mulch media you have. That is very interesting. No bugs can lay eggs etc. Thanks for doing this video. Thank you
@@countryrose763 I think as long as you have the soil there it will always rebacterialize honestly. I have no knowledge of any sort haha but just using my noggin.. plus my assumption is you will have to water at some point, this just saves you a week or two at a time? I would be interested in knowing what type of savings in time it really creates. Honestly I enjoy watering because I get to look at my plants daily! Just me though
My first thought is there is a possibility of what looked like just two small holes in the bottom to the wicking tubes being clogged by roots. Net pots have a lot more openings.
Great idea but I don’t know how you would top off the reservoir down below other than just stop watering. Minimizing top watering is a good idea right?
i DID NOT know all 5 gallon buckets dont have a standard size. thank you for that sir :) well thanks for the whole video lol ijs you learn something knew everyday lol that literally made me go "huhhh" outloud when u said that lol
Hello Kevin. Bet you've heard of Square Foot Gardening, but have you heard of the 'next generation', Square Foot Bucket Gardening? I am in the UK and use small 10" ex cut flower water buckets. I know through my subscribers to Home Grown Veg that the preferred bucket in the US is a 5 gallon bucket (about twice the capacity of a 10" bucket). This idea would lend itself well to 5 gallon buckets. I have done some Start to Finish videos that show the buckets being planted with carrots, potatoes, onions, leeks, celery, shallots, beetroot etc etc. Check them out, you may want to 'give it a shot'. Just search on Square Foot Bucket Garden, or visit Home Grown Veg. Stay safe and happy gardening. HGV
I buy these complete and ready to use from my local hardware store, they call them self watering planters. They're square and have the dirt plate in the bottom just like those.
I just put empty jugs with a few holes drilled in the top and a few holes about an inch up from the bottom of the jug and put them down in the bottom of the bucket. The idea comes from gardening with Leon channel.
Ah this is good!! I have a big planter so Im gonna poke holes in a yogurt container for the center wick/support with a plastic plate with holes laying on top and I’ll cut a big holes in the plate slightly smaller that the top of the yogurt container....(so instead of the 4 smaller chambers mine will have one larger chamber) brilliant. I was just looking on it I get a fill it because it’s gonna be so much soil if I fill the whole thing with just soil
This IS one of the best DIY of the recent times , U R a very good man , great ideas . wish every one in the world be like you Bro, be blessed . Cheerrrrrs mate .
I have turned my 5 gallon buckets into a beginners watering system. Let's say you have 6 buckets, 5 of which will have 2 holes in them. One on each side of the bucket, and 1 with only 1 hole. The bucket with 1 hole will be filled to the top with your water, and maybe e en plant food if you so desire. At the bottom side of the bucket you will have a small tube going from the water bucket into your plant buckets. The water bucket will have a valve that will open or close the flow of water to the other buckets. You will go from water bucket to plant bucket to plant bucket, all the way to the last bucket. The last bucket will have a 2 inch high overflow that will pour into another 5 gallon bucket without any holes. This wy you can reuse the water, and the runoff will pick up the vitamins and minerals and nutrients from one plant to the other creating a plant tea similar to a worm tea. This will save on water and renourish your soil.
That cut out you're going to put a peice of pipe in would be best used as a dipstick channel. Just rig up a cork and stick level indicator. P.s. Great design.
@@epicgardening sorry, yeah thats kinda what I meant. Just as an idea to use it for more than just a fill pipe. I could have explained that better. Keep up the good work.
I use 2 liter soda bottles in 3 gallon buckets (3 2 liters just fit). I drill the 2 liter caps and pull cotton clothesline thru to act as a wick. Use 1” PVC couplings to stand the bottles off the bottom of the bucket with an overflow hole in the bucket to keep the water below the level of the caps. I use coconut fiber matting for mulch. Rinse the matting in vinegar solution before use, as coconuts are rafted in salt water. Hanging the buckets defeats slugs and some other pests from reaching them and takes stooping out of working on them. 😊
i had 10 rows of 10' plastic gutter so 90 5 gallon buckets doing cherry tomatoes using landscape fabric inserts i sewed up with a sewing machine from walmart. i bought one of those thin aluminum rolls for roof flashing i guess and made covers for each row with holes for the netcups. i use that real fluffy sphagnum moss for wick material in the netcup. used treated 2x4s to make the frames for the gutters. of course homemade potting soil using a homemade turner much like a concrete mixer you can get at harbor freight. I used all kinds of 5 gallon buckets and bought a 3" hole saw to drill the holes in each bucket. the netcups were something i found on amazon. the rows sat off the ground about 3 feet on metal pipes i hammered into the ground and used a lazer level to make sure all 3 poles for each gutter were perfectly level. the gutters have ends of course and in one end of each gutter i put one of those rubber grommets that a irrigation type elbow that black tubing fit into, then attached each gutter together with the black poly tubing with T's and ran the tubing to a nearby greenhouse to act as the water supply for all the gutters. the water supply was a simple 5 gallon bucket that i inserted the poly tubing into the bottom of it with a grommet like the gutters used, then i added a float valve from a toilet tank thru a hole in the bottom, so it worked just like a toilet tank would, and added a adapter to the valve assembly that a water hose would connect to. the trick with the water bucket was to set it on blocks until the height of the water when it was at its max level due to the toilet valve shutoff, was at the same level as the water filled gutters, or a half inch or so from the top of the gutters. now, the buckets wick the water up through the sphagnum moss in the netcups hanging in the water, and the water just wicks right through the landscape fabric bags full of potting soil, which the bags just sit in the bucket not too to tight, so a little air wicking i read about could maybe happen. It doesnt take long for the tomatoes or whatever plant roots to get down to the wettest part. i did add a mulch to the top of the potting soil to keep any moisture trapped and not drying out top layer all the time. the second year i bought a roll of the 1/4 micro drip tubing and made little lassos for every bucket that cirlced around the plant and hooked them all together to a battery powered water timer connected to the water hose spigot in the greenhouse that gave them top drinks a couple times a day for a minute or so. about the 6th year i had the metal pipes from the electrical dept that were 10 feet long stuck into the ground to build a grid over each row, and i used jute twine to hang from the pipe, they were about 6 feet above the gutters, and i just wove the twine around the plants as they grew. at the end of the 6th year, the jungle created from 180 cherry tomatoes, i had 2 in each bucket, was so thick, as each plant went up to the top and then grew back down and the suckers got out of control, i couldnt keep up, the whole darn thing one day collapsed as the metal electrical pipes couldnt hold it anymore, bending over like the legs of a table giving way. i dug thru it getting big trusses of cherry tomatoes, had about 15 varieties of all colors, must have been thousands of them, until the first freeze killed all the vines. i didnt mess with it until the next spring when it was time to get it ready for the next season, and it defeated me. it was so thick and now all dead and crunchy and scratchy i could barely get it all apart, having all that jute twine just woven all thru the jungle. i think i finished clearing it out by start of summer and just skipped that year, well, that was a few years ago and the buckets are still empty with the same soil and random weeds growing here and there from them, water off so nothing too bushy weedwise. oh, and i even started everything from seed every january, with the jiffy trays and those cool expanding peat pellets, and heating pads all in a old refrigerator with led lights and timers until they were so big then each one was placed in a red solo cup and set in big homemade trays that held 72 cups, to correspond to the peat pellet trays, then set outside on big racks in a makeshift greenhouse with tons of the old 4foot fluorescent lights shining hard on them so they wouldnt get leggy, as i learned they would in previous years with no good light. in the end i cant even fathom how many tomaotes i sold but it wasnt a giant money maker as i would have given them away to the old folks at the VFW or other places around the area people congregated, but people always threw a couple bucks my way. I just took ziplock baggies and added a bunch of random colored cherry tomatoes to each bag and loaded up some wicker baskets, it looked like a norman rockwell painting me in my old pickup truck headed to town with a load of cherry mater filled baskets in the back. and today i started watching videos about the old gutter buckets and its inspired me to revisit my old experiment and tell my tale kinda, as ive never really explained anything about it before, so hence this long comment lol, whew. it was truly an amazing system, and im surprised with my adhd that i kept it going for that many years, some of yall might know what i mean. but now and then i get inspired to go back to old projects, and i have a need to build a jungle again, i dont even care if it collapses again, its just so rewarding walking thru the gutter rows every afternoon tending to the babies. i think next time ill get a big roll of tulle, that wedding veil fabric and make a big enclosure when those darned leaf footed bugs first show up, because they are awful at messing up the fruits with their little pokey mouth piercers, leaving the tomatoe to start spotting up and looking nasty. i think i might try to document it with my phone camera this next time, thatll help me get even more interested in keeping it tidy and presentable. cool im excited, i thnk ill go start making a big pile of potting soil from all the buckets, as soon as a build a phone mount gantry type thing that can swing around the place for some good captures. maybe i better just go to work first before i get too excited lol!
Thank you for introducing this system. I tried the rain gutter system this past season, Lord, did I breed a lot of mosquitoes!!! I covered it, still, i see them wiggling when i check the water. Yes, I put some mosquito repellent pods in the water, it was getting expensive so I transferred all my plants in direct soil halfway through the season where they grew abundantly. I’m sure the rain gutter system is great. I’m in Zone 7B, perhaps we just have lots if mosquitoes here. I love this bucket system , I ordered 5 today to try. Fred recommended covering the drain hole with a mesh or something to that effect re my mosquito problem. Thank you for featuring this and thanks for your informative, practical contents. God bless you & your work.🍁
An improvement would be to add a way to easily check your water reservoir level. Either having a "window" strip from the drainage hole to the bottom or having a specially designed stick to dip in down the refill hole with the fullness measure indicated on it (like checking oil on your car)
Thermal Imagers are getting cheaper, with that you can just point at the buckets and "see" the temp difference where the water is. I use it to check my bee hives from across the yard at night. If there's a hot spot.. there's an active colony. (Just one way to check, takes like 20 seconds to "see" 5-20 colonies)
@@HippocratesGarden Now that's a flaming good idea. I recently bought a laser thermometer (admittedly not a thermal imager) and need to go experiment right now.
Piece of cork or styrofoam on a skewer or inside several linked straws down the water pipe after you fill. Make sure the skewer/straws can freely float in the pipe and the end extends past the pipe opening the same measurement as the water reservoir depth. Mark the last 1/2 in. of the skewer red, and the rest of the visible skewer another color. When all you can see is the red mark, the reservoir is almost empty.
Very Cool. I'm growing redwood trees in 5 gallon buckets & have been concerned I may be letting them get too dry betwix waterings. I'm going to try 2 of these. ThanX pal! !
I would probably add a hole on the side with a plug an inch or so above the plate to prevent myself from accidentally overwatering and allow myself to drain some water out if needed.
I have made a ton of my own version of this. The one thing I would do different is use the lid. Just need a big hole in the middle. Dont need foam in my opinion. That bottom edition tho game changer!
@2:20 couldn’t you achieve the same effect by having some small volcanic rock at the base of the pot rather than a cut out, to support the root ball, allowing drainage and avoiding rot?
I think if it were mine, I'd feed a 1/2" clear tube through the side at the bottom of the pot, and run the tube on the outside up the side of the pot 4 inches. Maybe just glue or tape it to the side. Water-seal the through-fitting, and then you can see what the waterline is at a glance.
1/2 inch aluminized styrofoam for homemade mulch plate. Cut two half circles with notches for plant stems. Aluminum (reflective) side up will add additional light from beneath.
I've been using a rain-gutter grow system for a few years now which is truly self-water via my rain barrels. The title says "self-watering" so I was curious to see how that would be done here but you don't really go into that other than if you manually water it there is a small reservoir. I like the idea of a bottom plate to keep the water from filling up the bucket but in my situation I just use a net cup that sits in the gutter to absorb and wick up the water. Is there more to it that you didn't add to this video?
This sounds so simple, but I can't visualize it. Do you just have the nursery plastic pot resting on the microfiber mop inside the pot without drainage, then fill it with water? How do you know how high to fill the water?
@@haleymackenzie984 so you cut a string from the mop and put it through the holes of the greenhouse pot so it hangs out like little tails. Put the pot inside the the other and fill with enough water so that it doesn't touch the inside pot. Like a couple inches. The mop string is the wick.
Just stick with grow bags sitting in a 3 inch deep or deeper saucer. If you water from the top the saucer catches all the runoff so it can be absorbed/wicked back up into the soil/soiless mix. In hot weather the saucer holds enough water to keep the plants from drying out.
You give some awesome tips and advice about gardening! It's really nice to see it first hand and then try to implement it in my garden. Thanks! By the way you look like your related to the Property Brother's on the Discovery Channel!!!!
I didn't really catch how you get water into the bottom of it again after it's filled with dirt. The one you made has a tube that goes to the bottom of the bucket. Do we just flood the top of this bucket? Or do we just water through the drainage hole?
Hello Epic Gardening: Would you be kind enough to comment on where (at what height) should one drill the drain hole? Meaning, should the 5-gallon bucket carry 1-gallon of water? If so I can just pour a gallon of water in the bucket and use the waterline as the "mark" for where to drill the hole? And should there be a gap between the top of the reservoir and the bottom of the soil, so that the Wicking is the only thing pulling the moisture?
I'm about to go with air pots which will sit on the top of a bucket. The watering is done by capillary effect from the bucket via wicking rope. Dirt sitting in a water is not ideal. In the bucket I install a small air stone and a water circulation pump. Or combined pump.
Root balls form. No matter what you do only half the dirt stays moist. Top watering helps, roots form only in bottom 1/3 of bucket.. Used this method for two seasons. People use this method where water water availability is an issue.
This video got me thinking. I have white 5G buckets with water overflow hole on side 2 inch from bottom and slightly smaller standard nursery black plastic buckets with holes on bottom. Could I just put the smaller black bucket in the bigger one? Won’t the holes on bottom of black buckets allow wicking through soil? Assuming the right type of wickable soil course and maybe I need to put a few stones in to keep small bucket off the bottom? The way I see it there will be a 2 inch reservoir of water as needed? Maybe I am missing something! I might try it anyway. Experimentation is part of gardening.
Question: Have you been able to remove that "scalloped" lid? During the growing season as you water and apply various fertilizers do salts build up in the lower chamber? (Salt buildup being a common problem with all types of fertilizers and grow methods)
Regular garden soil won't work very well. It must be a very "light", potting soil mixture in order for the wicking action to take place. Try playing around with your soil mix a bit and see if that helps....
when you depend on the soil to do the wicking, you do need very good wicking soil. in a simple term, that means, some kind of organic and peat-based soil. i'm sure others may have more customized soil but with that description, you can easily go to any nursery or big box store with garden center, and find the right kind of soil.
Use a small plant pot for the wicking chamber. Make your own base. You can use swampy ground for your reservoir, just cut a hole and put the wicking chamber straight into the bottom of the bucket.
I got the dirt plate and gave my daughter a few in MN and she said she just planted and filled pvc but top is dry -I have one here and tried just with soil and filled pvc and checked next day and dry on top-took shovel to mix and moist but can't do with plant there so what is wrong
How do you know how much to water from the top each time, since you cannot see the reservoir? I worry I would over water and end up drowning the plant.
Nice setup! The only thing I could think of that would improve it would be to make the "mulch plate" out of reflective material so it would reflect light up to the under side of the plants.
Got 7 gal food grade bucket, put in a drain hole in it. Add a 1 gallon jug with air and drain holes, put in a pvc pipe in the jug to fill with water. in goes my soil around the jug, and to the top. cost $2.5 for bucket. cost for top soil peat moss ect.
homemade dirt plate: 4 plastic shot glasses with 2, 1/8th inch holes drilled in the bottom of each shot glass. Next, get a plastic plate and cut to size, slightly smaller than the circumference of the 5-gallon bucket. Next, cut holes in the plastic plate, slightly smaller than the circumference of the shot glasses' rim, add glue to the rim of the shot glasses, and press onto the corresponding holes in the lid, allow to dry. Done.
Or drill holes into sour creme type container
Suggestions:
# For better wicking, lightly press the lower half of the soil in the bucket to make it a little more dense.
# The "dirt plate" can be made from the inner part of the bucket's lid, with a hole in the middle, to which you can attach the small pot that the plant came in as a support, (one big "leg" instead of four small ones).
# Just like @Merry Davis suggested, insert a used coffee filter to prevent soil from clogging the water chamber. Add the used coffee grounds to the soil for extra nutrition, it also improves soil structure much in the same way Bio-Char does.
# For a "mulch plate" you can use the potting soil bag: pull it over the top of the bucket, (after filling with soil, of course:), and use the outer rim of the bucket's lid to hold it in place. When you're ready to plant, just cut a little "X" in the bag with a knife, and insert the plant.
This way, you're REUSING and RE-PURPOSING, (two of the 3 R's:), all the parts of your bucket, the potting soil bag, coffee filter and grounds, and the small nursery "disposable" pot, saving yourself some money, and reducing waste at the same time :)
Good luck :)
Nice job
Brilliant
Why not just use garden cloth and cover a couple of plastic bottles on the bottom and put your dirt on top.
@@dankalas7344 exactly
I was developing a self watering system some 10 years ago...both systems shown are better than where I was going...good work guys.
I am 100% container gardening this year other than my squash and cucumber beds. I have nearly 40 buckets with peppers, tomatoes, etc. I created wicking buckets out of 5 gal buckets (Home Depot, Walmart, Lowe's, etc). Everything is successful so far this year and I'm having a LOT more yield with the wicking buckets in comparison to the plan 5 gal buckets I have with drainage at the bottom of the bucket. I used drainage tubing and landscape fabric to make my wicking bottoms. I love using buckets!
Do you find that 5 gallon buckets are of sufficient size for tomato plants?
Hi, I like both designs. I would like to comment on the handling of DRY planting medium. Legionella pneumophila Bacteria can be inhaled with the dust from DRY soil; or planting media. At worst, it can cause a form of Pneumonia that has proved to be fatal for some. It is easy to avoid this risk by ensuring that the planting medium is damp... Simply spray the medium with some water and mix it in before filling your planters, etc. No dust, no risk... Thanks for your time, God bless.
Appreciate this!
Thank you for the tip to avoid dust. I have asthma so I will be using this tip.
Important information!
Sharron Mainor popp
Did not know that and I have sinus, breathing issues so wear a disposable (uncomfortable) mask outside if windy and always around dirt. Thank you so much.
Last year, I created my own bottom watering system, that I used in both buckets, and totes. My system not only grew fabulous plants, but it was ENTIRELY made from repurposed trash, and therefore, COST ME NOTHING!!! I guess I will need to figure out about making a little "how to" video, to share! EDIT- I now put a video on my channel, how I made my bottom watering system, FOR FREE!
nice videos, checked them out and found them useful and inspirational
Good ideas. Needs some improvements. First, you planted those basil plants waaaay to close to each other. Second drill holes into the sides of the soil cups for more water wicking. Third pack the soil into the cups, greater density, more wicking. Fourth, install an irrigating tube for a true SIP.
I like the dirt plate. Thx for reviewing. I'm going to go to the website. Really looking forward to your book. I have the land but not the time so really looking at the 5 gallon buckets as a way to streamline gardening for me. I've learned by trial and error that veggies need lots of water in containers and that's where I have failed in the past with my containers.
Just a small modificatio, I use similar diy wicking planters. In the "holes" where dirt cups are, I put coffee filters im, so the dirt doesn't go into soil, which could possible block.draim holes. Whatever works!!🍃🍃👍
BINGO
Great Tips!
Thank you
coffee filters would break down overtime, so would need replacing...correct?
@@lauraw79 I am presuming that your bucket and it's growing medium all need changing or cleaning once a year anyway. The coffee filters should be checked at that time also. A bit of research might shed some light on whether or not u could find better quality coffee filters, relatively cheap enough to last through a growing season.
6
If you want to level up. Start in spring with black buckets then when it gets hotter, put the black bucket in the white bucket. Doubles as extra water reserve if you set it right and reflects more light. I use to cook the shells in my fireplace but I found using less and not cooking them won't lime the soil as hard and the grit in the organic matter behaves like soil and slowly releases the right amount.
Suggested improvement: I like to use a fill tube, and a 1" pvc is ideal because you can peak in to see the water level. 😄
How?
Just use a wood dowel!
I would definitely use the tube for watering so you don’t have to remove the mulch plate.
I use a layer of perlite before putting the soil In works great the roots like it
An inch of vermiculite works very well. It is great at wicking moisture.
Love this. Thanks for sharing this. Very generous of you!!
I have been doing this for many years and the second version is what I basically used I also used it for my window boxes that normally would need watering every day. What I never had was the mulch media you have. That is very interesting. No bugs can lay eggs etc. Thanks for doing this video. Thank you
A good design I think! That foam mulch plat will practically stop evaporation, it'll be ages before you have to water that basil plant!
That's the goal! Thanks for checking it out
EcoCentric Homestead Wouldnt the water go stagnant and moldy if it doent evaporate for a long time?
@@countryrose763 I think as long as you have the soil there it will always rebacterialize honestly. I have no knowledge of any sort haha but just using my noggin.. plus my assumption is you will have to water at some point, this just saves you a week or two at a time? I would be interested in knowing what type of savings in time it really creates. Honestly I enjoy watering because I get to look at my plants daily! Just me though
However for when you are on vacation this Is truly epic!
My first thought is there is a possibility of what looked like just two small holes in the bottom to the wicking tubes being clogged by roots. Net pots have a lot more openings.
That wouldn't happen with shallow rooted plants but with deep rooted plants, that is an obvious problem.
Great idea but I don’t know how you would top off the reservoir down below other than just stop watering. Minimizing top watering is a good idea right?
i DID NOT know all 5 gallon buckets dont have a standard size. thank you for that sir :) well thanks for the whole video lol ijs you learn something knew everyday lol that literally made me go "huhhh" outloud when u said that lol
Hello Kevin. Bet you've heard of Square Foot Gardening, but have you heard of the 'next generation', Square Foot Bucket Gardening? I am in the UK and use small 10" ex cut flower water buckets. I know through my subscribers to Home Grown Veg that the preferred bucket in the US is a 5 gallon bucket (about twice the capacity of a 10" bucket). This idea would lend itself well to 5 gallon buckets. I have done some Start to Finish videos that show the buckets being planted with carrots, potatoes, onions, leeks, celery, shallots, beetroot etc etc. Check them out, you may want to 'give it a shot'. Just search on Square Foot Bucket Garden, or visit Home Grown Veg. Stay safe and happy gardening. HGV
Great idea. Thank you for this agreable presentation.
I buy these complete and ready to use from my local hardware store, they call them self watering planters. They're square and have the dirt plate in the bottom just like those.
love the idea. am going to make two for my sister in law that can never keep plants alive... thanks
I just put empty jugs with a few holes drilled in the top and a few holes about an inch up from the bottom of the jug and put them down in the bottom of the bucket. The idea comes from gardening with Leon channel.
LEon is cool
I love Gardening with Leon. He is amazing.
Thanks for posting this. I have never seen his videos. Binge-watching now.
Ah this is good!! I have a big planter so Im gonna poke holes in a yogurt container for the center wick/support with a plastic plate with holes laying on top and I’ll cut a big holes in the plate slightly smaller that the top of the yogurt container....(so instead of the 4 smaller chambers mine will have one larger chamber)
brilliant. I was just looking on it I get a fill it because it’s gonna be so much soil if I fill the whole thing with just soil
thats a lot of weight on one support. .I suggest using 3-4 pcs of 3 inch PVC with holes in the sides and a coffee filter in each
i guess it is like your design. pretty neat to have a stand down there.
I like using rocks in the bottom. Provides trace minerals and provides stability for the cages. Great vid. 👍
rocks take up space that the water reservoir usually needs. it still works but you just have less reservoir space.
Excellent design
This IS one of the best DIY of the recent times , U R a very good man , great ideas . wish every one in the world be like you Bro, be blessed . Cheerrrrrs mate .
Cheers!
I like that dirt plate, very smart! Even the mulch plate, looks like it’d cut down on a lot of maintenance.
I'm going to see how long it'll last without watering!
Epic Gardening - follow up? What say you?
I have turned my 5 gallon buckets into a beginners watering system. Let's say you have 6 buckets, 5 of which will have 2 holes in them. One on each side of the bucket, and 1 with only 1 hole.
The bucket with 1 hole will be filled to the top with your water, and maybe e en plant food if you so desire. At the bottom side of the bucket you will have a small tube going from the water bucket into your plant buckets. The water bucket will have a valve that will open or close the flow of water to the other buckets.
You will go from water bucket to plant bucket to plant bucket, all the way to the last bucket. The last bucket will have a 2 inch high overflow that will pour into another 5 gallon bucket without any holes. This wy you can reuse the water, and the runoff will pick up the vitamins and minerals and nutrients from one plant to the other creating a plant tea similar to a worm tea. This will save on water and renourish your soil.
That cut out you're going to put a peice of pipe in would be best used as a dipstick channel. Just rig up a cork and stick level indicator. P.s. Great design.
You can actually add the 3/4" PVC AND the dipstick, because the bottom of the pipe will be full of water anyways :)
@@epicgardening sorry, yeah thats kinda what I meant. Just as an idea to use it for more than just a fill pipe. I could have explained that better. Keep up the good work.
No worries! Understood and appreciate it my friend!
F*rking C*ntainers Is
Bamboo skewer stuck in a wine cork - analog depth gauge
I use 2 liter soda bottles in 3 gallon buckets (3 2 liters just fit). I drill the 2 liter caps and pull cotton clothesline thru to act as a wick. Use 1” PVC couplings to stand the bottles off the bottom of the bucket with an overflow hole in the bucket to keep the water below the level of the caps. I use coconut fiber matting for mulch. Rinse the matting in vinegar solution before use, as coconuts are rafted in salt water. Hanging the buckets defeats slugs and some other pests from reaching them and takes stooping out of working on them. 😊
Thank you for sharing this video. It seems like a good idea to use dirt plate and mulch plate.
i had 10 rows of 10' plastic gutter so 90 5 gallon buckets doing cherry tomatoes using landscape fabric inserts i sewed up with a sewing machine from walmart. i bought one of those thin aluminum rolls for roof flashing i guess and made covers for each row with holes for the netcups. i use that real fluffy sphagnum moss for wick material in the netcup. used treated 2x4s to make the frames for the gutters. of course homemade potting soil using a homemade turner much like a concrete mixer you can get at harbor freight. I used all kinds of 5 gallon buckets and bought a 3" hole saw to drill the holes in each bucket. the netcups were something i found on amazon. the rows sat off the ground about 3 feet on metal pipes i hammered into the ground and used a lazer level to make sure all 3 poles for each gutter were perfectly level. the gutters have ends of course and in one end of each gutter i put one of those rubber grommets that a irrigation type elbow that black tubing fit into, then attached each gutter together with the black poly tubing with T's and ran the tubing to a nearby greenhouse to act as the water supply for all the gutters. the water supply was a simple 5 gallon bucket that i inserted the poly tubing into the bottom of it with a grommet like the gutters used, then i added a float valve from a toilet tank thru a hole in the bottom, so it worked just like a toilet tank would, and added a adapter to the valve assembly that a water hose would connect to.
the trick with the water bucket was to set it on blocks until the height of the water when it was at its max level due to the toilet valve shutoff, was at the same level as the water filled gutters, or a half inch or so from the top of the gutters.
now, the buckets wick the water up through the sphagnum moss in the netcups hanging in the water, and the water just wicks right through the landscape fabric bags full of potting soil, which the bags just sit in the bucket not too to tight, so a little air wicking i read about could maybe happen. It doesnt take long for the tomatoes or whatever plant roots to get down to the wettest part. i did add a mulch to the top of the potting soil to keep any moisture trapped and not drying out top layer all the time.
the second year i bought a roll of the 1/4 micro drip tubing and made little lassos for every bucket that cirlced around the plant and hooked them all together to a battery powered water timer connected to the water hose spigot in the greenhouse that gave them top drinks a couple times a day for a minute or so.
about the 6th year i had the metal pipes from the electrical dept that were 10 feet long stuck into the ground to build a grid over each row, and i used jute twine to hang from the pipe, they were about 6 feet above the gutters, and i just wove the twine around the plants as they grew. at the end of the 6th year, the jungle created from 180 cherry tomatoes, i had 2 in each bucket, was so thick, as each plant went up to the top and then grew back down and the suckers got out of control, i couldnt keep up, the whole darn thing one day collapsed as the metal electrical pipes couldnt hold it anymore, bending over like the legs of a table giving way. i dug thru it getting big trusses of cherry tomatoes, had about 15 varieties of all colors, must have been thousands of them, until the first freeze killed all the vines. i didnt mess with it until the next spring when it was time to get it ready for the next season, and it defeated me. it was so thick and now all dead and crunchy and scratchy i could barely get it all apart, having all that jute twine just woven all thru the jungle. i think i finished clearing it out by start of summer and just skipped that year, well, that was a few years ago and the buckets are still empty with the same soil and random weeds growing here and there from them, water off so nothing too bushy weedwise.
oh, and i even started everything from seed every january, with the jiffy trays and those cool expanding peat pellets, and heating pads all in a old refrigerator with led lights and timers until they were so big then each one was placed in a red solo cup and set in big homemade trays that held 72 cups, to correspond to the peat pellet trays, then set outside on big racks in a makeshift greenhouse with tons of the old 4foot fluorescent lights shining hard on them so they wouldnt get leggy, as i learned they would in previous years with no good light.
in the end i cant even fathom how many tomaotes i sold but it wasnt a giant money maker as i would have given them away to the old folks at the VFW or other places around the area people congregated, but people always threw a couple bucks my way. I just took ziplock baggies and added a bunch of random colored cherry tomatoes to each bag and loaded up some wicker baskets, it looked like a norman rockwell painting me in my old pickup truck headed to town with a load of cherry mater filled baskets in the back.
and today i started watching videos about the old gutter buckets and its inspired me to revisit my old experiment and tell my tale kinda, as ive never really explained anything about it before, so hence this long comment lol, whew. it was truly an amazing system, and im surprised with my adhd that i kept it going for that many years, some of yall might know what i mean. but now and then i get inspired to go back to old projects, and i have a need to build a jungle again, i dont even care if it collapses again, its just so rewarding walking thru the gutter rows every afternoon tending to the babies. i think next time ill get a big roll of tulle, that wedding veil fabric and make a big enclosure when those darned leaf footed bugs first show up, because they are awful at messing up the fruits with their little pokey mouth piercers, leaving the tomatoe to start spotting up and looking nasty. i think i might try to document it with my phone camera this next time, thatll help me get even more interested in keeping it tidy and presentable. cool im excited, i thnk ill go start making a big pile of potting soil from all the buckets, as soon as a build a phone mount gantry type thing that can swing around the place for some good captures. maybe i better just go to work first before i get too excited lol!
Very informative...excellent money saving ideas
Fantastic mate, I am very happy to learn such a simple technique.
I love how it says “In God We Trust” on it.
Thank you for introducing this system. I tried the rain gutter system this past season, Lord, did I breed a lot of mosquitoes!!! I covered it, still, i see them wiggling when i check the water. Yes, I put some mosquito repellent pods in the water, it was getting expensive so I transferred all my plants in direct soil halfway through the season where they grew abundantly. I’m sure the rain gutter system is great. I’m in Zone 7B, perhaps we just have lots if mosquitoes here.
I love this bucket system , I ordered 5 today to try. Fred recommended covering the drain hole with a mesh or something to that effect re my mosquito problem.
Thank you for featuring this and thanks for your informative, practical contents. God bless you & your work.🍁
Oh god, I feel your pain. I've suffered from mosquitos this year too. Glad to hear you've ordered some to test them out!
Fantastic tip there
Kratky would work well for this, yes
I tried the rain gutter system too, same issue, I even had a misquito net on the entire garden! I'm now kratky all the way, pumps too complicated
Go to your pet fish store and get a dozen or so feeder fish. Drop them in and the mosquito problem will vanish.
An improvement would be to add a way to easily check your water reservoir level. Either having a "window" strip from the drainage hole to the bottom or having a specially designed stick to dip in down the refill hole with the fullness measure indicated on it (like checking oil on your car)
Yeah, for sure. You could do a float tube too
Thermal Imagers are getting cheaper, with that you can just point at the buckets and "see" the temp difference where the water is. I use it to check my bee hives from across the yard at night. If there's a hot spot.. there's an active colony. (Just one way to check, takes like 20 seconds to "see" 5-20 colonies)
@@HippocratesGarden
Now that's a flaming good idea. I recently bought a laser thermometer (admittedly not a thermal imager) and need to go experiment right now.
Piece of cork or styrofoam on a skewer or inside several linked straws down the water pipe after you fill. Make sure the skewer/straws can freely float in the pipe and the end extends past the pipe opening the same measurement as the water reservoir depth. Mark the last 1/2 in. of the skewer red, and the rest of the visible skewer another color. When all you can see is the red mark, the reservoir is almost empty.
Thanks Kev. I like it. Still, I'd like to see the progression of how well the plant develops in this newish system. Follow up?
I did buy your book. Just arrived today!
Very Cool. I'm growing redwood trees in 5 gallon buckets & have been concerned I may be letting them get too dry
betwix waterings. I'm going to try 2 of these. ThanX pal!
!
I would probably add a hole on the side with a plug an inch or so above the plate to prevent myself from accidentally overwatering and allow myself to drain some water out if needed.
I think there are holes in it, shown at 1:50. :)
Yes very cool systems. Thanks.
I have made a ton of my own version of this. The one thing I would do different is use the lid. Just need a big hole in the middle. Dont need foam in my opinion. That bottom edition tho game changer!
@2:20 couldn’t you achieve the same effect by having some small volcanic rock at the base of the pot rather than a cut out, to support the root ball, allowing drainage and avoiding rot?
We use scoria or broken brick in the bottom with side drainage, then a layer of geotextile, then soil. The geotex stops roots invading the reservoir.
@@cassieoz1702 I wish I understood what you just said 🥺
@@onaamada597 do you know anything about wicking pots/beds?
This is really great. You're videos have helped me learn a lot, thanks!
Cool design.
Very cool! I would buy this!
Looks like a winner self watering bucket!
I agree!
Very interesting idea
I think if it were mine, I'd feed a 1/2" clear tube through the side at the bottom of the pot, and run the tube on the outside up the side of the pot 4 inches. Maybe just glue or tape it to the side. Water-seal the through-fitting, and then you can see what the waterline is at a glance.
Wouldn't using clear tubing get you algae?
@@BrendanMcGinley
Yes. Using an opaque tube with a plunger float could work
Thank you for this video is very useful
Love the second idea. It's great!!
Instead of wood block you could use 3inch drain tubing as support and net cups dropped down in the plate.
Cool design
1/2 inch aluminized styrofoam for homemade mulch plate. Cut two half circles with notches for plant stems. Aluminum (reflective) side up will add additional light from beneath.
White is known to reflect light better than aluminum foil quite a bit more.
I've been using a rain-gutter grow system for a few years now which is truly self-water via my rain barrels. The title says "self-watering" so I was curious to see how that would be done here but you don't really go into that other than if you manually water it there is a small reservoir. I like the idea of a bottom plate to keep the water from filling up the bucket but in my situation I just use a net cup that sits in the gutter to absorb and wick up the water. Is there more to it that you didn't add to this video?
Looks good
Free greenhouse pots, microfiber mop, and bottom pot without drainage holes. 6" pots work great for orchids and other small plants
This sounds so simple, but I can't visualize it. Do you just have the nursery plastic pot resting on the microfiber mop inside the pot without drainage, then fill it with water? How do you know how high to fill the water?
@@haleymackenzie984 so you cut a string from the mop and put it through the holes of the greenhouse pot so it hangs out like little tails. Put the pot inside the the other and fill with enough water so that it doesn't touch the inside pot. Like a couple inches. The mop string is the wick.
@@heatheredwards2982 This should be a video on your channel. Great idea!
Great idea and how do you check or know when to water?
Great system, went together quick. good job as usual! love your channel
Thank you!
Norma Lynn I agree!
Excellent design...I love it. !
Wonderful and easy.
I know this is some years ago, is there a way to get the dirt plates if they are still made. Thank you.
This looks like it would work wonderfully. It's been a few years... how did it work out?
Just stick with grow bags sitting in a 3 inch deep or deeper saucer. If you water from the top the saucer catches all the runoff so it can be absorbed/wicked back up into the soil/soiless mix. In hot weather the saucer holds enough water to keep the plants from drying out.
Ur one of my favorites
You give some awesome tips and advice about gardening! It's really nice to see it first hand and then try to implement it in my garden. Thanks! By the way you look like your related to the Property Brother's on the Discovery Channel!!!!
I didn't really catch how you get water into the bottom of it again after it's filled with dirt. The one you made has a tube that goes to the bottom of the bucket. Do we just flood the top of this bucket? Or do we just water through the drainage hole?
Thanks for the information
That was perfect
eu gostei muito deste vaso auto irrigavel , muito obrigado por me mostrar muito bem neste video segue meu like e comentário no seu video,
Hello Epic Gardening: Would you be kind enough to comment on where (at what height) should one drill the drain hole? Meaning, should the 5-gallon bucket carry 1-gallon of water? If so I can just pour a gallon of water in the bucket and use the waterline as the "mark" for where to drill the hole? And should there be a gap between the top of the reservoir and the bottom of the soil, so that the Wicking is the only thing pulling the moisture?
Right above where the plate is in the bucket
I'm about to go with air pots which will sit on the top of a bucket. The watering is done by capillary effect from the bucket via wicking rope. Dirt sitting in a water is not ideal. In the bucket I install a small air stone and a water circulation pump. Or combined pump.
I just built 2 buckets for the wicking I used rockwool in the next cups it's working really great so far just a idea if someone wants to try
Root balls form. No matter what you do only half the dirt stays moist. Top watering helps, roots form only in bottom 1/3 of bucket.. Used this method for two seasons. People use this method where water water availability is an issue.
I learned a lot from your videos, thank you for sharing!
I learn from them a lot as well
This video got me thinking. I have white 5G buckets with water overflow hole on side 2 inch from bottom and slightly smaller standard nursery black plastic buckets with holes on bottom. Could I just put the smaller black bucket in the bigger one? Won’t the holes on bottom of black buckets allow wicking through soil? Assuming the right type of wickable soil course and maybe I need to put a few stones in to keep small bucket off the bottom? The way I see it there will be a 2 inch reservoir of water as needed? Maybe I am missing something! I might try it anyway. Experimentation is part of gardening.
Did you end up trying this?
Question: Have you been able to remove that "scalloped" lid? During the growing season as you water and apply various fertilizers do salts build up in the lower chamber? (Salt buildup being a common problem with all types of fertilizers and grow methods)
I couldn't get mine to wick. I used compost and perlite. Is peat moss the key to get this to work?
Peat is the most water retentive and does a great job @ the bottom to wick up, yeah
I’m loving this idea, thinking the baby holes are too small though?
Regular garden soil won't work very well. It must be a very "light", potting soil mixture in order for the wicking action to take place. Try playing around with your soil mix a bit and see if that helps....
when you depend on the soil to do the wicking, you do need very good wicking soil. in a simple term, that means, some kind of organic and peat-based soil. i'm sure others may have more customized soil but with that description, you can easily go to any nursery or big box store with garden center, and find the right kind of soil.
Use a small plant pot for the wicking chamber. Make your own base. You can use swampy ground for your reservoir, just cut a hole and put the wicking chamber straight into the bottom of the bucket.
Yes I think it looks great .
I may have missed something but how do you water after the mulch plate is installed around the plants' stem?
you need some kind of see-through plastic strip in the bucket at the bottom, so you can see the water level underneath, like a window
I have filled the bottoms of my pots n planters with rocks for years..... wicking the water into the soil
I've used different designs for theses for a few years. I would be interested in getting the dirt plate bases, but the link doesn't open
Very cool dedign! Great ideas!
Thanks!
Love the tutorials.
I love both! Would definitely buy if it was in black. UK urban farmer
great idea, I will make this too.
Very product. I think that would work wonders in my super hot summers 😊
Same!!! I bet Fred would hook you up.
I got the dirt plate and gave my daughter a few in MN and she said she just planted and filled pvc but top is dry -I have one here and tried just with soil and filled pvc and checked next day and dry on top-took shovel to mix and moist but can't do with plant there so what is wrong
How do you know how much to water from the top each time, since you cannot see the reservoir? I worry I would over water and end up drowning the plant.
Does that water stay on the bottom of the bucket forever? How do you put more water in the bottom
Very good sir good idea good information I am ck kharar punjab India say
Nice setup! The only thing I could think of that would improve it would be to make the "mulch plate" out of reflective material so it would reflect light up to the under side of the plants.
Great video man keep them coming!!!!!
Will do boss!
Stephen Hibbert o
Got 7 gal food grade bucket, put in a drain hole in it. Add a 1 gallon jug with air and drain holes, put in a pvc pipe in the jug to fill with water. in goes my soil around the jug, and to the top. cost $2.5 for bucket. cost for top soil peat moss ect.
Cool 😎!