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cobarchie

What to do when your earthtainers completely dry up?

Cobarchie
11 years ago

I tried posting this earlier but can't find the post. Sorry if it's been moved and I repost...

I've been watering my earthtainers from the top for the first several weeks as Ray suggests in his instructions. When I water, there is still water in the reservoir and the plants are doing well, so I assume the grow media isn't drying up. I watered 4 days ago but this heat must have taken it's toll as today I noticed all my earthtainers are bone dry in the reservoir and the grow media is dried up too.

The plants are fine (they look a little stressed from the heat after going dry) so I imagine I'll be able to save them, but I'm wondering about the wicking action of the SWC concept. Once it dries up, will it ever work again?

I put some amazingly heavy duty tape on the drain holes on a container and watered from the top until the water was about 5 inches from the top of the fill tube. The tape held all the water in and I let it sit like that for an hour or two. I then pulled the tape off of one side and captured all the water to use in in the same manner for the next container.

My best estimates are that I put an extra 7 or 8 gallons in the container. I figure everything up to 5 inches below the top of the fill tube is super saturated, and having watered from the top right next to the plants, I figure I should be ok to just fill the reservoir from now on (and keep it filled).

I was just wondering if anyone had any experience in rewetting a SWC and if it kept self watering afterwards. Ray says it takes days to rewet one after it goes dry...

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