container rope wrap

16 years ago

I'm growing a variety of Salvia this summer in a makeshift greenhouse and I've had some thoughts on wraping 1/4 inch nylon rope through the containers for automatic watering. Never done this before so please excuse my naivety.

I've seen elsewhere where hydroponic setups do well where half a plant's roots are exposed to the nutrient environment and the other half are left dangling in the air...which provides for both air and nutrient uptake simultaneously.

My advice w/ these Salvia so far is to provide for automatic watering through 1/4 in. nylon rope run through the potting soil and out the bottom of the pots and into a nutrient or plain h2o solution.

The idea I've had is this..

Since hydroponic plants do well with such a setup, would it be better if I laced the rope through the soil (container) in only half of the pot, leaving the other half of the roots dryer to accept air intake?

Thanks

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Comments (3)

rich_dufresne
16 years ago
Rubbermiad used to make pots which had a tray under the pot with a wick system that drew the water from the tray up into the raised pot using 0.5 to 1.5 inch wide strips of batting. This left just enough moisture for the plant and plenty of air in the soil, as well as lengthening the time between watering.

I hope you are not going to depend on passing the rope through a series of pots, because water will most likely never go beyond the first or second pot. In irrigation systems, even on a level ground, the emitters on the pipes have to be "tuned" to release their fair share of moisture. Each Rubbermaid pot is fitted with its own water supply.

Batting is airy and has a lot of surface area for surface tension to carry a relatively large amount of water through its cross section. Nylon rope is dense and has little space between its fibers, so it will have little water transport capability.

In the soil, the idea is to have both air and water flow simultaneously, with enough moisture to just coat the soil particles and allow the moisture to pass it on to the next particle, with air flow not impeded. That's why it is a bad idea to really pack potting mix or soil tightly into a pot when setting cuttings or moving up in pot size. It defeats the looseness if the peat, vermiculite, ground pine bark, perlite, etc.
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Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for your reply Rich. Each pot will have its own rope and h2o/nutrient supply below.

Question..how long was the batting in these rubbermaid pots?

Would it be your suggestion to lay this rope through only half the soil in each pot, allowing half the roots to receive water and the other half to receive mostly air?

Thanks
rich_dufresne
16 years ago
The batting should be long enough to fit through the drain holes on both sides and sit at least 2 to 3 inches into the water/nutrient reservoir. Width is a function of the pot size. 3/4 inch wide is good for 5 to 7 inch pots. Capillary action will draw liquid from the very bottom of the pot upwards through the particles of the soil mix. A separation of a few inches between the bottom of the pot and the meniscus of the liquid is OK.