I know what you mean. Even with my small collection, I find that the plants that aren't in my self watering planters tend to get too dry between watering. I like the idea of wicking, but haven't found the time to get a wicking setup going yet.

If you can't repot into self watering pots, I can only think of one thing; you could try capillary mats. I haven't tried it myself, but it seems like a clever idea. It's kinda like wicking, but without the wick. You get a special mat, which I understand is sorta like felt made out of fiberglass, and keep one end of the mat in a resevoir. It wicks the water evenly across its surface, and up through the drainage holes of pots placed directly on its surface. The trick is making sure that the potting media is in direct contact with the mat.

I hope that helps. Good luck with the new job.

--Allan

I use a combination of wicks & matting now. I had a problem with matting alone, many times the pot wasn't making proper contact, and the soil would dry out.

Opposite problem with wicking.....even tho I ended up trying 50% perlite, I still lost many plants to over wetness. Not to mention needing to wash algae & scum from wick pots on a regular basis.

I use four layers of 100% acrylic craft felt from the fabric store as a mat, cut to fit my trays. Felt with any fibers other than acrylic will rot quickly, so read the bolt end when buying. I prefer black or dark brown so algae and dirt aren't so noticeable, and once a month I wash them on gentle, double rinse, no fabric softener, and hang to dry. When weather permits, I hang them outside in the sun. I use acrylic yarn for a wick.

The wick ensures that there's always contact between the soil and the water source, while the mat allows me more control over how much water is available for the wick to soak up. It was the perfect solution for me.

In the old days before white matting became an item you could buy, we used baby blankets made of anything that was not cotton (which will rot).

We just cut up old blankets into sizes to fit the tray, placed plants in good contact with the blanket and poured fertilized water into the trays. It is pretty easy to see a dry mat so you know when to water.

I have used wick watering for standards and used nylon panty hose as wicks. Soil must be changed when using the wicking method because the soil stays damp continually. You have to cut the mix with an extra part of perlite for good drainage.

When I started wick watering I used pickle jars, mayonaise jars, etc for the container of fertilized water. Now I use Glad type refrigerator containers purchased at the dollar store 4/$1.00.

Nancy

I use the Oyama planters. I buy them off Ebay from Blooming Jungles. She'll combine shipping for 3 orders of 3 packs. I keep a water bottle with fertilizer with my AV's and when they're dry I just fill the resevoir. I water about every 5 - 7 days. :) Christy

I used to sit my african violets in dishes of water when I was at graduate school. There was no time to keep them wet.

Just sit the pot in what ever bowl you have handy about the house, cereal bowls work really well.

Then just refill the bowl with water as needed. I found about an 1" or so over the bottom of the pot worked well. Less and you run out of water.

Prettyphysicslady -

It all depends on the soil and your preferered method is called a Texas method. But - you need to have a really light soil and you need to have an inch of perlite on the bottom of your pot. Plus extra air - like make a row of holes in a pot one inch from the bottom.

An excellent description of this method is in the book
Growing to Show: How to Grow Prize Winning African Violets by Pauline Bartholomew - really good book!!!

But - a lot of people here use a store bought AV soil or even keep the violets in the soil they brought them from Walmart. I am convinced that - an inch of water for the violets in a heavy soil - and they are dead in a month.

A good friend of mine keeps her violets on trays - like school cantine trays - and when they go dry - she pours the water on the tray - you cannot put an inch of water on a tray, may be 1/3 of an inch - and 30 min later removes the extra. I think you eventually can figure out how much you need to pour so everything gets absorbed.

I think timewise it is fast and neat.
Of course it depends on the size of the collection as well. I think a lot of us - me included - accumulate so many of them that you cannot care for them properly and you cannot enjoy their bloom and whatnot. With any approach - there is still a limit when the collection becomes too big. You have them in pots - may be 30, you have them on mats and wicks - may be 300, but we still reach the saturation point eventually.

I.

Irina, I'm so glad you responded to the inch of water...most of my plants would not live long that way! I have been putting my baby plants, now that they are getting bigger onto a tray with an acrylic blanket cut to the size of the tray underneath the pots. I water the blanket to sopping and check later that the plants have absorbed the water, if they have, I may water it a bit more. I let the blanket dry out some between waterings. This has worked well for me. I learned about it at one of my violet club meetings. If you are going to put a blanket or felt (thats a good idea too) in the bottom of the aquarium, watering a little less might be better, it will hold the moisture and humidity in with the plants longer than out on a tray like mine. You must have a large aquarium to need an hour to water your plants! Hope you work something out. Underwatering is better than overwatering!, you just don't want so dry that the flower buds dry up.

Lilypad -

You are right - in one month they will be ALL dead. I thought about 2 weeks, then decided - if we want to eradicate them all - 1 month covers it.

But you know - what Prettyphysicslady suggested - works like charm with my streptocarpus plants. They do not want to be constantly moist. They do better in drought-n-drown - Texas method for me than even Oyama pots. But - I make soil really light - 1:3:1 -peat- perlite-vermiculite - and put an inch of perlite to the bottom of the pot and I use orchid pots with slits to add more air. Otherwise - wait until they start drooping - and add an inch of water in a tray.

About your blanket idea - it works great. Just in case of the contact problem - you can always stick a wick in your baby pot bottom - it guaranties that the capillary action will work. I stick a short piece of a mason twine #18 from HD in Solo cups, wet blankie on the bottom of the tray and put a dome on my transplanted babies for a couple of weeks.
I agree that just moist blanket gives the humidity - and it is not too wet for them to rot.

Cheers

I.

My ultra-cheap method is to use cookie trays and green scrubbies from the dollar store. I do have to use short wicks to ensure contact, and the trays rust (I have new ones that I'm going to paint to avoid rust; currently they're lined with plastic wrap -- really ugly), but it works pretty well, and you just throw the scrubbies in the dishwasher.

I understand if you can find a cheap acrylic velour blanket (the velvety kind), you can cut it to fit and you dont't have to worry about wicks. You can throw them in the washer. I haven't gotten around to looking for one beyond the thrift stores.

I'd love to try Texas watering, it sounds like a great idea, but by the time I put 1" of perlite in the bottom of my tiny pots, there's no pot left!

Korina

Tick: And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit.

Korina - hi,

I do not believe that there is a kind of mat that cannot suffer from loss of contact with the pot. So - I agree with you - wicks help.

I buy acrylic throws in Walgreens - when they go on sale - and get the charcoal ones - doesn't show the dirt and algae that much. You can get to the fabric store and dig in small leftover cuts - also works OK.

I.

Fabric stores. D'oh! And I was at Jo-ann Fabrics just a couple of days ago.

Korina, colored embarassed