Water bed for plants ????

17 years ago

I just read an article on DG about making a dugout area about 2 Â3 inches deep line with plastic. Then fill with water and set 1 gallon or larger pots into the water. It is supposed to water from the bottom and cut watering time, save nutrients and provide better growing conditions than the use of my natural sandy soil. The bed would be about 40" x 10 Â.

Your thoughts ????

Maybe the link will work?

Here is a link that might be useful: Water bed for plants

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Comments (8)

funinthesunincl
17 years ago
Very interesting...but, I also live in Z9 Texas coast, and I know what I would be concerned about with the standing water...

Just a thought...

~MJ
karyn1
17 years ago
I think it sounds like a great solution for your soil conditions. Watering from the bottom is better, just not practical for most of us, especially with large pots.
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karyn1
17 years ago
You could toss a couple mosquito dunks in the bed to kill any larva in standing water. I'd be more concerned with rot in standing water. Could you make some sort of covered drain that could be uncovered if there was standing water?
jeep461
Original Author
17 years ago
Those were some of my concern. We get free dunks here so mosquitoes are not a problem for ponds and standing water. Now this is the kicker she keeps them in 1-2 " of water 24/7. I have a concern about rot myself. I do not want to do a lot of digging and find out my plants were rotting. The theory I think is that it will not wick far up the pot and oxygen will enter through the top.

Did the link work?
karyn1
17 years ago
The link did work but I didn't read it. It was about 1 am here when you posted. I was awake but not awake enough for that much reading. lol I was surprised when you first said they remain in water 24/7 but then remembered something that I did this past summer. I have a baby pool that I use to water plants from the bottom. I had a couple passies and brugs that I'd set in there and left them for at least 3 weeks just because I was too lazy to move them. lol. They both did beautifully and were in a few inches of water the entire time. These plants all happened to be quite root bound so there was more roots then soil in the pots. I thought that maybe they didn't rot because there wasn't much soil to retain moisture but maybe not?????
karmahappytoes
17 years ago
jeep461. if it's not a bog plant it won't do well standing in water 24/7. Brugs hate to be wet all the time and you will see rot fast! To me when I read it, the first thing was lazy gardener? When I saw the title I thought boy someone has an extra bed and figured out how to keep the plants happy up north in the winter months. It is nice to set them on a warm water bed if you aren't expecting company during the winter months! : ) Great for starting cuttings!
chena
17 years ago
I water most of the plants inside this time of yr by setting them in standing water.. The pots are totally saturated in a fairly short amount of time.. HMMMM...Not sure Brugs would like it.. Funny graphic MJ..LOL
eloise_ca
17 years ago
I read all their posts, and seems everyone felt/experienced this as a great way to grow plants. I would put rocks or some other kind of cover on the edges of that plastic though!