Never let it be said I don't try new things! My latest kick is rooting my plants in leca and net pots. Those in the prop box seem to be doing well. So, I took it a step further. I took some of those net pots (yeah, I ordered a bunch of the 4" ones on amazon) and picked up some orchid mix at my local Lowes. I've taken some hoyas which I deemed necessary to repot (only because I wanted to try another experiment) and repotted them using a orchid mix and some added pearlite. I watered them in really well, then placed them into a cache pot.

Now I have a net pot, with a rooted (I hope) hoya in it, sitting inside a waterproof cache pot. When I water the net pot, I let it soak through, then empty the cache pot of any excess water. (Hope I'm not confusing anyone yet) and simply plop the net pot back into its cache pot. The medium stays a little wetter longer, but the plants are not smothered or soaked.

Now here's the $64,000 question - if any of you are using net pots - I am thinking of taking a rain gutter, mounting it on the side of my shed, and placing the net pots into the gutter. I would angle it such that any excess water runs out of the gutter and into a barrel to use later. That's my plan once the weather warms up.

What I'm not sure about is do I place the net pot by itself in the gutter, or do I still need some type of cache pot (maybe one this time with a hole in the bottom to allow excess water to drain) which would then allow rain to soak the plants, but the excess water would drain out the cache pot hole and not saturate and smother the roots, but rather just drain into a bucket.

Are any of you using net pots outside during the summer, and if so, how are you doing it? Or am I just wasting my time and money in this approach and over thinking everything?

Thoughts? Suggestions?