Self-watering tomato planters
 

Another interesting post a found over on lifehacker:

Lifehacker - Turn Storage Containers into Self Watering Tomato Planters - Garden

Anyone tried this? Does it work?

At first I was thinking...oh boy...what's this gonna be about.

Now I'm thinking...I am SO building at least one of these. That is wicked!

Thanks Ben!

Ok, so I downloaded and went through all the video's. I'm going to go buy this stuff at some point and make it and see how some of the tomato plants fare this summer using this method.

For those who want to try it, I made a list of everything you need. You'll just need to watch the video's after on how to put it together.

For one of these set ups, you need the following:
* 2 - 31 Gallons (117 L) Rubbermaid (or similar) storage containers
* 1 Pond Basket which will be used as a wicking basket no greater then 6" high
* 4 - #8 x 1/2" soft tapping screws
* 2 of the heaviest gauge tomato cages you can find. He used 54" high x 18" diameter cages that had rails that were 3/16" thick
* 1 1/2" Schedule 40 PVC water safe pipe cut to 19"
* 2" Diameter Drill (I didn't get the other drill bits you need because I had them already...but they're just basic drill bits)
* 15 - 1/8" Wire/rope clips
* 8 - Fender washers 1 1/2" diameter
* 2 - 3/16" x 2" Toggle bolts
* Potting Mix (NOT Potting soil)
* Agricultural or Dolamite Lime (big bag...he didn't say how much...enough to fill the storage container)
* Organic Tomato Fertalizer
* And of course tomato plants

Once I'm done buying and building mine, I'll post some pics.

Well this is lame. I can find just about everything else that I need, but I can't find the stupid 31 Gallon Rubbermaid containters. They have other big ones, but they won't fit as nicely as the 31 Gallon one.

On a positive note, I found a nice water barrel that will fit beside my garden...had to pay the price for it, but I found another 2 barrels that a nearby neighbor is selling a few blocks away which I think I'll use on the other side. Just need to call him up and pick them up, then set them up.

Pictures Hig, pictures! :)

Pictures of what? I haven't done anything yet.

Or do you mean the rainbarrel I bought? It's just this one:
Fiskars Rainwater Harvesting Systems - Products - Waubesa - Cement
But I got it on sale. I would have used a regular cheap rainbarrel, but I needed something that was big, yet fit in the small space I had near the garden. I'll use cheap rainbarrel's on the other side of the house.

I built one of these things yesterday. I used two bins left over from my in-laws move. They were only two thirds the size but hopefully it will work anyway. I used a plastic flower pot (that I drilled a bunch of holes in) instead of the pond pot since I couldn't find one. Ordering the pond pot online is definitely the way to go. I am not growing tomatoes in it but hopefully it will work for the vegis that I planted.

PVC marked NSF-pw is safe for potable water.

Ah cool. Ya I'm sure that will work for any plants. They'll just absorb what they need.

I may have to use the slightly smaller bins, we'll see. I'll check on that pond pot too. I'm going to head to a garden center soon and see if they have one...if not I'll make my own like you did.

I have ABS pipe at home, but I did find some 1" PVC pipe at Homedepot, but they didn't have the 1 1/2" pipe. I'll look at one more place but if they don't have it I'll just use a smaller one.

Well, I found the 29 gallon version of the bucket and picked up Potting Mix yesterday on sale. Can't find any tomato cages yet because none of the stores have their garden section open yet. So...it's just a waiting game now.