Self watering bucket garden

[RSKY]

After years of fighting deer, coons, and groundhogs I am not putting out a garden at my mother's farm this year. We need to put up corn, purple hull peas, green beans and a few cucumbers to pickle. So the 12'x18' plot beside the house is going to be for green beans and bush cucumbers. Corn will be bought at the local farmers market. Peas free from a friend at church (he grows a huge patch to give away continuing a three generation family tradition). Cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes are to be grown in self watering buckets. I am seriously thinking about using the plastic gutter method of bucket gardening on one of our sidewalks.

Using the buckets has been great for tomatoes and cucumbers for the grandkids. This year I am trying squash, vine type cucumbers and maybe a few okra plants.

Has anybody else tried this method of gardening using the self watering buckets?

RSKY

 

[MossRoad]

Can you show an example of what a self watering bucket is? I've planted in 5 gallon buckets, but provided water to them from drip irrigation.

 

[EddieWalker]

What's a self watering bucket? We use five gallon buckets with a hole drilled in the bottom to water our fruit trees. Just fill up the bucket from the hose and it slowly leaks out to the tree.

My goal is to buy a 1,500 gallon water tank and fill it from a solar water pump, and then run PVC pipes to each bed and drain the tank every day to water the garden. Big project that's always at the bottom of my priority list, but one I think about all the time.

 

[wawajake]

yes what is it ??? ...........I am waiting with anticipation too, my 30 x 30 garden is watered by carrying watering cans from the garage eaves rain barrels 70 feet away. ...and it is getting tiring every summer , so I am raising the rain barrels to give them some head pressure and will run a hose from the first rain 45 gal barrel to the garden and try that this year.............might need to enhance with a pump to push at the barrel end.

 

[MossRoad]

What's a self watering bucket? We use five gallon buckets with a hole drilled in the bottom to water our fruit trees. Just fill up the bucket from the hose and it slowly leaks out to the tree.

My goal is to buy a 1,500 gallon water tank and fill it from a solar water pump, and then run PVC pipes to each bed and drain the tank every day to water the garden. Big project that's always at the bottom of my priority list, but one I think about all the time.

Maybe look into drip irrigation fed from that tank. I use drip in my garden and all of my flower beds, planters, hanging baskets, etc.... Pretty cost effective. :thumbsup:

 

[RSKY]

It is called self watering because you create a reservoir in the buckets for the plant to water itself. This prevents overwatering. When a tomato plant is in full production it will suck a gallon reservoir dry on a hot sunny day so I make a habit of dragging the hose around and keeping the buckets full the first thing in the morning.

Bear with me, a little history.

Supposedly (so I have been told) the method was 'invented' by a couple of American teenagers who were with their parents on a missionary trip to some South American city's slums. The people were not getting much to eat and for sure not fresh vegetables. But there were 5-gallon buckets everywhere. When the boys put plants in the buckets the city dwellers didn't know how to take care of the plants and either let them die from no water or watered them so much they died. The teenagers came up with this simple procedure to allow the plants to get the water they needed without overwatering. In truth this was probably used first to grow pot but it makes a good story.

I will post pictures when I get a chance but here is what you do. You need two five gallon buckets, a short piece of 1" PVC pipe, a netbasket, potting soil, and a plant. Buckets are $2.98 at Lowes, pipe is cheap. netbaskets I bought off Amazon a few years ago, about $10 for twenty or so. Miracle Grow seems to work best for soil. Below is a picture of a netbasket.



Take one bucket and cut a hole in the bottom. My netbaskets are 3.75" so I cut about a 4" hole right in the center of the bucket. The netbasket is inserted and the lip on the basket holds it in place. I drill a few small holes and tie it in with small wire ties.

Drill another 1" hole in the bottom of the bucket right at the edge. This is for the pipe that allows you to put water in the reservoir.

Put this bucket inside the second one, measure and drill a 1/2" hole in the side of the outer bucket right at the bottom of the inner one being sure not to go thru the inner bucket. Put your 1" pipe in the inner bucket so it extends thru the hole and into the outer bucket. Cut the pipe off at an angle and place it back in the bucket.

Your first bucket garden is finished.

When the plant is put in the bucket the roots will go down to the netbasket and pull the water it needs. But, since no water is standing in the inner basket the roots don't rot.

With the cherry tomatoes I plant for the grandkids I put a couple inches of dirt in the bottom of the bucket leaving it unpacked around the edges but packed tight in the center. This allows the moisture to wick up to the roots. Then I put the plant in so there will be a couple inches sticking out the top and finish filling the bucket with soil. You fill the reservoir thru the pipe sticking up out of the dirt. When the water starts pouring out of the hole in the side of the outer bucket you know it is full. I water at the top for about a week then the roots find the water underneath and the plants take off.

Until the tomatoes start producing fruit I only have to fill the buckets every other day or so. When they are producing they drain the water in a day. Pepper plants will drain it in a couple days at the longest. I made the mistake of putting Miracle Grow around the tomatoes last year then dumping a couple tablespoons in the water. All I had was vines and suckers for a couple weeks. Broke down my cheap wire baskets and I had to rig support for the plants.

Second method is using a plastic gutter instead of the outer bucket. Put the gutter on level ground with two by fours on edge around it for support. Place your buckets on the 2x4s with the netbasket sitting in the gutter. Some of the videos I have watched the people have put a float in the gutter that turns the water on keeping the level constant. The people who do that have entire gardens in buckets on small patios.

There are literally thousands of YouTube videos on this and the local Lowes and HomeDepot stores cannot keep buckets this time of the year. I am making a few more tomorrow and as one picture is worth a thousand words I will post a picture of one of my buckets when finished.

RSKY

 

[cqaigy2]

That's pretty interesting. Thanks for the information.

 

[MossRoad]

Oh, pot buckets... why didn't you say so?

 

[smstonypoint]

Oh, pot buckets... why didn't you say so?

Is that your own grow operation?

Steve

 

[MossRoad]

Is that your own grow operation?

Steve

:cool2:

 

[mark02tj]

I did the self-watering buckets a few years ago. I had mixed results.

I didn't know about the baskets you found on Amazon, so I cut a hole in the bottom and then put window screen down in it. It seemed to work pretty well.

You might find that you can buy food grade 5 gallon buckets from donut shops or bakeries. A shop around here will sell the buckets, already clean, for $1 each. Kroger will sometimes give them away for free, but often you have to clean them yourself. Well worth the $1.

With many things gardening related, you'll find many opinions. I was told that bigger tomato varieties (Beefsteak, etc.) were too big for a 5 gallon bucket. I'm no expert. I guess that smaller varieties would be OK since there are so many places selling "patio tomatoes".

One issue that I had was that Sweetie absolutely hated the way they looked! She couldn't stand seeing the 5 gallon buckets all over. Part of this is that our "sunny areas" are pretty limited as most of our property is wooded. I would have purchased some of the better looking self-waterers, but they're expensive!!

Keep us all appraised of your progress!!

 

[RSKY]

So far so good. The buckets are kind of a hassle in a lot of ways. You must water every morning when plants start producing though several people have them on timers. But I got tired of fighting critters in the big garden. So this is all the garden we will have.

Obviously this is not my first year doing this but I have been a little more careful at the beginning. I made sure to buy the vine type, indeterminate, tomatoes instead of the determinate bush type. Then I trimmed all the limbs off about 2/3rds up the stem from the roots. Buried all but the top third of the plant with the roots resting on about an inch of dirt on the bottom of the inner bucket. As the plants have grown I have trimmed the branches and put more dirt in the buckets. After about two and a half weeks the plants are much above the top of the buckets and all have blooms and some have small tomatoes on them. After the lower parts stop producing I will trim the branches, called singe stemming, and force the plants to grow up. I am going to weave the branches into a fence panel instead of using baskets. The cucumbers look to be thriving also but don't have them on a trellis yet. Squash also seem to be thriving. I am still watering the cucumbers and squash from the top but the tomatoes are all taking water from the outer bucket reservoir. I can tell by how much water they take each morning.

Oh yeah, if you do grow vine type tomatoes in buckets you must sucker them once or twice a week or the suckers will weigh down your baskets.

Put in three rows of Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans (is there any other kind?) in my small 15'x20' garden. Will use fence panels for them to climb on. If they produce as the last ones we put out three years ago we will be able to put up at least a two year supply for us and both daughters. Also put out six or seven okra plants.

That is the extent of my gardening this year.

I will post pictures as the plants mature.

RSKY