Self watering planters while on vacation

[Dulcimina]

I have a few vegetables growing in pots on my balcony.  The one I'm most worried about is my yellow pear tomato plant.  It's in a 5 gallon paint bucket, and I have to soak it twice a day or the whole plant goes limp.  I don't mind the watering, but I'm going to be on vacation for a week at the end of the month.  It's got 50-60 little green tomatoes, and I don't want to risk losing them all. 

I bought one of those glass bulbs, and stuck it in the dirt last night.  The water had run out by this morning.  I bought a pot with a "self-watering reservoir" at the bottom.  It's just not deep enough for my tomatoes.  I did a google search and found a DIY tricks of putting one end of a string in water and the other half in the dirt so that it wicks water to the plant.  Has anybody got that to work or have a better idea about watering these plants?
 

[jpo]

When my neighbors went on vacation they put a timer on their hose and ran the hose into each pot, including tomatoes.

Seemed to work as nothing has died and all their plants look pretty good.

Not sure if this is feasible since you are on a balcony.

[dragoncar]

That sounds like too much water for the self watering solutions.  Better to get a friend to water.

[pdxcyn]

Timer could work if you can run a drip hose across all the plants, or make a drip hose by capping an old hose and poking holes where you need them. Could probably also make this with pvc pipe. Then just time how long it takes for the system to water your plants and set timer accordingly.

[brand new stash]

You can use a 2 litter soda bottle on the same idea as the glass bulb.  Fill it with water, dig a little hold, stick it upside down in the hole, fill in the dirt around it so the bottle is supported. 

[Dulcimina]

Hey, I think it's working, in that I can get the plastic bottle to drip slowly into the planter by adjusting the cap.  I can't tell if the plant would survive like that for a week though. We've been having a lot of rain, and the temperatures have dropped from highs in the 98F range to 85F range. But I've got something to work with.

[Hotstreak]

A 5 gallon bucket, that must be a huge plant!  I would put it in at least partial shade, and run a string(s) from the bottom of another 5g bucket filled with water to keep it going.  I'd also put a towel or paper bag or something around the bucket to help insulate it from the sun's evaporating abilities.  If your drip line lasts a few-3 days you should be fine.  Tomatoes don't just die when they run out of water.. they come back all right if you set them up to.

For next year, what kind of soil are you using?  That seems like an awful lot of watering.  Is it really just a 6ft tall plant?

[Matte]

Digital timer that goes on your hose, mine was about 50 dollars and does 2 circuits with the ability to add 2 more.  I run two lawn sprinklers and I have my gsrden hose and nozzle set to mist over my tomato and banana trees.  My timer is made by orbit and it can come on 3x a day, you set the days.  I bought it because where I live you can only water 3 days a week and between 4 and 9 am.

[dailycycle]

Since it's moveable, you could drop it off at a friend's house or at work.  That way someone could water it without having to go to your place.

[CanuckStache]

Get a timer and a drip system in place...you can get them really cheap at harbor freight. The just set the time to water in the morning and evening for 10-15 minutes

[nico demouse]

These pots (homemade, cheap, easy) are great self-watering pots for tomatoes or other garden plants. Since you're already planting in 5 gallon buckets, you're halfway there.

http://www.rootsimple.com/2007/01/self-watering-containers/

[CptPoo]

I guess you might already have left for vacation, but I figured I would contribute my $0.02.

I have bought two kinds of the glass watering globes. One set was $10 for 2 larger globes at Lowes and the other was $3 for a set of three small ones from Dollar General. I've noticed that the set from Lowes works phenomenally, and with a medium sized plant provides water for about 2 weeks (in weather that is NOT scorching, I don't know about 90+ degree days yet).

With the set from Dollar General, I have had the same problem as you. I put the full globe in, and it is drained in 30 minutes. I have yet to figure out if it is due to the design, if I am just not sticking them in the dirt correctly, or if it is because of the potting soil. I have also only tried one of the three cheaper globes, so it might just be one that is faulty.

[LMSunshine33]

These pots (homemade, cheap, easy) are great self-watering pots for tomatoes or other garden plants. Since you're already planting in 5 gallon buckets, you're halfway there.

http://www.rootsimple.com/2007/01/self-watering-containers/

These are exactly what I was going to suggest! I have some and think they're great. You'd still need a friend to water, but even the most black-thumbed can follow these instructions: "put the hose in the tube and pull it out when water comes out the bottom."

[Dulcimina]

Before and after of my tomatoes.  It turns out that the weather cooled down while I was gone so watering wasn't the issue; some kind of bug (spider mite??) almost killed the plant.  It's been limping along, and I've managed to get about 150 tomatoes since I returned.

[Dulcimina]

I guess you might already have left for vacation, but I figured I would contribute my $0.02.

I have bought two kinds of the glass watering globes. One set was $10 for 2 larger globes at Lowes and the other was $3 for a set of three small ones from Dollar General. I've noticed that the set from Lowes works phenomenally, and with a medium sized plant provides water for about 2 weeks (in weather that is NOT scorching, I don't know about 90+ degree days yet).

With the set from Dollar General, I have had the same problem as you. I put the full globe in, and it is drained in 30 minutes. I have yet to figure out if it is due to the design, if I am just not sticking them in the dirt correctly, or if it is because of the potting soil. I have also only tried one of the three cheaper globes, so it might just be one that is faulty.

I think it's a design problem. I read some Amazon reviews that said the soil needs to be saturated, and you have to ensure that the stem doesn't get plugged up with dirt. I did all that and it still didn't work.

[Dulcimina]

These pots (homemade, cheap, easy) are great self-watering pots for tomatoes or other garden plants. Since you're already planting in 5 gallon buckets, you're halfway there.

http://www.rootsimple.com/2007/01/self-watering-containers/

I'm going to try this next year.  Interestingly, the author recommends food grade buckets, because the Home Depot buckets could leach crap into the soil.  Oh well.

[ch12]

If you're open to actually spending money: http://joeyroth.com/planter/

Seth Godin wrote about these in one of his books and I really like the self-watering planters. I water my plants by hand, but I've definitely considered getting Roth's self-watering planters many times.

[Carless]

Looking at those expensive self-watering planters, you could replicate them by just burying any container made out of porous clay (like say those cheap red clay pots) provided you picked one without a hole in the bottom (or corked the hole) and covered it with a lid.  Burying a few of those around the garden, or even some sort of covered clay trough should work quite nicely.  I think I'll try this next year.

[nico demouse]

I think those are called ollas...you can buy expensive ones, but can also DIY with terra cotta pots like you said. My dad has been using them in his Phoenix garden with good results.

[ch12]

Yup, they are ollas. And DIYing is the name of the game when it comes to the early retirement/ Mr. Money Mustache areas.