Self Watering Transplant Pot

I grow my own transplants for final planting into my garden because I like to select and try a variety of cultivars. And seed variety is much greater than transplant variety at your neighborhood spring plant nursery. These seeds, grown into healthy transplants, need a consistent supply of moisture. When I was traveling for business, and away from home, I was not able to provide this consistent watering for my transplants. So necessity being the mother of invention, I devised a self watering transplant pot to assure that consistent moisture supply.

Most of you have read about and probably make use of the self watering plant container. Many are available from garden supply stores. For the DIY gardener, the classic 5 gallon bucket or plastic storage tub with a water reservoir, wick and soil zone is quite popular. I use many of these self watering grow containers in my own garden. But they are not appropriate for a growing transplant.

I use a set of six plastic 9 inch Gro Pro Premium Square Plastic Pots, a 34 quart Hefty storage container, 1/2 inch nylon rope and a fabricated spacer for the storage container to make a self watering transplant pot watering system. The nylon rope is used for a wick and is about a foot long. Nylon rope has excellent wicking properties and when it is fed through the holes in the bottom of the 9 inch pot, with a loop inside the pot, it keeps the soil moist. The spacer is made of 1-1/2 inch PVC heavy wall pipe connected together with wood slats. It provides a ledge for the pots to sit on, above the bottom of the tray, creating a water reservoir for the tails of the rope to dangle in. Thus wicking moisture into the soil in the pot.

The six pots, sitting on the spacer, fit nicely into the 34 quart tray. Over the years this system has worked perfectly for my larger vegetable transplants. Keeping them nicely watered, 24/7!