Wicking Containers - Part 4

What plants do well in wicking beds?

From my experience the best plants for the wicking beds are those that like a bit of moisture and are fast growing, so the usual salad leafy greens, tomatoes, capsicums, eggplant, cucumber, turnips, carrots, shallots, chives, strawberries, water cress, and Stevia (candy plant). Onions did okay as well.

My zucchini did not do so well, getting mildew, peas and beans did not cope either. The brassica plants such as kale have been fine, but cabbages not so good, being more stressed and more prone to pests. I also had trouble germinating many crops from seeds, such as parsnip, some types of cucumbers. I think the higher water content meant that many of the seeds either rotted in the soil or damped of quickly after sprouting. So, it may be better to start your seeds in punnets and plant out once they are a little bigger and have a better established root.

There are many pros to using a self-watering planter, and only a few cons:

• It makes keeping your plants adequately watered so much easier and takes the guessing work out of gardening.
• There are multiple options available when purchasing or building your own types of pots/containers/beds.  The type that you choose really does boil down to your personal preference, as well as the size that is needed. However, bought planters can be expensive
• Self-watering containers are especially useful for vegetables or any plant that is needing to be constantly watered.
• In some cases, you will probably find that these types of plants appear to have higher yield amounts and look fuller when using a self-watering system.
• However, there are some plants that do not thrive with an excess of moisture and should be avoided when using a self-watering planter.
• Single layer containers can get hot in the summer, so may need some insulation to stop roots getting too hot.

Future plans?

Whilst having self watering linked wicking beds can save you a lot of labour, I may look at setting up some stand-alone beds which I will hand water to grown the larger rambling crops such as the melon, squash, pumpkin family, so I can spread them out a bit. The other reason to do some stand-alone wicking beds is I can then vary the moisture content, having some drier or wetter beds to accommodate specific needs of the plants. I would really like to grow, some semi-aquatic plants such as, water cress, water chestnuts and wild rice.

 

Well, I hope this has helped, and maybe inspired you to have a go.