Passive hydro using soil in pots???

Hi ive got a quick question about soil pots use in passive hydro.

Im keen to stop hand watering my pots and just do a passive hydro method, im planning on just getting a Garland tray with high sides and putting my 11 litre pots in and putting the nutes/water straight in the tray rather than individually hand watering each pot. The pots all have small holes in the bottom so Is the capillary action of the soil going to be good enough so that the plants stay constantly watered and fed, but not too much so that i get root rot?

Would it be best to just have a couple of inches worth of water in the tray at time to allow the soil to dry slightly between each feed. And will the rootballs get evenly moist this way?

Any advice appreciated.

switch said:

Hi ive got a quick question about soil pots use in passive hydro.

Im keen to stop hand watering my pots and just do a passive hydro method, im planning on just getting a Garland tray with high sides and putting my 11 litre pots in and putting the nutes/water straight in the tray rather than individually hand watering each pot. The pots all have small holes in the bottom so Is the capillary action of the soil going to be good enough so that the plants stay constantly watered and fed, but not too much so that i get root rot?

Would it be best to just have a couple of inches worth of water in the tray at time to allow the soil to dry slightly between each feed. And will the rootballs get evenly moist this way?

Any advice appreciated.

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Interesting Q. Sounds legit, almost like how hempy works with a two inch reservoir at the bottom of the bucket to wick up into the perlite. I dunno much about soil tho and I like my hempy bucket to be dry before I feed or water. Hmmmm. Don't really know about soil tho.

you want to build a auto watering system for your soil garden
that can be done if you wish, although i think most folk tend to do it manually even with pretty large gardens
you can use a hose and sprayer and just time it so you only spray the soil of each pot for 10 seconds each or whatever
you will know that 10 seconds = 1 liter or whatever

since soil can dry out more so when the room is hot, or when the plants drink more at differnt times of growth
soil requires a more complex system, to automate
with hydro you just fill the res to the set position each time this never changes
so is easy to automate with a timer or float valve

are you sure you want to stick with soil as you mention hydro
you could fill your pots with a soiless mix instead of soil and supply nutes with the watering
this would allow for more frequent watering without worrying too much about root rot problems

i think it is better to water from the top of the soil evenly so the whole pot is filled and water just starts to trickle out the bottom
then allow the soil to dry out until its almost completely dry before you water again
i think this is preferable than giving them smaller amounts of water daily which will mostly saturate the top of the soil while the bottom becomes dry

peace

Top drip drain to waste. And it isn't hydro once you introduce soil.
Perhaps you mean soil-less mix or coco.

You can do this, lookup Earthbox and Global Buckets. All it is is a Wick System. Also head to GrassCity and searc for NoobWannabs Ghetto SIP system. It works better with organic though because you don't have to feed

You would need some sort of wicking. If you just straight up bottom feed you will drown your roots.

autopots work by flooding the bottom http://autopot-usa.com/useful-info