posted 5 years ago
We have similar issues indoors when the seasons change and we go from just barely being able to keep up to sometimes courting root rot.
I have thought about using that horticultural sponge padding stuff that you see sometimes in hanging baskets, the stuff derived from the organic waste stream, that people use as pots or to line their pots, so that the plants' root zones air-prune themselves where they encounter the air spaces in the surrounding medium. I was thinking that the same technique could benefit container plants. I think that if your wicking layer was on the outside of the air zone layer, it might wick moisture up and transfer it out.
And you might have success if you take one of those terra cotta spikes with the wicking lines in it, install the terra cotta dry, and have the wicking lead down below the level of the container. If you see water dripping from it, slowly, you'll have your answer.
-CK
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein
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