At the start of the season I made some wicking Bucket from mitre 10food grade orange 20l bucket. I added water supply pipes and overflow holes and used a hydroponic wicking basket at the base of the inner bucket. Quite an easy project and worked out to about $20 per set up. The first 3 I built had lids on them and were only open enough for the plant to be planted. The idea was less open are for evaporation. The idea works well and the ones without lids tend to need to be topped up about a 2 litres a week. The ones with lids will take 1 if that.
But, there is 1 obvious disadvantage in that there is less planting surface are so 1 plant per pot and I have squeezed basil in with 1pot. The second is with all this rain, the ones without lids stayed full as the water could run through the soil, yes taking some nutrients but think the benefits of rain water out way the negative, and stayed at the max level. The ones with lid lost this advantage and had to be topped up.
Other than that, these Marmande determinate tomatoes are doing well. They are supported by three posts with florida weave around them. Looking at a good harvest off Marmande this year so far.
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