Less Water for Containers and Planters – My Three Tricks

Three tricks that will reduce both the frequency and the amount of water used for watering containers and planters. It will even save you money on soil.
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Water Containers and Planters Less – Three Tricks

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it’s official I just received the
YouTube creators award this award is
given to creators who make good content
and have over a 100,000 subscribers
thanks to you I met that goal now this
is also called the YouTube play button
so when I got it this morning I thought
I’d give it a
try nothing happened it’s not a play
button anyways thank you all for making
this possible and maybe in a few years
when we reach a million subscribers I’ll
get the gold plaque I hope you enjoy
this video what can you do so you have
to water your containers less often
that’s what we’re going to have a look
at in this program and I’m going to give
you three tricks that you can use now I
find it kind of funny that we have two
gardening Trends going on at the same
time on the one hand we’re all starting
to realize that water is precious and we
need to conserve it we don’t want to use
more water in the garden than we need to
in some places there’s going to be
severe water restrictions this summer
places like Alberta have already
announced that in California they have a
problem every year and they have to
restrict how much water you can use in
your garden at the same time there’s
this gardening Trend towards more and
more containers people have more hanging
baskets they’re growing vegetables in
pots instead of in the ground and
there’s all kinds of fancy containers
ERS to fill with flowers for your patios
and out in front of the driveway and
around your front door and so on people
love to have these containers we’ll have
news for you containers need a lot of
water it’s the exact opposite of saving
water but you want the Best of Both
Worlds don’t you you want your fancy
containers and you want a water L and
I’m going to help you with that in this
show I’m going to give you three
suggestions that work with contain ERS
and potted plants that will allow you to
water less at the end of this program
I’m going to show you
150 great ideas for creating better
containers so stick around to the end so
how do you water less well there are two
parts to this one is that you want to
use less water and the other one is that
you want to actually go out to your
containers less often you want less work
so the first idea I have for you is to
use Wick water what you do is you take
your standard pot and you put it inside
a larger container and that larger
container has a water reservoir at the
bottom then you take some string or some
cotton material and you put it inside
where the roots are and you let the ends
dangle down into the water reservoir
this is called Wick water the water
Wicks up the cotton into the root ball
and keeps it moist now these work really
well and it means that you only have to
fill these up whenever the reservoir is
empty so it’s less work for you but it
really doesn’t reduce the overall water
that you’re using the evaporation that
takes place at the top of the pot is the
same as it was before so it only solves
half the problem the second suggestion I
have is to use bigger containers when
you go and buy these hanging baskets or
these pre-made containers they’re tiny
tiny little containers that are just
chocked full of plants there’s too many
plants in that container and that’s in
spring when you buy them imagine what
that root system looks like later in
summer it’s just full of roots and it’s
sucking water up really fast now the
reason they’re planted this way is that
it makes sense for the nursery they’re
smaller so they’re easier to transport
there’s less soil in them they’re
lighter easier to carry for the nursery
staff when you bring them home though it
doesn’t make sense for you to grow into
those containers you want to move them
into larger containers now these
containers could be wider or they can be
deeper or they can be both doesn’t
really matter what shape of container
you use but the end goal is to have
three or four times as much soil in that
container as when you bought it so how
does that help us well when you have
more soil it holds more water so you
have to water less frequently the other
thing is that evaporation only takes
place at the surface un unless you make
a really wide container you haven’t
really changed the surface area so water
doesn’t evaporate any faster because
you’ve got a big container so the best
ones to choose really are ones that are
nice and deep that water will be inside
the bottom and it has no place to go the
evaporation only takes place at the
surface so large containers mean less
frequent watering and less water use and
that’s the goal we’re going for now the
downside of this is that you need more
soil and so what some people do is they
start filling these containers with all
kinds of rubbish to take up space so
they don’t have to go and buy soil but
that defeats the purpose you want lots
of soil in this container and I
understand that soil is expensive
especially if you buy it in tiny little
bags then you want to save some money at
the same time and that’s where my next
suggestion comes in it’s really the best
option suggestion number three and it
solves three problems the cost of soil
retaining more water so we use less and
so you have to water less often the
solution is to change the soil you use
now most of these containers around here
come with pee moss in them in some areas
you might have core coconut husk and if
you’re from the UK you may be getting a
lot of wood products there because
you’ve ban the pon all of these
materials grow great plants but they
have one downside they’re very porous
and what that means is you get a lot of
evaporation the holes between the
particles are too big and that leads to
a lot of water loss that’s one of the
reasons you’re watering so often the
other one of course is that there is
enough soil there so how do we prevent
that from happening we change the soil
we create a new mixture something that
holds water better and one of the best
things you can use is clay soil so what
I do is I take my clay soil oil from the
garden so it’s free and I add some Pete
Moss to it or some compost or some core
or some composted wood products whatever
you happen to have because that clay
soil is a little too heavy to grow good
plants in so we want to lighten it a
little bit by adding these organic
materials now how much do you add well
it kind of depends on your soil if you
have really heavy clay you might go
50/50 in my case my garden soil has been
worked on for 20 years and it’s getting
pretty good so I use about 70% of it and
30% of some new organic material now why
does this work well it turns out that
clay has very very tiny spaces between
the clay pieces water gets in there and
it gets stuck that’s why in the spring
clay Gardens never dry out because they
hold water so well well the same thing
happens in these containers now the clay
is holding on to the water you’ve
reduced the amount of evaporation you
have to water less you’re going to use
less water and that is the goal we’re
trying to reach now if we use just clay
it’s not great for root growth because
these spaces are too small plants do
like a more porous mixture and that’s
why we add in some organic matter now
does this work well I don’t grow a lot
in containers because it’s a lot of work
but I do have a container that has been
extremely successful it’s reasonably
large it’s about a foot and a half deep
2 ft across so there’s a fair amount of
soil in there and it’s 70% of my garden
soil so lots of clay in the middle of
summer July and August when it’s really
hot I water about once a week and that’s
all it needs now I grow a Claus in mine
and in the front of the chatus I grow
annual they grow just great even though
most of the soil was free and from my
garden so that’s the secret to watering
L now I’ve got two more videos for you
to watch one over here is about my Claus
that’s growing in a container it’s a
fantastic Claus that blooms early in the
year and over here’s a video that’ll
give you 150 different container
ideas happy gardening