If you’re an apartment dweller in the big city that tried adding some greenery to their balcony, you’ve probably faced the struggle of trying to keep up with the needs of plants. Having a busy life and living in a tall skyscraper are just a couple of the reasons why more and more people in the city are giving up on their gardening hobby and ditching their lovely plants.
Source: gardenista.com
But what you don’t know is that this shouldn’t be the case with you, since a nice self-watering balcony planter is a way better solution than getting rid of the idea that you’ll never be able to grow and nurture your favourite plants.
How Do Self Watering Planters Work?
So, what’s all the hype about self-watering balcony planter boxes and why are they such a great solution for urban residents? Well, it all has to do with the system they use to “water themselves on their own” which includes a separate water reservoir at the bottom. This allows the plants to receive water by a simple wick-delivering or capillary action, where the tube placed inside the container sucks out the water of the reservoir and draws it into the plants’ roots at the right time and the right amount they need.
Some of these planters even come with convenient water level indicators, which rise or fall together with the water levels in the container, to let you know when the water has drained from the reservoir so you can timely top it up.
Reasons to Choose Self-Watering Planters Over Regular Ones
If you thought that leaving your plants to “take care of themselves” is the only reason to embrace urban gardening with a self-watering balcony planter box, know that you’re wrong since this convenient wick-delivering system has many other benefits.
Source: pinterest.com
Saving Water
The fact that we’re living in times of global warming and our country is one of the areas with the driest climate worldwide, means that we’re all obligated to cautiously use and conserve water. And self-watering containers help in this regard since they minimise water wastage. The way they’re designed to have the reservoir at the bottom and covered with soil prevents the water from evaporating. These amounts of water will stay “trapped” in the reservoir until they conveniently get delivered to the roots of the plant, without a drop of water being wasted.
Optimal and Constant Source of Water
What you probably didn’t know about your lovely plants is that they’re best grown with a consistent watering schedule, and watering them inconsistently whenever you have some free time can stress them out even more. This won’t be the case with your self-watering planter pots, since the water will stay in the reservoir allowing the plants to water themselves in their own time.
Nutrient Preservation
Growing your plants in a regular pot means constantly watering them through the top of the soil, which means all the nutrients in the soil are slowly getting diluted and washed out along with the water. In this case, in order to maintain the nutrient levels, you’ll occasionally need to add different organic matter.
But as we already learned, a self-watering balcony planter box will keep the water stored in the reservoir, which means that the nutrients will be held inside the closed system of the soil. This kind of self-contained water cycle will help your plants flourish in no time and without putting in a lot of effort.
Source: pinterest.com
Improved Plant Health and Reduced Risk of Diseases
Shallow watering leads to shallow root growth, which means that some plants such as tomatoes that need deep watering won’t get the right amount of water and have poor yield. But when using a self watering planter, the water will flow to the bottom of the reservoir and directly moisturise and stimulate the roots to grow.
But root growth isn’t the only factor that affects the plants’ health since plants are also prone to diseases just like we are. So, instead of pouring water directly onto the leaves, stems or surface of the plants, which is one of the main reasons for plants to develop bacterial and fungal infections, it’s a lot better to use a self watering system. Also, due to the plastic mulch covering the soil surface of most self watering pots, the water will stay balanced and stop weeds and germs from taking over the plant.
Flexibility
All of the aforementioned advantages make these planters very flexible, and highly suitable to nurture plants on your little apartment balcony. They are great for all kinds of gardening, whether you raise plants from seed or buy from a nursery. There aren’t any limits when using these lovely self-watering planters, since even if you totally forget about them, they’ll take care of themselves.
