I chose a 5 gallon bucket over a fancy self-watering planter for my tomatoes

Had to pick between a $40 self-watering box and a plain bucket from the hardware store for $8. Went with the bucket, drilled holes myself, and my Early Girl plant is over 4 feet tall now. The self-watering one my friend bought got clogged after a month and his plants got root rot. I just water my bucket every morning with a cup of leftover coffee water, and it's thriving. Anyone else find the simple stuff works better up here?

3 comments

3 Comments

ninaw882mo ago

Saw my neighbor go all in on one of those fancy raised bed kits last spring. Thing had a built in irrigation system and everything. Looked like a spaceship landed in his yard. By July the timer was fried and half the lines were clogged with gunk. He ended up watering by hand anyway, just with a lot more plastic junk in the way. Makes you wonder why they build stuff to fail like that.

sams252mo ago

Honestly ninaw88's neighbor's spaceship garden sounds like overkill for a few tomatoes.

the_jade5d ago

I had a buddy who dropped almost $800 on one of those kits with the solar powered auto-watering system and all that. @ninaw88 your neighbor could've bought a lot of fresh tomatoes for what that spaceship cost him. By August the pump gave out on my friend's setup too, and the guy spent more time fiddling with the timer than he did actually picking vegetables. It's like these companies just want to sell you a bunch of plastic parts that break in a season, instead of a simple box and a hose. Pretty sure he's got half of it sitting in his shed now, waiting for the parts that'll never come.