Inside Urban Green

A River of Sub-irrigated Planters (SIPs)

Photo by Greenscaper

This is near where the Waterpod was berthed in the Harlem River. I wonder how many people we could feed with sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) made from the debris floating in this river?

What if we converted every planter with drain holes to efficient sub-irrigation by the method shown here and here for example? How many plastic containers would be kept out of our landfills and put to productive use instead?

Simply put, plant containers with drain holes are a bad idea. They contribute to wasted water, wasted plants and wasted time. They have no positive benefit on the environment.

We should have an organized program to "compost" our plastic trash into SIPs? We would help the environment and grow an enormous amount of fresh food in the city if we did.

This from the New York Times

   
                                                                Click to enlarge

Across the nation, an antigarbage strategy known as “zero waste” is moving from the fringes to the mainstream, taking hold in school cafeterias, national parks, restaurants, stadiums and corporations.

The movement is simple in concept if not always in execution: Produce less waste. Shun polystyrene foam containers or any other packaging that is not biodegradable. Recycle or compost whatever you can.

Sub-irrigation Planter Fill Pipes: Recyled Water Bottles

There are those who would prefer not to use PVC pipe or vinyl tubing when making sub-irrigation planters (SIPs aka “self-watering”).

Recycled water/juice bottles are an environmentally friendly alternative. It's very easy to make fill pipes from recycled water bottles and help the environment by keeping them out of our landfills.

Simply cut off the bottom with a box cutter and stack them for any length fill tube. Small bottles of the one pint + size take up the least room inside the SIP.

I would encourage everyone to use this method. It's practical, cost effective and green.

SIP Salad Makers

These are the next steps for the recycled pop/soda bottle “SIP salad makers” shown in the portable potting tray. The seeds sprout under fluorescent shop lights hung on one of the shelves of a light garden rack. The clear plastic covers are 16-ounce deli containers that just happen to fit perfectly on top of the 2-liter soda bottle SIPS.

The light garden is an InterMetro style rolling rack from Costco (6’h x 4’w x 1 ½’ deep). InterMetro racks and copies are widely available. They are easy to move around and the shelves are adjustable in one-inch increments. The ordinary daylight fluorescent lights are on daily for 16 hours.

The next temporary home for the SIP salads is on my fire escape. Some of them will go into 5-gallon utility bucket SIPs. Others, containing basil and other leafy greens will grow on windowsills in the neighborhood including PS 102.   

Good Morning America from Sam and Bob

 
ABC Good Morning America photo

Sam Champion of ABC GMA and Greenscaper on the Waterpod 

It was fun! Now go make some pop/soda bottle planters to grow some herbs, veggies or houseplants. They really do work and you'll help the environment. Water up!  

The Waterpod is coming to Brooklyn Bridge Park this week. I'll be on it this weekend doing my thing. Be sure to visit and say hello. 

The Waterpod schedule. 

On the Waterpod Today With School Children

Giancarli for News

The Daily News had an interesting article about some of the unexpected reality of life aboard the Waterpod. I'll find out some of it first hand when I'm on board today to participate in the visit of first to fourth grade school children from Broadway Housing Communities. 

They will each have a pop/soda bottle planter when they leave. With their teacher's guidance they can grow some plants in their classrooms and in the process learn something about plant science including capillary action. 

Artist and Waterpod founder Mary Mattingly and her team have created a wonderful summer classroom on the New York waterfront. 

It obviously took a lot of hard work, ingenuity and perseverance on all of their parts to make this project happen. I am privileged to participate and support the project in any way I can. 

The Waterpod is moored at 125th Street in Harlem until next Tuesday when it will travel to the Brooklyn Bridge Park for two weeks. After that it will berth in Staten Island for two weeks. Don't miss it! 

Click the photo above for instructions on how to make pop/soda bottle planters. 

Visit the Waterpod site and check out the event schedule. New events are added regularly. 

The Armadillo Wears Pop Bottle Planters

I am not the inventor of the recycled pop bottle planters but am arguably the web's leading booster. Anyone who regularly follows this blog knows that I'm a big supporter of sub-irrigation (aka self-watering) and pop bottle planters (prior posts). Sub-irrigation has proven to be the best way to water plants in containers, be they box, bed, bucket or other type of water tight planters. 

I've called them the "rosetta stone" of sub-irrigation. Click on the photo and it will take you to my Flickr (Greenscaper) account. The set of instruction have been viewed over 12,000 times. It was gratifying to discover recently that a group of MIT students used planters like these to create a vertical garden on the side of a former FEMA trailer now named the Armadillo. 

The Armadillo was formerly a FEMA trailer used in New Orleans. MIT students converted it into a rolling community garden. Sub-irrigated (aka self-watering) recycled pop bottle planters line the side walls as you can see in the diagram above. This trailer was then offered in a competition won by the Side Street Projects in Pasadena, California. What a great idea.

Pop Bottle Planter: Over Watered Plant

This is a very common result of the inappropriate term "self-watering". Many who accept the widely used term believe that plants have the intelligence to stop drinking when they've had enough. Not true! Only animals have this type of intelligence. This plant is on the way to death by drowning (oxygen starvation). 

There are many sets of instructions on the web outlining how to make pop/soda bottle planters. Unfortunately most of them only tell how to make the planters but not how to use them properly. 

Add a measured amount of water only when the soil moisture calls for it, not just because the reservoir is empty. Used properly the reservoir will be empty most of the time. Tell a friend. 

More about sub-irrigated pop/soda bottle planters in previous posts. 

A New Rooftop Gardener in Brooklyn

These are bush basil plants growing in recycled pop/soda bottle planters. They provide water by sub-irrigation. Use them to prove to yourself that they are the best way to grow tabletop plants be they edible or decorative.  

The planters belong to Chris here in Brooklyn who is about to become a new rooftop gardener. He has chosen to grow in EarthBoxes that should arrive shortly. 

Not only is he a new rooftop grower, he is also a new blogger. It's most helpful that he is choosing to share his experiences with all of us. Read more on Mapleton-BKLYN and be sure to add him to your RSS reader. 

Pop Bottle Planter Updates

Click on the photo for step by step instruction and larger Flickr photos

Fill hole, or not? - You could add a fill hole to the side of the reservoir, but I prefer not to. My belief is that the enclosed (sealed) bottom reservoir section creates a humidity chamber that is conducive to good root growth and plant health. 

I simply lift the top planter section from the bottom and add a measured amount of water. 

Self-watering - Sub-irrigation is the accurate term used by professionals. It is often referred to as wick watering. It is simply watering by capillary action from below. There are many ways to accomplish it. These bottle planters are a great way to learn. 

“Self-watering” is a term that has unfortunately saturated the consumer market. It is marketing hype. 

The misleading term has resulted in widespread misuse of what are otherwise very functional planters. The fault lies with the user and not the planter. It is operator error caused by ignorance about capillary action and plant physiology. 

The ultimate fault lies with the providers who use the term and make false claims about the planters they sell. It is widespread malpractice. 

Heirloom Tomato Starter Plants Going Into Week Three

Have a look at last week. Click on photo for a larger view on Flickr. 

The Times They Are a-Changin'

After all these years of propagating and growing indoor decorative plants, vegetable seed starting indoors has been an educational experience. I’m once again a student. 

I’m now realizing that all young children can and should experience the amazing transformation of a tiny seed into plants like these. It took a surprisingly short amount of time. Recycled pop bottle planters reveal it all because they are clear. 

This is only the beginning. These plants will grow up to six feet tall in sub-irrigated boxes, beds or buckets and bear delicious heirloom tomatoes. 

That’s good news but it's frustrating to know that we're still stuck in the dirt so to speak. Our horticultural education system has real problems when it can't recognize that growing vegetables in sub-irrigated planters brings personal food production to city dwellers of all ages and incomes. 

We have far too much ideology and ignorance out there, much of it embedded in our institutions. 

The dyed-in-the-wool dirt gardeners are currently monopolizing the conversation but the times are a changing. I can feel it.