For Lazy person that keep CPs pots in WaterTray

[caseyhoo]

As you know, it is recommend to do water change once a week. If you have mosquito larvae problem, water change twice a week is a must. But, it is troublesome and time consuming if you have few water tray that filled with 20pots CPs in each.

What you can do to suit yours lazyness is...
1. go to hardware shop, buy a plastic chock (normally is reddish pink color).
2. buy a drill head (for cement use) that well fit the plastic chock.
3. drill a hole at buttom of yours water tray. Get the plastic chock to "close" the hole. Refill water to the tray and test it. If no leaking, means, it is done.

I did the below twice a week.
1. at night, I take out the chock and lets ALL water flow out from the tray.
2. Next morning, close the hole with chock and refill water.

Reason:-
1. water change to remove possible mineral that forming in water
2. kill/remove mosquito larvae from water tray

P/S : I still will wash/clean the water tray/pots twice a month, when im free...

[jk]

Here’s another alternative to the water tray method that has worked quite well for me:

1. Get a container without holes in it. The container has to be quite large. For example, a container that I am using is a plastic vegetable bin from a refrigerator (about 12 in. wide, 15 in. long, and 10 in. deep).

2. Drill 2 or 3 holes, each about ½ in. in diameter, in the side of the container about 2 in. from the bottom (NOT on the bottom). This will enable water to soak the growing medium at the bottom of the container without overflowing the container. The holes may be adjusted higher or lower depending on how wet you want the medium to be or how often you water the plants.

3. Glue a small piece of window screening material over each hole from the inside of the container to keep the growing medium from leaking out.

4. Fill the container with growing medium.

5. Dig a hole about 2 in. in diameter adjacent to the side of the container and fill the hole with cinder or small rocks. This is where the container can be watered without disturbing the growing medium.

6. It’s ready for plans or seeds. Since the containere is large and I don't have much space, I grow several species in the same container.

[David]

Casey and jk,

Are these two methods used for growing plants outdoors or indoors? For me I grow my plants indoors under grow lights. So what I do is I let the water in the tray dry out for a day before filling up the trays with water again. It takes about 4-5 days for the water to dry out.

I realised my plants are happy with this because when the trays are always filled with water and the pots are soaking in them, algae or slime may grow on the surface of the media making it unsightly. An occasional dry out session seems to help prevent this. But of course the media is still damp when the water in the tray dries out. I do not let my Sundews and Utric pots dry out totally.

But if the trays are placed outside, I guess you cannot use my method as rain water will fill up your trays again. And with my method you need to use clean filtered water or there will be mineral build up in the tray.

I might try out your method Casey.

[caseyhoo]

jk, that is the others method that I use too. So far, it is working fine. It can apply for indoor or outdoor as welll.

David, my method is for outdoors... If you want it for indoor, you may need to link the hole to 'water tube'. and have a controller to control the water flow. So that, water will not dirt yours room. Besides that, you may need the "water tube" to each others. So, at the end, all water from water tray flow out to yours toilet using just 1 tube.

ps: Link all tray together is what I initial plan... Lazy to find meterial causing me to use chock. Say is more easy then do it...

[marvin1997]

Does growing U.Gibba in water trays help?Or maybe putting some fish in there?

[arvin555]

Problem with putting U Gibba is that they are not that effective in catching mosquito Larvae. Fish is of course effective, but the problem is they will die if the water dries up.

I think the idea of Casey is to be able to do quick water changes as she mentioned to freshen the water, to get rid of larvae and get rid of accumulated things in the water tray.

I myself actually don't regularly clean or change the water, I just add water if needed or catch mosquito larvae when I see them, If feed them to my fish. Also if really lazy to catch, I tip the water tray to pour out water just enough so that the larvaes are still able to swim but barely, after a few hours they die because water would have evaporated already.... too lazy. If algae too much already, then I'm forced to clean!

Great suggestions you guys, hope you can post photos of your ideas too!

TTFN
Arvin

[sooxiwei]

wow, interesting topic, I have tried out stacking one old ice cream box with those moss and cp on it(drill a few holes) on top of another same size ice cream box with water(water tray), so far no problem with mosquitos since there are no entrance for them

[kentosaurs]

Hi....

Ooo very interesting topic indeed................Anyways i do get mosquitoes outside around my balcony sometimes but i'm confident (almost sure) that they do not originate from my water trays....Why? Cos my water dries up very fast...If i out my CPs like sarrs and VFTs out into direct sun (which means i move it around) In about a day or 2 most 3 it will become dry and then i will water from top again..They seem to be fine...But i did have a couple of incidents that larvae was in the tray...Since i have little plants and so much time i just pour the water out and the water will go into the pipe while the larvae is stuck on the balcony floor as it slowly gets burned by direct sunlight..Also if don't wan use water tray also can what....Use undrained container lorr.....Can even store water for even longer periods of time..

Ken

[caseyhoo]

Methods that I mentioned






Methods that jk mentioned

[TS]

Casey, I wondered how you did it initially, but with the photos, everything is clear, haha. I'm facing the same problem as yours, so lazy to take out all the pots in the tray when I did water change, especially when you have many of them. Hmm... your method is helpful since I'm using the same kind of tray. Thanks.
JK's method is what I am using for some of my CPs too, sphagnum moss can be grown easily with this method.