Good use for used wine bottles
 

Saw this product in a nursery in Las Cruces, New Mexico on Saturday. Its call a "plant nanny." You put it in the container, fill a used wine bottle with water and place the bottle in. I am going to try with a liquid fertilizer, so that it slowly fertilizers the container.

Michael, I assume your using this in conjuntion with your drip system? Ami

Ami-the drip system is different-the drip sits in the container. You can see the drip in the photo. This bottle of liquid fert diluted properly will slowly leach out of the bottle and provide fert. I ordered some of the bio bizz that you use, and am going to try that. I guess you could put compost tea in, etc-whatever you wanted.

Yes, if you ordered the BioBizz "Bio-Grow" you can use it for the whole growing cycle (vegetative and flowering period) which is what your looking for. Looks like a good fit for your plant nanny. Ami

Ami-I ordered bio-grow and bio-bloom.

I hope this works differently from the glass bottle-like watering containers that QVC has been selling. Long neck with a globe-shaped reservoir and you fill it up and stick it in the soil. Supposedly keeps the flower or ???? watered while you're gone. These will empty their contents in about four days. Got tired of refilling and retired them (set of four). The opening is about .5" ID.

How does this product control the flow of liquid from the wine bottle into the potting mix???

If the flow rate is high, shouldn't the liquid nutrients be more dilute???

I saw them on Amazon, 4-3 packs for 45.95- free ship. Can you use a plastic liter bottle with the wine bottle style or are those a different type?
Sue

CT-so far the flow rate is very slow. They are not like the glass bottle one. It is made of clay. I suppose that the flow rate of water from the bottle depends on how dry your soil is. I am using them not to water my plants, but to deliver a slow amount of liquid fertilizer to the roots. I dont think the dilution rate for the fert should be any different, since its the rate for soil drench.

Sue-I dont know for sure. I think the ones you are talking about are 5 ", and the ones I have are 7.5". Check this out.

[url]http://www.merrifieldgardencenter.com/products.php?pid=99016013&openparent=2007&dealer=merrifield[/url]

Holy Porous ceramic, Batman. Just like the self watering planters for African Violets, etc. The glass thingy's I described ain't even close to this.

Yeah, that should work!!! Got seven of the African Violet planters (two pieces each) and they do a great job. Makes it easy to feed the plants. The principle should transfer to this larger size easily.

CT-I think you are talking about those aqua globes or something like that, right? I threw mine away too-they get clogged up. These dont. Have you used these ceramic for fertilization?

Interesting concept here
 

No, Michael, I haven't. But this interests me a lot. If this truly works and is controllable, it could help solve a host of fertilizing problems.

Mechanically speaking, it seems like a good system for "slowly" getting liquids to the roots. But, I keep thinking about that if the growing medium is wet, the flow thru the ceramic will be slow, and if the medium is dry, the flow will be faster. Hmmmm........You know, if the wine bottle rig flows too fast, you might try putting it closer to the drip. That might help keep the moisture level of the growing medium around the ceramic more even and would help keep the fertilizer from becoming concentrated in any area. The flow of moisture would also assist spreading the nutrients more evenly out into the growing medium.

Time and experimentation will tell you whether or not to dilute the nutrients. I would recommend you keep a close eye on this during this R&D time. To me, the danger seems to be ending up with too much fertilizer, not the opposit.

Ted

CT-what I have done is dilute the liquid fert to the proper dilution rate-so if its 1 tsp to a gallon, I put a little less than 1/4 tsp mixed with 750ml of water. So its diluted in the wine bottle already. Because its on a drip system, the amount of fluid that is released every day is small. When I get my bio-grow, I am going to keep track how long it takes for 750 ml of properly diluted liquid fert to be used in the 5 gallon container and will post it.

I have alway thought that an intravenous setup would work very nice, because it's flow is adjustable.

dcarch

d-thats an interesting idea-the flow rate is adjustable-I am going to think about that and maybe try it out.

[quote=mdvpc;110804]CT-I think you are talking about those aqua globes or something like that, right? I threw mine away too-they get clogged up. These dont. Have you used these ceramic for fertilization?[/quote]

mdvpc,

Regarding the aqua globes.... I stuff the opening with a cotton ball, it seems to slow it down quite well.

~* Robin:)