2019 Chilli Growing thread

I’m going to try and rig up some cheapo homemade self watering pots as a little project and see if I can get some good results for pocket money
 
Rathian said:
Thanks for the info @Psycho Sonny I have been tempted by chilli grows, Quad / Octo grows and auto pots before but always been just out of my budget...

Sounds like the nutrients side at least might be a bit overpriced. How do you find the hardware?
Click to expand...

I reckon I could make the same thing myself using a drill and some storage boxes.

If you look up trofast on ikea they already have these with the lid with a hole in it. For around 10% of the price. Albeit without the plant pots and I am unsure how heavy you could go and how flimsy the plastic is.

I am happy with the purchase but you can tell they are buying the products cheap as something else then just drilling holes into them and packaging them up as chilli grows.

It wouldn't be hard to replicate this if you had the time to go out and find suitable plastic dark coloured storage boxes made from plastic.

They need to be made from black plastic to stop stuff growing in the water from light getting to it.
 
Is the principal just a storage box full of water & nutrient with hole in coupled with a pot on the top with the plant?

How does the water make its way up from the box to the pot? Some kind of absorbent material...?
 
Chilligrows/Quadgrows are great, but yes you could make a lot cheaper yourself, i made a few self watering pots a few years back for like £1 each, used empty morrison flower buckets, they were selling for like 10 for £1, bargain, they still might sale them now even.
 
Daytrader said:
Chilligrows/Quadgrows are great, but yes you could make a lot cheaper yourself, i made a few self watering pots a few years back for like £1 each, used empty morrison flower buckets, they were selling for like 10 for £1, bargain, they still might sale them now even.
Click to expand...

Thanks for chipping in @Daytrader I’m definitely going to give it a go in that case. How did you get the water up from the reservoir into the pot? Thanks!
 
Last edited:
So after a bit of research and the help here on the forum I have got a plan for self watering pots / DIY chilly grows.

- 6 litre pots with soil & coir mix for the plants.
- Capillary matting wicks 10cm in width by 40cm long (dimensions from Greenhouse Sensations who make the chilli grow)
- Ikea lid: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/trofast-lid-white-00091415/
- Ikea tub: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/trofast-storage-box-white-95685100/
- Tomato feed & Epsom salts

Should be a good little growing sub project / experiement
 
Quite intrigued by this.

Does the depth of the base container matter, I guess it does, as the wicking will only raise the water so far I assume?

From what i can tell, but please correct, you just have the wicking material on the top of the base unit, with wicking going down into the reservoir. Then you simply place the pots on top of the wicking material, and the plant media will also pull up the moisture? So I assume the pots ideally want to be pretty flat at the bottom so the base is "sunk" into the wicking material. Pots with raised sections on the bottom would require deeper wicking material in order to work effectively

Years ago I had a plan to turn an old fishtank into a hydro chilli tank. Never got round to it but maybe I will do it this year.
Its quite simple, not far from this, apart from you provide an air stone into the liquid tank so the plant roots get air still and you don't really have any media, just a small amount of something inert if you are germinating the seeds in situ.
 
The way the quad/chilligrows work is, the wick is long and upright, make sure you have a few inches flat at the bottom of the water tank, and then the wick goes up through a hole at top of tank, then through a hole at bottom of pot, then the wick goes up straight through the compost, to the side of the newly planted chilli, to just below the compost surface, watch this video below for the best description, and exactly how its done :)
 
Daytrader said:
The way the quad/chilligrows work is, the wick is long and upright, make sure you have a few inches flat at the bottom of the water tank, and then the wick goes up through a hole at top of tank, then through a hole at bottom of pot, then the wick goes up straight through the compost, to the side of the newly planted chilli, to just below the compost surface, watch this video below for the best description, and exactly how its done :)
Click to expand...

My thinking was along the right lines but it's so much clearer now having watched the video
@Daytrader thanks for sharing.

@Mercenary Keyboard Warrior I would love to see a hydroponic fish tank setup.
That sounds so cool. Hydro has always interested me but seemed very complicated.
share your design ideas if you have any!
 
Daytrader said:
The way the quad/chilligrows work is, the wick is long and upright, make sure you have a few inches flat at the bottom of the water tank, and then the wick goes up through a hole at top of tank, then through a hole at bottom of pot, then the wick goes up straight through the compost, to the side of the newly planted chilli, to just below the compost surface, watch this video below for the best description, and exactly how its done :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, ok gotcha. Makes sense to totally bridge the wicking directly into the pot.
 
Rathian said:
So after a bit of research and the help here on the forum I have got a plan for self watering pots / DIY chilly grows.

- 6 litre pots with soil & coir mix for the plants.
- Capillary matting wicks 10cm in width by 40cm long (dimensions from Greenhouse Sensations who make the chilli grow)
- Ikea lid: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/trofast-lid-white-00091415/
- Ikea tub: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/trofast-storage-box-white-95685100/
- Tomato feed & Epsom salts

Should be a good little growing sub project / experiement
Click to expand...

That looks like a similar setup albeit more cumbersome but for 1/10th of the price of a chilligrow. i'm not sure how much light the white plastic might let into the water reservoir then you will have nasties growing inside it. you might want to cover it in some material or spray paint black.

i'd also like to know how hard or flimsy the plastic is. could you drill a further say 2-4 holes in the lid and have 2-5 plant pots on top of 1 reservoir?

or even drill 4 holes (1 in each corner) and keep the middle hole for topping up?

I see daytrader has already answered a lot of your questions but it looks like you have caught onto what i was saying. it's pretty easy and cheap to replicate the chilligrow system with a tiny bit of work. i already have a drill and a circular drilling tool however i like the neatness of the chilligrows but i fully understand how cost effective making your own is. if i had to buy more i would do as what you have done and make my own. i already have a full understanding of how to do it based on the ones i have now. it's very very easy to do. getting the right size of wicking material will be the key point now.

the size and depth of the wicking material will be based on the size of your own plant pot and your own base. i wouldn't copy green house sensations as you are using a much deeper reservoir and i have no idea what size of pot in height will be also. i would buy a long strip and use scissors to cut them to size.
 
Last edited:
@Psycho Sonny your right on preventing the light from getting to the water. I'm liking the black spray paint idea it is probably the easiest solution.
I doubt the strength of the plastic is up to much but for a bit of fun & experimentation I think it is worth putting a prototype together.
I'll let you know the breaking point if I find one :p

No doubt it will not be as good and well finished as a proper chilli grow / autopot but will be fun to do none the less and it won't break the bank.
I'm more about the fun of experimenting and DIYing than the best possible results.

I think the size of the wicking material could be a bit tricky...
I'll definitely buy a big mat and cut to size. I think 6l of potting medium regardless of pot dimensions should have the same amount of draw?
Although rate is likely determined by surface area of wick to medium...
Re the reservoir I think the main thing is to make sure the wick extends to the bottom of it.
Once the wick is saturated I don't think the volume of draw will be impacted by the size of reservoir or length of wick again it would just be the rate that I anticipate differing based on wick size.

Enough speculation, time for a green fingered experiment :cool:
 
Rathian said:
@Psycho Sonny your right on preventing the light from getting to the water. I'm liking the black spray paint idea it is probably the easiest solution.
I doubt the strength of the plastic is up to much but for a bit of fun & experimentation I think it is worth putting a prototype together.
I'll let you know the breaking point if I find one :p

No doubt it will not be as good and well finished as a proper chilli grow / autopot but will be fun to do none the less and it won't break the bank.
I'm more about the fun of experimenting and DIYing than the best possible results.

I think the size of the wicking material could be a bit tricky...
I'll definitely buy a big mat and cut to size. I think 6l of potting medium regardless of pot dimensions should have the same amount of draw?
Although rate is likely determined by surface area of wick to medium...
Re the reservoir I think the main thing is to make sure the wick extends to the bottom of it.
Once the wick is saturated I don't think the volume of draw will be impacted by the size of reservoir or length of wick again it would just be the rate that I anticipate differing based on wick size.

Enough speculation, time for a green fingered experiment :cool:
Click to expand...

personally i'd opt for some bin bags and sticky tape to cover the white plastic. spray paint is messy and more expensive no doubt.
 
I had a dig around in the gardening box last night and I have some black planter liner lying around.
It's recyclable and I already have it so I might go with that. One less piece of plastic being contributed to the plant and all that :)

My plants fee like they have come on a bit now, I was looking at the photos from a few weeks back and actually while the growth has been very gradual it was more significant than I was giving them credit for :p
 
mine seem to coming along better now. i had 2 that didn't survive the turtle heads being pinched off.

i have space for 6 but i believe i have around 9 healthy seedlings. i don't suppose it will do any harm to have 2 in 1 pot in a couple of them?

i do have 3 plant pots i was going to get rid of so i could transport them to them but they would require me to feed and water them on a constant basis vs the chilligrows.

hoping for a decent batch this year.
 
When would you start allowing over wintered plants to flower? I have literally hundreds of flower buds coming through and keep cutting them off as it's probably too early yet?
 
Yeh, i just cut well over 100 buds off, i always cut back to a V, so to bush the plant out at the same time, i dont want buds until at least May for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom