Self watering pots have a lot of downsides, but I find myself with several decorative plastic ones that I want to find a use for. What sort of plants thrive in these pots? What have you had luck with?
I only use self watering pots for plants that don’t like to dry out. In fact, the only way I have been able to get ferns to survive is to have them in self watering pots. Currently, I have a maidenhair fern and an alocasia polly plant in self watering pots and they are doing great. Make sure you get self watering pots that have a reservoir and wick; I find that these keep the soil more consistently moist. Absolutely do not put succulents or cactus in self-watering pots.
Plants that get dramatic between waterings work well with self watering pots. I have my fittonia in them and there’s a big difference between them and normal pots. I would suggest them for plants that don’t like fully drying out between waterings.
I’m a big fan of using them for growing stuff semi-hydroponically.
https://www.lecaaddict.com/leca-information/why-grow-in-leca
ooo, I’ve never used leca before. Is it hard to keep clean? I have some of my pants in water with pebbles and when I replace the water and clean it out, the smooth surface of the pebbles makes cleaning the gunk pretty easy. The rough surface of leca seems like it would be hard to clean.
It doesn’t really build up gunk. Things like salt will build up on leca between waterings but I just run the plant under water to rinse it off. Since the leca works like a wick and wicks water from the reservoir instead of sitting submerged in fluid you don’t really get algae issues on it either. I’ve had algae when using a glass basin but since the plant isn’t in the basic and it just holds nutrients / water they are super easy to clean
When I start a new plant / replant I boil the leca first to kill anything but that is probably unnecessary.
I have balcony plants in them - petunias, basil, some outdoor begonias, chives.
I think they’re convenient for hanging plants, but with most of my plants I’m more concerned about overwatering than underwatering so they’re not ideal.
My calathea is the only plant I’d say truly thrives in a self-watering pot. I have a few others in self-watering pots- philodendrons, alocasias, aglaonemas- that are varying levels of ambivalent about their pots. I need to be careful not to leave them too wet and will likely be repotting them into normal draining pots.
How often do you have to water your calathea in the self-watering pot vs a regular one?
