How to get rid of the runoff using fabric pots

Rookieoftheyr said:

these are cheap and what I use. You can use whatever you can make work but it’s hard to beat these for 20 bucks. I’m far to invested to make that mistake again

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Automation ftw! These risers are great for monitoring runoff, as they are tall enough to see what drips down and how fast.

They're a bit pricey, but I like the square farmer trays with built in risers-but any of the tray/riser combos people have shown here will work. To get out the liquid, you have a few options. A wet/dry vac is a bit much for a single tent grow, but there are battery powered liquid transfer pumps on amazon that are meant for gasoline that work well. The battery operated ones go through a lot of batteries though, and tend to break easily, so my favorite option is a manual liquid transfer pump-get the kind with the pump handle and not the squeeze bulb, they run about $11.

If hydro a wet vac is awesome for runoff

If water only with minimal runoff I suggest a turkey baster or syringe because if you overwater it's a penalty to clean up with a manual device and it trains you not to overwater!

wizardry said:

Hellohello

Im having this problem, run off is flooding my grow, so I put the fabric pots sitting on a shower towel, but I think its still too wet.

Can I put them in a tray and let them reabsorb the water? Whatelse can I do?

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I use wire shelves, in a boot tray, and a mini wet vac ($30).

The shelves seem nice but its trays and vac for me. I can’t afford to lose height in my space

Creature1969 said:

Wire shelves and oil drain pans. Using a shop vac for runoff sucks, literally and figuratively. Also, don't like lifting plants.
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I apologize for my interjection, but I really love those Folgers pots haha!

I use a 14 gal HDX tote that I sit my plants on. Drilled holes in the top so the water drains in. Then after a week or two, I'll empty it out. I found this more necessary than using a saucer and pot lifters because I'm doing coco and have significantly more runoff than if I were growing in soil.

Lots of great ideas here. I use bricks as pot risers and put wire pie racks on top of those that I got at Salvation Army for like fifty cents each. The bricks let me adjust the height a little bit for different strains stretch in flower to try and keep the canopy even. I use a turkey baster to draw up any runoff as I'm in organic soil and I shouldn't have much and it helps keep me from over watering. I also hand water with a different baster to make sure I water nice and slow.

I'm very glad that I don't have to deal with runoff anymore. Years and years of using various shop vacs, trying to get them under the elevators, hauling buckets of wastewater to dump out so that I can continue. It used to take as long to deal with the runoff as the watering. Now I mix my nutrients and that's it. No hand watering, no dealing with the runoff.

If I were you I would invest in some flood trays. It's a lot quicker and easier to vac all of the runoff at once. And if you want to setup up an automated system you won't have to try to tie in a bunch of saucers.

wizardry said:

Hellohello

Im having this problem, run off is flooding my grow, so I put the fabric pots sitting on a shower towel, but I think its still too wet.

Can I put them in a tray and let them reabsorb the water? Whatelse can I do?

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There are many ways to water your plant in this situation.
Check out the “SIP: Sub-Irrigated Planters” thread here. I don’t use this method, but I’ve friends who do, and just look at the results from people on that thread.
In essence: you can use a wicking effect to keep your plants hydrated, and only add water once your bottom pool/soil/reservoir is looking dry.

poundofyourfinest said:

the hardware store sells a smaller wet vac that fits over a five gallon bucket for changing toilets etc.. its cheaper and easier to use then a big wet vac

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yeah, those are called bucket heads and they work great. They used to be like $20 at Home Depot but are now like $35. Awesome little tool to keep around and doesn’t take up much space.