What to lift up plants in drip trays?

Hi I have my four Northern Lights Auto seedlings in 3 gal smart pots, sitting 2 each in 2 drip trays side by side, on top of 1 inch of polystyrene insulation to keep from being on floor. But I realized that there's no way to know when the water starts dripping from bottom of pot's and keep the pots from sitting in run-off in the trays. I need a metal rack with 3 inch feet or something to suspend the pots in drip trays so I can shop-vac all run off easily and pots won't sit in a pool. Any ideas?

I would elevate the trays themselves, have a drain in the bottom and let it runoff into a reservoir.. rather than "cleaning up" excess water every time

That would require me to have the trays at a slight incline and set up a tube to a bucket reservoir outside the tent. Which to me seems like more trouble then just using a wet-vac buckethead and just sucking up the excess in drip trays, with the pots 3 inchs above the trays on a rack of some sort

Mikesu58 said:

That would require me to have the trays at a slight incline and set up a tube to a bucket reservoir outside the tent. Which to me seems like more trouble then just using a wet-vac buckethead and just sucking up the excess in drip trays, with the pots 3 inchs above the trays on a rack of some sort

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Just a thought. Sounds like you have a plan. I'd personally just rather do the work setting it up one time and be done, rather than dealing with it every time I water. There is no right or wrong way I guess

I use milk crates under my fabric pots with drain tubs under. But I use milk crates for lots of things, lol.
Just my .02.
WE

Oven racks with little nibs on the bottom.

I never had a problem with my smart pot plants sitting in the run off, it eventually just soaks back up into the smart pot.

mo841 said:

I never had a problem with my smart pot plants sitting in the run off, it eventually just soaks back up into the smart pot.

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Yea I figure that would happen but I don't want salt to build up in the soil & change the Ph

Build your own custom "risers" . Each riser big enough to hold both pots you have in each tray, so you dont have to make to many.

First thing that comes to mind as a waterproof material that cleans easily but is still very strong would be a cutting board made from whatever plastic they are made out of. You can get them at dollar stores and basically everywhere for cheap.

Then youll need to lift them off the tray somehow, lots of ways to do this, firsth thing that comes to mind are some 2-3" stainless steel wood screws used as legs, simply carefully screw them into the cutting board, careful not to poke through the other side, then flip the board over and the screw heads will sit on the tray bottom. Stainless wont ever rust.

Lots of ways to do this, just giving you an idea, but custom is likely going to be the cheapest, and in my opinion best suited to exactly when you need height and size wise. You could build each tray this way for $2-3 each

Cheers!

Check your local hydro store. I bought raisers apt my local store. They sit about 1-2" height made of strong plastic. I have my 15-20 gal pots on them. I'm able to shop vac all run off out of the drip tray. They cost about 3.00 each. Added a few pics for you

I decided i'm just gonna get 4 shelf trays from dollar store and cut the legs so they're only 1-2 inchs off bottom drip tray. They will do the job, Thank you guys