Claud,
You made a good point about having that airspace between the soilbed and the reservoir. I'm refreshing my eBuckets for plantout, and I've got two that had a plugged up straw and the potting mix got a bit rank. I dumped it to dry out.
I was wondering if I really have enough airspace in my eBuckets, and whether I should try incorporating your horizontal fill tube design. I'm wondering if the weight of the soil on some of the weaker structured colanders is mashing it down such that it's putting the soilbed into the reservoir. If this is the case, we have a design flaw to be addressed. I haven't seen a collapsed colander, though.
Still, my airspace is much smaller than yours....hmmmmmm...coping saw, huh?
Although, my alternative could be a huge Pixie Stix...trust me, it's just an oversized straw that kid's candy comes in...
