A few years ago, I built a sub irrigated planter box, as listed on the family handyman magazine/site
I made up my own soil mixture based on the article-- tried it a few years now-- the plants start off great-- cucumber plants growing and climbing...etc. The cucumber starts budding, then growing, but never finishes.
I also tried some pea plants-- they started off great, then just all started dying.
Not sure what i'm doing wrong here.
Before I start planting again, I'd like to see if there's something I should be doing before planting.

Colin

If your plants start out great but then die before they mature, I would suspect a watering problem. Is there a bottom in your planter? Maybe the planter can't drain properly and the soil at the bottom of the planter stays too wet. Have you dug down there to see what's going on?

DaisyI said:

If your plants start out great but then die before they mature, I would suspect a watering problem. Is there a bottom in your planter? Maybe the planter can't drain properly and the soil at the bottom of the planter stays too wet. Have you dug down there to see what's going on?

The box has a pond liner in the bottom, to hold water. There are 4 perforated drainage pipes with a fill tube at the end. There is an overflow pipe that is cut in just above the drainage pipes-- so the water level will only go up as high as the top of the pipes.
Whenever I've checked the soil, it's plenty moist-- i've only watered the top a few times on really hot days.

Colin

Subirrigated planters can be very tricky and not as simple as imagined. The quality of the soil (porosity) is critical because the system depends on capillary action through soil pores. Standard garden soil is often too dense and will keep the soil too saturated. In addition, healthy roots can interfere with the holes in the pipes.

What is your reason for using this planter as opposed to planting in the ground or in a standard planter box?

WillC said:
What is your reason for using this planter as opposed to planting in the ground or in a standard planter box?

When I saw the family handyman article, I thought it looked neat-- wouldn't have to water it everyday, and not a waste of water. When I yank the dead plants at the end of the season, they have quite long roots, and seemed to have no issues getting thru the soil.

Colin

If I remember my research, plants in this type of set up need a certain amount of air...in the soil. And yes, the soil mix is critical.

Essentially, the roots are always sitting in water. You garden is drowning - that's the point I was trying to make.

DaisyI said:Essentially, the roots are always sitting in water. You garden is drowning - that's the point I was trying to make.

The roots can't make it down to the water-- there is an overflow pipe that will only allow water to go as high as the top of the 4 perforated pipes. I have soil around those pipes and a layer of garden fabric on top of it. On top of that i have ~8" of soil for the roots to grow in. It is possible that the soil is too wet, but i don't think the roots actually make it to any standing water.

Colin