I've used mason twine in small pots, like for African violets. With larger containers, I like to add wicks made from 1" strips of micro-fiber towels, the "bar mop" type that I use instead of paper towels for a whole lot of things. I like Amazon's own brand the best -- good price, and they absorb water very nicely. Some of the other brands have a little trouble with initial dampening.

When I was raising a lot of AV babies, I kept them watered by putting a bunch of pots on top of a 1020 nursery flat full of water. Plastic light grids can be cut to size to fit over the reservoir tray. The grids are actually for ceiling lights, available at HD or Lowe's, as is the mason twine. You can cover the tray with a capillary mat (or a piece of old acrylic blanket) with an end sticking down into the water, then put pots on the mat. The mat stays wet, and the moisture is drawn up into the pots through the drainage holes. Or put mason twine wicks into individual pots, and dangle the wicks into the water reservoir through holes in the grid

With 2-part self-watering pots that aren't quite right (some flood the inner pot), I've put a wick down into the inner pot, over the rim, and down into the outer pot via the hole for adding water. These pots are often sold for African violets and are meant to work like wick watering, with the outer pot filled with water that slowly soaks through the unglazed inner pot.

If you put a few stones or a little gravel into a regular saucer (the dollar store oil-changing saucers make wonderful extra-deep plant saucers), you can raise the plant above the water reservoir. Now you have 2 things -- a wick to bottom-water your plant and a humidity tray to keep your plant happier inside in the winter.

I have old photos of some of this but can't currently access them. So instead I re-wrote my post and added more words, hopefully clarifying things a bit, although I realize a picture is worth a thousand words LOL.

You sound very handy, Jill! Very interesting ideas. If you are able to add any pics of these things, that would be great!

If you have some old pure acrylic socks 😏.. you can cut them on the spiral for a great wick!
I use braided nylon rope from HD thin one for small plants, thicker one 3/4" with acrylic core for thirsty larger plants. You need to soap it up and rinse to wick . I do it with a drop of dish soap after I cut it.
As far as containers go..: the sky is the limit!😁. I should rename to skylark unLtd..
Go take pics of all sorts of my best and easiest..not the prettiest(have those too if you are interested).

For tiny plants phylly cream cheese containers over clear tumblers :

.. my new hoya cuttings
Half-pint deli tub (olives) over 1qt yogurt container :

.. my Agave pups

5" pot inserted into yogurt container 1qt:

.. my Hoya carnosa cuttings well established.

A few more ..
Reg 3.5" pot in water bottle (cut as high or low as needed), stuck in coffee can for stability 👍

.. my asparagus fern from seeds..

My new croton in very barky mix NOT wicking well, but wicking some with wick stuck inside the mix high up..temporary
Sitting on sugar can(DH has strict orders not to buy any other packaging for sugar..):


..now you know a fair bit about my diet😂

Wonderful! New menu planning consideration - what containers will this meal yield? LOL!!

😀..👍
I save most plastic packaging which is kinda annoying to keep in large quantities..
I Always save sour cream and cream cheese containers..clam shells of all sorts..even peroxide brown bottles(easy to cut for tiny bath cups )..
Glass jars of course! Love Hero jams ;)
…
Confessions of a plant maniac
Here's my tools of choice for jabbing /cutting holes in plastic: Fiskars cutters

Problem is I have so many plants to set up for 2-3 months running I use most of my plastics ev. Time..we r talking 20-30 yogurt tubs, 40 water bottles( I cut and stuff them inside all sorts of garbage baskets for support and then put pots on top . 3-7qt each basket takes 2-4 plants..for 2-3 mo of water..while I am basking in the sun elsewhere..
But of course it takes a long time to set-up.. 10-20 days working .. cutting, pouring, lifting ..but it's worth it for me.
Winters are much easier: with cooler temps plants take much less water.
Summer balcony uses ginormous amounts of water at 90F.. for 2-3 weeks.
But that I can set up in 5 days..
I think last time with half setup in place I took a week to pour for 200 plants.
Smalls take the longest: too many plastics to cut ..the big pots are a breeze!

Here is one of my fave baskets from BB&B.. slim .. takes 2 6" pots perfectly (on top of 2 yogurts or water bottles ) .. I slowly got many many over the years .. when on sale..container store has them too.


These are 2 cannas in 6" pots grown from seed, germinated this feb.
they take now a qt a day each :thumbsdown:
You can't see, but they already have 2-3 pups going each..
but relatively speaking sub-irrigation is very good for low water consumption: aroids except for huge philos or monsteras take very little. Big broms big ficus trees also very little.
And nobody ever dries up😳.. yes, we'r a non- drying bunch 😆..

Fantastically helpful and inspiring! I believe if my plants could talk, my inconsistency would be their biggest complaint.

The wicked plants for sale @ BBS fit perfectly into a tray made to hold water in the bottom, with the wick of each plant dangling in the water. Might be able to do something similar for groups of plants, with various sizes of plastic tubs, cutting holes in the lid... if I can find the lids. For some reason I have some lidless tubs and lids w/o tubs.

Shoe boxes are very sturdy and with lids, but I wouldn't want to ruin the lids.. and they are transparent, hence algae growth will be a pain. Dark containers are best because of that. I even cut off tops from 1gal jugs in a pinch for small but thirsty plants..but then I have to put it in a brown paper or dark plastic to prevent algae..
look Into cheap plastic storage boxes for toys , some do have lids. If you can get them really cheap and in color 👍😏.. it could work. Good old paint buckets work, but you need to flip a 6" pot inside and put something plastic on top for a sunken lid : it's good to have sides to hold pots from falling.
If you have a large plastic box it is very easy to rig something for insides: 1qt yogurt with deli tubs inserted to hold pot , And then you ruin yogurt plastics by cutting out a hole next to bottom for the water to enter from the tub.
So you can stack many plants inside elevated , but fill the plastic tub .. the water will rise thru yogurt containers up. Good to have a wide tub then not too deep .

I tried wick watering for my Hoya kerrii variegata which has been so reticent in making new leaves or even to keep any new leaves alive. Though what I did was.to reuse a small dessert container and I place this on top of the media with water soaked reusable paper towel strips. Knowing this plant is a tropical epiphytic succulent with thin roots just at the surface of the media, I laid the other end of the strips there, and some I wrapped around some portions of its thick vine. It did help a lot, finally got some new leaves and it has not aborted its growth like before. Observing that, I tried same approach to my Phal orchids that often just stays in somewhat suspended mode once the hot summer weather ensues. With same approach of wick watering, it is now able to push new leaves, robust root growth too. That being observed, I also kept the ceiling fan running all day long, to aid in good airflow around these epiphytic plants. I also used this wick watering on a Sansevieria cutting which I removed from a mother plant since it was growing off balanced already. Other plants indoors which I have this wick watering are two Clivia containers.
















Wicking material I used:
strips of reusable paper towel, hygrolon strips, thick yarn threads...
The plants are doing well right now, but will further observe later in winter. I may have to suspend this wick watering since temps will change and light levels will be shorter duration and less intense. I do not use indoor plant lights.

Fascinating!

When I saw blue I got it! They are not paper but cellulose I think, or even plastic because paper would mildew very fast. Those are sold as disposable and reusable. I must have some!
Basically they work like moist mulch to prevent top layer from drying up.
With bottom wicking top layer does dry up eventually (we are talking months here ;)), so I use something as mulch: coco chips or moist sphag or even just cover the surface somewhat with Saran Wrap with holes .. orchids are tough to keep on wicks unattended…the trick is in the mix: coco chips wick a little , but bark does not. So I make layers of chips, moist LF sphag and large perlite with may be charcoal if I have it , and then coco matting layer lining the pot for more aeration. And then they manage to stay on in winter. But with your low humidity it must be a challenge! Those blue strips are a good idea! I'll try this for my phals: the tops dry up too fast no matter what I try. And if not then the roots rot ..
You can insert the strip all around the perimeter about 1" inside the mix: I do that for my succulents and Sansi in clay pots (top wicking) .

My mom has always had these around her kitchen but I always thought they were weird. This seems like a great purpose.

I think that they can be used as wicks too, cut and dropped in water. Inserting them in the pot might be harder then rope . I tape rope to top of chopstick with scotch tape and push it thru bottom along the side of the pot all the way to top. Then cut tape . My wicks are always on side of the mix, not inside. Exception being newly bought plants that I did not pop into my mix because I did not want to do bare root repot yet, then I usually wrap it on top below 1" of mix, ' cause regular peaty mix absorbs way too much moisture. If you have a small pot it might drown the plant otherwise.

Sorry, my post was a bit confused, but I just now edited it, so now it reads like this

critterologist said:I've used mason twine in small pots, like for African violets. With larger containers, I like to add wicks made from 1" strips of micro-fiber towels, the "bar mop" type that I use instead of paper towels for a whole lot of things. I like Amazon's own brand the best -- good price, and they absorb water very nicely. Some of the other brands have a little trouble with initial dampening.

When I was raising a lot of AV babies, I kept them watered by putting a bunch of pots on top of a 1020 nursery flat full of water. Plastic light grids can be cut to size to fit over the reservoir tray. The grids are actually for ceiling lights, available at HD or Lowe's, as is the mason twine. You can cover the tray with a capillary mat (or a piece of old acrylic blanket) with an end sticking down into the water, then put pots on the mat. The mat stays wet, and the moisture is drawn up into the pots through the drainage holes. Or put mason twine wicks into individual pots, and dangle the wicks into the water reservoir through holes in the grid

With 2-part self-watering pots that aren't quite right (some flood the inner pot), I've put a wick down into the inner pot, over the rim, and down into the outer pot via the hole for adding water. These pots are often sold for African violets and are meant to work like wick watering, with the outer pot filled with water that slowly soaks through the unglazed inner pot.

If you put a few stones or a little gravel into a regular saucer (the dollar store oil-changing saucers make wonderful extra-deep plant saucers), you can raise the plant above the water reservoir. Now you have 2 things -- a wick to bottom-water your plant and a humidity tray to keep your plant happier inside in the winter.

I have old photos of some of this but can't currently access them. So instead I re-wrote my post and added more words, hopefully clarifying things a bit, although I realize a picture is worth a thousand words LOL.

Thank you, Jill! : )

NP :-)

Has anybody used Oyama pots or tried the Texas watering method? You put a layer of perlite in the bottom of the pot, then fill with potting mix. The pot goes into a tray of water (not deeper than the perlite). The perlite acts like a wick to keep the soil moist.

I haven't tried this. If you have some pots this way and some regular pots, guess you'd need to mark them unless you could clearly see the perlite through the drainage holes

I make my own oyama pots from clear tumblers from grocery store: punch 2 opposite holes about 1" from bottom. And you have it!
But I usually add a wick at this time it goes up the side and out 1 of the holes.
And a plug of perlite on the bottom for new cuttings or full perlite for transfer from water rooted cuttings. Then I put this into no-holes tumbler and fill with water to half when all perlite ( to ween them slowly from all water) or to hole with perlite plug.
All perlite drains too fast , so a little water in the bottom helps to keep it moist longer.
Also you can rinse the perlite easy this way by just lifting the inner tumbler.
A few bottle caps in and the tumbler is elevated with wick in a little of water: so I don't have to monitor. Enough for 1 week .