I've been growing in 1L airpots in coco, watering the tray and letting them wick it up (bottom-feeding). Here's how I set up my airpots:
First, because the base sits in the space between the inward facing holes, there's a small air gap at the bottom.
Eventually the roots will grow past this air gap, but I add a wicking rope to give them a head start. I put a plant twist tie through the airpot, a couple holes up, so it can keep the rope from sinking to the bottom. Then, I fold rope over it, and put both ends through the holes in the base.
From the outside, it looks like this:
And inside, fully assembled, looks like this:
I tried a couple different kinds of rope, seeing which could wick water with food coloring up quickest from the bottom of a glass. Out of those, the winner was 3/16" braided polyester clothesline, "Blue Hawk 0.1875-in x 50-ft Braided Polyester Rope" from Lowe's, which also alluded to "gardening" use on the label. $5 for 50 feet. Other kinds of rope probably also work really well, but it's worth further experimenting.
First, because the base sits in the space between the inward facing holes, there's a small air gap at the bottom.
Eventually the roots will grow past this air gap, but I add a wicking rope to give them a head start. I put a plant twist tie through the airpot, a couple holes up, so it can keep the rope from sinking to the bottom. Then, I fold rope over it, and put both ends through the holes in the base.
From the outside, it looks like this:
And inside, fully assembled, looks like this:
I tried a couple different kinds of rope, seeing which could wick water with food coloring up quickest from the bottom of a glass. Out of those, the winner was 3/16" braided polyester clothesline, "Blue Hawk 0.1875-in x 50-ft Braided Polyester Rope" from Lowe's, which also alluded to "gardening" use on the label. $5 for 50 feet. Other kinds of rope probably also work really well, but it's worth further experimenting.
