Water Lily Pot with Feeding Tube

Water Lily Pot with Integral Feeding Tube

Steve J. Noll

Basic short/wide pot.

Basic short & wide garden center pot. 18-inch diameter by 7-inches deep. Fiskars Terra Bowl 54018. Ideal for hardy water lily tubers.

1 1/4

1 1/4-inch PVC electrical sweep elbow fitted with a male adaptor. Cut shorter as shown. Lily tabs will fall through this feed tube and end up in the pot underneath the lily tuber and planting medium.

Feed tube glued in place.

Pipe is glued in place with Eclectic Products UV6800 underwater sealant. Fine polyethylene mesh is then glued in place with the same sealant. The mesh is McMaster-Carr 9314T23 with 0.06" openings and will maintain a space under the Schultz Aquatic Plant Soil for the lily tabs. A threaded PVC female cap will close off the end of the feeding pipe.

Finished pot.

Finished pot is covered with coarse polyethylene mesh, McMaster-Carr 9314T35, 0.45" openings. Forget about Koi rooting through your pots now! Insulated wire fastens the mesh down and provides a handle for lifting the pot. Cut a hole in the mesh for the initial sprouts from the tuber. Edges of the mesh will lift enough for the tuber to 'escape' the pot as needed as it grows.

Seven happy water lilies.

Seven hardy water lilies are potted this way. To fertilize unscrew the 1 1/4-inch PVC caps, drop lily tabs into the pipe. Replace cap.

Water Lily Pot with Integral Feeding Tube

Steve J. Noll

(C) 2005-2014 Steve J. Noll