FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Based on my naked eye's observation, I think the saucer dries up faster.

I kind of regret not collection rain water during the ONLY TIME Nor Cal rained during December.

So I am curious to find out which method saves retains more water.

i can only imagine a crowded tray would leave less water exposed to moving air, and less exposed to sunlight, so possibly would lose water much slower in a tray?

perhaps it's even more water efficient to not use any tray or saucer at all, but to just water daily?

Ya I agree with you that tray leaves less water exposed to moving air and sunlight.

Well, I"m just really lazy going around watering all the different pots, I'd rather just pour the water into the tray

also, you could try painting your trays white to reflect sunlight, could help.

Through several years of experience I can tell you that larger bodies of water maintain themselves easier and require less maintenance and topping up due to evaporation. I had to fill individual saucers daily, while my two-by-four foot and two-by-eight foot crowded troughs required periodic draining and refilling to avoid yucky stagnation. The more water you have the more it remains thermally stable. Smaller bodies of water (saucers) heat up and evaporate quickly, especially in dry climates; troughs do not.

It hurts to refill such large bodies, however, especially if you buy your water. It would require nearly one entire rain barrel (~50 gallons) to fill both troughs.


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Also of note: larger trays keep the water cooler (thermic stability) thereby helping to keep root zone temps down, too.


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ya, that was my guess as well. Which is why i'm considering switching to all trays