Despite the introduction of different types of biocontainers, limited research has been published regarding specific characteristics of biocontainers compared to traditional plastic containers. One particular area of importance is the amount of waterthat is needed to produce a commercial crop. Many biocontainers have water permeable walls, which cause the growing substrate to dry faster than in traditional plastic containers. Research was conducted to determine the amount of water required and the length of time between irrigations to produce a marketable geranium crop. Water loss through the container walls was also determined (Table 1). For the water use study, all containers were filled with a peat-based substrate. Plants were irrigated with 15-5-15 fertilizer at 200 parts per million nitrogen when the substrate surface was dry. At each irrigation, plants were placed on drainage trays, irrigated with 150 milliliters of water and the leachate was collected and measured. Geraniums were grown foreight weeks. Total water use and average irrigation interval are shown in Table 2.
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