Water only wicks up so much vertically (someone with knowledge feel free to chime in but 18” sticks in my mind) and those barrels are more than double that.
Why not just cut them the long way? Now you’re probably thinking how do they stay upright? Get a rack like this (
https://barrelbroker.com/collections/barrel-racks ) or make something out of wood and put some 5” wheels on it, do yourself a favor and do not get small wheels they suck. A reservoir could be fit to the bottom of the rack with the wicks from the barrels going into it. Pretty simple with only a little bit of engineering involved.
Hopefully you are on concrete floors because it will weigh a couple of grams.