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STX Gardener - Self watering plants

How to construct a pot that automatically waters itself

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Our South Texas Gardener, Gabriel Vega,  explains how to turn our plastic containers into self watering planters for our gardens. 

How to turn a simple plastic bottle into a self watering wick system that will allow the plant to determine when it needs more water rather than leaving the at home gardener guessing when to give our plants more water.

Step one pick a large plastic bottle suitable in size to the plant we are wanting to accommodate.

Cut the top portion of the plastic bottle about 1/3rd down from the top.

Place material such as burlap, hemp rope, nylon rope or even a sturdy paper towel through the opening of the mouth piece. The material chosen needs to make contact with the bottom of the larger portion of the container while still having at least a quarter of the length be inside the top portion.

If your plant is going to eventually be consumed, then its important to load up the top cut portion of the plastic bottle with a premium organic soil that is low in heavy metals, while having all the available nutrients needed to grow your plant to the best potential ability.

Fill the top portion of the container with the selected media on the top. Be sure to make good contact with the fabric chosen that will acting as a wick.

Transplant the plant into the top portion of the container and water heavily, saturating the media and the wick till it is soaked. Failure to do this will result in a inactive wicking container.

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