Self-watering plant pots made from PET bottles

Felix

I'm a graduate industrial engineer, but I've always been an enthusiastic hobby gardener at heart. I have been growing fruit and vegetables in my own garden for over ten years, and my passion lies above all in rare and special varieties.

Favorite fruit: Red-fleshed peaches and pluots (apricot/plum hybrid)
Favorite vegetables: kale, tomatoes and cardoon

Recycle PET bottles and sow seeds: We show how you can transform PET bottles into self-watering plant pots.

There is still no deposit on many PET bottles. Instead of throwing the bottles in the plastic waste, you can also use them as cheap plant pots. And best of all, they even water themselves, so they're ideal if you're on vacation for a few days. In our DIY handicraft instructions, we explain step by step the way from the bottle to the plant pot.

Take a commercially available PET bottle and carefully drill a hole in the lid. You should make sure that it is large enough so that a thicker rope can then be threaded through.
With a sharp cutter knife, cut approx. a third of the bottle. Put this “funnel” aside for now.

Now you take a 50 cm long rope and soak it well with water and then thread it through the hole in the lid.
The lid is screwed on again and one end of the rope is placed in the funnel in a snail shape. The other end is placed in the bottom of the bottle. Then the funnel and the bottle are put together.
Now you fill the funnel with potting soil and use seeds of your choice.
If you lift the funnel, you can fill the bottle with water. The water rises continuously over the rope, moistens the soil and the DIY plant pot is up up to a week with sufficient moisture without being exposed to the risk of waterlogging.