How To Quickly Grow Plants In Containers Using A Soda Bottle Watering System

 

We grow peppers and eggplant in these half barrels and it works really well except in the summer when it gets hot and dry. It takes a long time if you’re running a sprinkler to get these things to get enough water and because I drilled drainage holes in the bottom, I should have what time about 4 inches from the bottom on the side of barrel, I’ve mentioned that before.

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I was looking different watering systems, he waters his plants using  piece of PVC pipe and this is my version for watering these half barrels.

First remove the cap from a 2 liter soda bottle then take a flat screwdriver and stick under the collar that remains on the bottleneck and twist it till it snaps off. Then take the soda bottle stick it upside down in a vice and take a 2 inch hole saw and cut a hole in the bottom, start with the side going forward until the drill bit goes through the bottle and then put it in reverse to finish the whole.

Take some 1 inch PVC and cut it into 12 inch long pieces, stick one end of it in the vice, then take a heat gun and shoot it down through the center of the pipe. I’m going to let the video run here in full time because it doesn’t take that long to soften the pipe, just so you get an idea of how long it takes to soften the pipe with the heat gun on high. When a pipe is soft enough use two hands push down firmly on the bottle and screw the bottle into the pipe until the whole neck of the bottle is seated in the pipe and then let it cool.

You can’t push on the bottle to put these into the dirt it will either crush the bottle or separate it from the pipe so take another piece of pipe make a hole part of the distance you want the thing in the dirt, if you want it 9 inches on the ground push a piece of pipe 6 inches into the ground first then insert the bottle and take the other piece of pipe slide it inside the bottle and use that to push it 3 more inches into the dirt and then fill it with water.

The first time I used them about a third to about a quarter of the water drained out between a half an hour and an hour it took over night for the rest of the water to drain out of the bottles.

I don’t know how they’d work just stuck into the ground in a regular garden but it might be worth a shot to try one and if you let me know how it works out for you.

Taj Mahal Marigold Bee

 

 

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