Making Self Watering Pop Bottle Propagators

 

Self-Watering Pop Bottle Propagators. 

Repurposing plastic pop/ water bottles before they ultimately get recycled.

Use the lines in the molding of the bottle to line up the two strips that will become the lifting handle. On this one I'm also taking the bottom of the bottle as well.

Here is another I have marked out a little more than I normally would so you can see what I'm cutting out. I highlighted the line in the moulding and then placed a rule over it to mark the handle strips.

Cut out the sections that are not required, and you have this.

The two 20 - 25mm wide strips will become the lifting handle.

Overlap the strips and staple them together. 

View once stapled, I have used a soldering iron and melted the straps together in the past as well.

Rag cloth rescued from an old bed mattress that I cut into tray size to use as capillary matting and now cut again into strips wide enough to be rolled up and stuffed into the neck of the bottle as capillary membrane.

Five 1mm holes drilled into the pop bottle cap to allow the water to get into the inside of the plastic bottle top via the wicking capillary membrane once filled with soil.

Roll up the strip of rag cloth and stuff into the neck of the bottle and screw the cap on.

The three parts of the Self Watering Pop Bottle Propagators the water container the growing basket and the Propagator cut to length so that the handle fits neatly inside and supports the propagator lid part, which can have a cap with holes added or the cap can be removed, as can the top of the bottle once the seedlings are up and no longer need the propagator lid.

Basket in the water container. The handle helps hold the bottle top you will be using as a Propagator in place.

Self-Watering Pop Bottle Propagators Assembled

Six Self-Watering Pop Bottle Propagators ready for being shipped to the Allotment greenhouse

Typical cucumber seed planting layout, and other seeds come to that.

Self-Watering Pop Bottle Propagators in use earlier this year, the plant label fits nicely in the middle of the bottle. 

Self-Watering Pop Bottle Propagators waiting to be filled with compost and seeds sown.

Video from 2016 when I added the lifting handle which was a game changer!

I use these in my allotment greenhouses, as I can't always get down to the allotment to water as I look after my wife who has Lupus and needs someone to be around as standing and moving around is not possible unassisted.

Self-Watering Pop Bottle Propagator

Video I made in 2016 about these repurposed pop bottles to make Self-Watering Pop Bottle Propagators. The modification I made with the formation of a handle was a game changer and no other improvements have been made since 2016. 

Now that I have an additional greenhouse on plot 1, I'm making some more ready for the start of the spring growing season. 

Seeds placed equally as far as possible at 12, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 o'clock as indicated in the photo before the seeds were helped into the compost, watered in and then the reservoir filled with water and the Pop Bottle Propagator lids were placed on top of the handles.     

 

The water in the bottom of the pop bottle lasts quite a while and allows me not to have to visit the allotment greenhouse every day to water. 

I wished that I had used these this year as I lost too many young plants to the heat wave and ridiculous 41C temperatures outside of the greenhouse. 

For 2023 I'm going to be a little more prepared.