For those of us who don’t exactly have green thumbs, getting the right amount of water to your plants feels like a constant balancing act. My poor plants were constantly dry as a bone or practically swimming! And then I found this brilliant soda bottle drip feeder tutorial from The Gardening Cook. Not only is it a savior for the watering-impared but it even helps make use of all those old soda bottles!
So what’s the point of a drip feeder? Great question! The idea behind a drip feeder is to slowly release water to the plant, which makes it easier for the plant to absorb the water. By burying the drip feeder by the plant the water is delivered straight to the plant’s roots.
The Gardening Cook explains “Watering from the root area instead of overhead encourages a plant to develop a healthy root system and prevents fungus and other problems that overhead watering encourages.”
And as every gardener knows, happy roots make happy plants!
So here’s what you’ll need to get started:
2 liter soda bottle (make sure it is BPA free if you are using this feeder for vegetables)
Barbeque skewers
That’s it!
After you take all the wrappers off of the plastic 2 liter take the barbeque skewer and poke holes in the bottle. Just how many holes you put in the bottle will depend on how just how dry your soil gets. The dryer your soil the more holes you will need. Make sure to spread the holes out around the bottle like you see in the picture above.
Once all of the holes are in, bury the bottle next to your young plant. Make sure that the top of the bottle sticks up just a bit above the dirt. This will make it easier to fill and help prevent dirt from making its way into the bottle and plugging the holes. The Gardening Cook also recommends placing panty hose over the bottle before you bury it to keep dirt from slipping into the holes.
Once your bottle is in the ground, all you have to do is fill the water up in the bottle. The holes will let the water slow release and when you can’t see the water anymore, it’s time to water again! That’s easy enough even I can do it!
For a potted plant you can make a drip feeder just like the big one but with a smaller 20 ounce bottle.
My plants are SO happy I found this!
Credit: The Gardening Cook