Water Bottle Drip-Feeders

The ubiquitous plastic water bottle can be put to good use.

My experience suggests that there may be a small-scale cottage industry here, in association with vermicompost suppliers.

Read on!

Here’s an empty bottle, 500 ml capacity.

Pick them up anywhere in Toronto, any street, against any fence ...

I have ripped a 12-inch strip off an old T-shirt, and drilled two holes in the bottle cap. You could punch the holes with nail or screw, for all that it matters.

One hole is about 1/16 inch diameter; it is the air-hole or breather-hole that will admit air into the bottle.

The second hole is about ¼ inch diameter, through it we will thread the wick, and from it will issue forth water!

A rather fuzzy shot of the cap. I must spend more time with the digital camera ...

The wick-hole is to the left, the air-hole to the right.

At nine o’clock I start my first experimental drip, over the hand-basin in the washroom.

Two hours later the bottle is half-empty.

You will note that I have exposed only a couple of inches of wick.

Would a longer exposure make the bottle drain faster?

Two hours later I elevate the bottle about thirty degrees from the horizontal.

Two hours later the bottle is empty.

My first experiment suggests that the 500 ml of water will drip out over a four-hour interval.

For my second experiment I stand the bottle vertically.

Will this increase the rate of flow?

After twenty minutes about one inch of the bottle is drained, representing about one-seventh its capacity.

The bottle drips away at a steady rate.

Two hours later the bottle is almost empty, although you’ll note that I have extended the wick outside the bottle.

Here is a better view of the ensemble.

After three hours the bottle is drained.

The vertical configuration and/or the extended wick have increased the flow.

At eight o’clock I begin again, this time with a compost-tea as fluid.

Why not feed the plants while I’m watering them?

I marked the ridges on the bottle to assist in calibrating the flow.

After an hour 1/3 the bottle is drained.

Two and a half hours, almost empty.

At the three-hour mark, flow pretty well ceased.

I guessed this was because the receptor was full, inhibiting flow through the wick, so I drained the receptor back into my feed bottle standing on the right and continued to drain my drip-feeder.

Empty!

Now let’s try the bottle in a near-horizontal configuration.

The wick is half-extended (50% inside the bottle, 50% outside).

The air-hole is uppermost on the cap.

Here is a close-up.

The bed is the basis for a green-wall I’m building this winter. By laying it near-horizontal while the cuttings take root, I’ll reduce the need for watering.

After two hours the bottle is almost empty.

Is the carpet layer helping to wick water away from the bottle?

Empty! After less than two and a half hours.

Let’s try a near-horizontal configuration in a large-pot house plant.

After an hour the bottle is half-empty.

At the two-hour mark, nearly empty!

(next day)

We need a stand in which to hold the bottle, vertically, above the plant.

So it’s back to the drawing-board.

Here are two sketches. Ideally a single-piece unit would hold the bottle, but if I have to make do with two, it’s doable.

Here are two lengths of wire from a single coat-hanger. The shorter length has a smaller diameter loop to cradle the neck and shoulder of a bottle.

Nothing special about the loops. I bent them by hand with guesswork and a pair of pliers. If I were doing this for a living I’d have a couple of wooden poles around which I’d wrap the wire.

I have a vague idea that the untwisted spirals might retain a good grip on the soil. But it’s only a vague idea ...

Here’s the stand in operation.

Works just fine!

P.S. Did you note that the whole exercise took less than two minutes?

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