The 35-cent Wine Bottle Plant Waterer

After breaking a few of the fancy blown glass plant watering bulbs, I figure there could be a more durable, homemade system that would serve the same purpose.  After killing a bottle of wine, the inspiration came to me!

The watering system utilizes the empty wine bottle, cork, and a small piece of tubing.  A hole is drilled into the cork to hold the tubing in place, and the bottle is inserted into the ground with the tube pointed downward to water the plant roots.

This Instructable focuses on how I modified the cork to fit easily in the bottle and hold the tube in place.  I was able to build these using materials around the hose, with the only exception being one quick trip to the store to purchase a length of tubing.  With a $1.39 (plus tax) expenditure, I was able to make four waterers, which computes to a total expenditure of less than 35 cents apiece.

Enjoy!

Step 1: What you’ll need:

Supplies:

• Wine bottles (emptied of their yummy original contents), rescued from the recycle bin;
• Cork from wine bottle (I used one of the newer rubberized corks with great success)
• ¼ inch O.D. soft copper tubing.  I found a two-foot section for $1.39 at a local big-box home store:  http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202520516/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053;
• A spare block of 2 x 4 to make the cork clamp;
• A small piece of ¼ inch wooden dowel.

Tools:

• Drill press or hand drill;
• 7/8” spade drill bit and a 7/32” regular drill bit;
• Sandpaper (I used 150 grit);
• Tube cutter;
• Chop saw or table saw (used because they were available, hand saws would also work);
• Pencil and straightedge;
• Handscrew clamp.

Comments

[Raitis]

Nice clamp idea for wine corks. I had to drill several with hand drill while holding them with other hand and it was quite scary. Even managed to drill two 10mm holes through a single cork without spilling any blood. So might be quite safe if you use your brainpower.

[matchbookhymnal]

How quickly do these drain? Some of the commercial ones empty so fast they're of no use.

[Arano]

great ible, but i think you should use some other metal than copper... i'm not sure if it will kill most of your plants, but a coppernail insterted into a tree can kill it within a year

[thunderwaldo]

Thanks for the comment. Other rigid materials could be used, I just happened across the copper first. I'm not sure whether the copper in this instance would have an impact on plants because there isn't direct contact, as opposed to the nail in the root example you mentioned. Several decorative garden items are made from copper and stuck in the ground, presumably without creating a plant toxicity concern.