Simple Gravity Drip Irrigation System Using Plastic Soda Bottles 

Great idea! Your use of the second bottle to solve the clogging problem was brilliant.

The reason the water would not drip out in the original design is that, for water to drip out, it must be replaced by air. With a large volume of water in the bottle, the pressure exerted by the water is too great to allow air into the bottle. The solution is to make a hole above the water to allow air to replace the water that is dripping out. When you cut the bottom off the bottle, you solved that problem. To prevent the water from running out too fast in this design, however, the hole through which the water escapes must be very small.

Ok, that double-bottle setup is genius! Thanks for the info.

Great tip especially the part to prevent the soil from getting trapped in the bottle opening.

You have made the best explanation of this system from all the others I’ve seen. Thank you!!

Thank you for the idea on how to stop the soil from stopping the drip hole. I will use this in my science class. 😁

Hey Tikki, just want to say your videos on sprouting helped me so much! After covering my sprouter I get a better yield and they grow faster!! Appreciate your videos so much.

Great video, I love how you showed your thoughts and progress up until the optimal solution. Thank you very much!

That’s a good system for those of us who have balconies and garden. It stops the flooding that can happen

You must be a teacher, the presentation was amazing.

Nice idea with the extra bottle to set it in. I did this last year and even if the holes weren't clogged with soil at first, they eventually clogged with algae. Then the bottles collapsed as the water drained and wouldn't hold their shape any more. I have some plastic watering cones that you fill with sand and place the bottle into. It helps slow the flow and avoids the clogging issue. Always love new ideas to tinker with though. :)

Great video; quite informative!! The Bluemat recommendation is also well appreciated as I will be traveling for two weeks and leaving my patio herb garden behind. Again, appreciate this!!

Very simple and effective solution and good for the environment too! Thank you for sharing

Years ago I bought a set of "waterers" that attached to bottles...you could cut them to achieve the water flow you wanted. But soil did tend to clog. Genius idea to use a second bottle as a sleeve..may have to round up those old things and give them another try.

great idea. I love the flap for easy refill, genius

You can adjust the flow rate by balancing the drip rate with the air entry rate at the top. Use a needle hole(s) in the base of the upper bottle, instead of completely open. Experiment with a timer to get the desired flow rate. This is similar to a Sparkletts type bottled water dispenser. Unfortunately, this does not allow easy refilling of each bottle with a hose, but having a second set of bottles and refilling them at one and replacing them actually goes faster, than standing and refilling. You can also use 3" or 4" PVC or ABS pipe as a more sturdy base to hold the bottles. Finally, you can buy drip system buttons that deliver a given GPH drip fro .5 GPH to 2 GPH and just insert into the lower part of the bottle, which allows for both benefits. With the latter, you can use one large bottle or bucket and string out multiple 1/4 inch hose to individual plants, filling up only one source as a distribution manifold, and you know exactly how much each plant is getting, with less filling.

Thank you, this is great! simple (and cheap) to make, recycles my used bottles, simple to install, simple to refill, no external energy source, won't clog.... so many benefits of this design!

Thank you! I have had so much trouble with these self-watering devices getting plugged. I am going to try your ideas!

I'm so glad I found your video today! Thank you! I'm definitely going to try this.🙂

LOL!!!😊 YESSS!!! GARDENING IS A LOT OF TRIAL AND ERROR!!!😂 BUT THE PAY OFF OF THE PLANTS/VEGETABLES TURNING OUT AWESOME IS THE BEST PART FOR ME!!!😃 THANKS FOR YOUR GOOD IDEAS!!!🙋👍🔥🙏👑➕📖🔥

Best process I've seen so far. Thanks!

Thank you I find your system the most efficient so far I’ve been trying to set up a system far to long now unsuccessfully I tried your system yesterday although I wasn’t so successful however watching you again I feel next time it may work I will use a smaller needle I also like how you use a cut out part of another bottle to hold the first bottle away from the soil thanks again.

Great instructions. Very clear. Waiting for spring!

Thank you for the valuable and useful information.🎉

Best engineering is the simple type and this is a simple solution. Wish I had thought of it.

It really is trail & error , the hot needled is a good idea, my water comes out too fast, so going to try your tips, thanks again from Yorkshire England,

In quarantine right now and I decided to make this for fun! Love your video :)

Great idea, Tikki, I will try that. You can also wear oven mitts when holding the pliers over heat just in case it gets too hot. Thanks for the demonstration; think I will try that water bottle system on my squash in a half barrel.

Great idea using the second bottle.

Take a glass wine bottle with a cap or cork on it. Shove it into the ground then remove it. Remove the cap, fill the bottle, invert the bottle without the cap, and quickly place it into the hole you just made. Watering will be automatic. The thirstier the plant the drier the soil gets. As soil dries, it shrinks and lets air into the bottle, and water out. When the water is released, the soil swells pretty quickly and stops the flow. Since no cap, the plant can get all the water it wants. With a cap and holes in the cap, the watering is very limited. I have done this for a few years now with great success. I prefer to use magnum wine bottles since they can hold more water.

Also using this drip drip system, you may have prevented the erosion of soil with the power of water. That is my humble opinion, I may not be absolutely correct 😊 If I ever start such vegetables growing thing, I hope I will do like you did. Thanks for the video...

Thank you. This is the best explanation of the drip system

Do you know how many videos of drip systems there are on youtube? I didnt either. Prob. 100's. Well maybe not that many. Yours is the best!!! I've watched many. of them and just didn't quite agree with their methods. Thank you for clearly explaining yours.

Good work. I did a similar thing. I screwed the bottle to a stake. I also put a cue tip..ear bud..in the hole in the cap. I use liquid fertiliser in mine. The hole block but I can jiggle the ear bud to get it going again. The ear buds are hollow. So I guess some water will go through the ear bud. Filtered either end by the cotton. My next one I will try a screw in emmiter. Then I can set it to drip by x amount per hr.

THANKS FOR YOUR TIPS

This is extremely clever! Thank you for sharing!

Watching from Trinidad and Tobago

Thank you for taking your time perfecting this and sharing with all of us. Tikki to the rescue :)

Im going to try the right side up bottle with 4-5 tiny holes poked around the base of the bottle. To keep the holes from crogging. I will slip the whole bottle into a nylon stocking and secure the stocking at the neck of the bottle. I'll plant the bottle base at the same depth as the bulbs or a bit deeper so the bulb roots will dive deeper to reach the drips. I will keep the cap tight on the bottle and unscrew the cap to add more water.

This was so helpful! Thank you for sharing!

A questions, and I think you’re the perfect person for an answer!! I have an AeroGarden Harvest in my home and it comes with their own plant food bottle. Whenever I fill in the reservoir with water, say every 2 weeks, I use 2 caps of plant food and it works! Now I also have Foxfarms plant food and an another DYI reservoir which I created. Now the question- When check the PH of AeroGarden water(after putting in plant food) it is about 4.89-5 but the normal tap water PH is around 8! Same water and Foxfarm plant food combine PH is around 6.8-7 I wonder why? Does it mean Aerogarden plant food reduces the water PH ? I am using lemon now to reduce the PH level of tap water but just wanted to check with since you use Foxfarm like always and I have seen your plants and food growth. That only inspired me for Hydroponics! Also one more observation- Your lettuce video which is for regrowing the store bought lettuce in water and plant food solution- In my case, lettuce only grew like 1-2 inches with nice leaves but it just stops right at 1-2 inches. I waited for 10-15 days and it did not grow and eventually died. I have tried this like 5-6 times now. Any thought?? Does the tab water PH affecting here as well? As always thanks much!!!

thank you. great video. best i have seen so far.

just what i was looking for thanks for the brilliant idea. More videos like this.

I use old wine bottles with short piece or metal wire stabbed into the dirt..place bottle over exposed wire. Helps create a wick out for the water. No clogging

Yes. Thank you ❤️

I have cats so I buy 20 lbs plastic containers. Poke a small hole in each corner an inch up. Plant your plant right next to each hole. Remove the cap, fill the container, put the cap back on and enjoy your day (or two)

Thanks for the inspired idea! Love it

Unfortunately the bottles probably contain plastic and more than likely not PBA free. So that kind of takes away from the organic part if you're doing an organic garden. As far as watering goes wow I water a lot. I have a shutoff at the end of my hoes at my wand. I never turn it on without being over-the-top of a plant and I always trade off before moving to the next one. Besides that I like getting out and looking at my plants everyday not looking for a reason to have plants and not to visit them. I was just answering your question. I enjoy the extra exercise also.

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. Placing the bottle in another bottle was excellent idea.

Thank you it works so good it is takinng 10 hours to drain❤

Greta idea. What about the fact that probably the plants get water during the hottest part of the day. Is that a problem?

Thank you!! I’ve been playing around with this myself trying to figure something out and this is perfect! Going to try tomorrow! Love your Chanel you do a great job!

You're brilliant. Thank you.

Thank you

I liked your method 10:27 am mountain standard time I am going to try it

Great idea! Thanks!

Thanks 😊

Great video! Have you tried drilling a hole? Or using a wick? In Texas either pour buckets or we have two week stretch of scorcher days.

YOU'RE A GEM!!!

Wow. That is really smart

Do you find the water spreads evenly around large pots or creates a moist 'tunnel' down to the pot's base?

This is very smart !

nice video, been trying different things myself, as I am going away for a bit and want to take care of my plants. I do wonder if when you cut the bottom out of the bottle it leaked quicker? Like shot gunning a beer! I tried a second small hole on the bottom and it leaked out too quickly. I m now trying something that looks more like a hummingbird feeder. but iI do like your bottle in bottle method. Going to give it a try first. or as well. Thanks for sharing.

Brilliant! Yes, it helps me a lot!

Thanks! Good idea!

love this type of video.

Used 1 gal Arizona Tea bottles stuck directly in ground. Vacuum formed preventing flow after one hr. Guess I need tiny hole allowing air in bottom

Hii i realy like your beatiful video water plants.

Great idea mam🙏🙏🎂

Would the same size hole with the needle, be big enough to stop the bottle from collapsing?

Would a PVC pipe cut off to hold the bottle in the soil work too? I wouldn't want it to fall over while I'm going. We are already over 100 degrees every day. I wish my husband had not just recylced all of the plastic bottles.

Very helpful!

point of correction, did you know that automatically you increased the valume of water dropping system by cutting the the bottle creating that cap.

You are one smart cookie

This is good idea just for prototype or a model. Cant implement this is big farms in the range of hectors. Imagine the labour efforts to fill up the water bottle and to plant it properly in the soil. You will hardly get labours to fill up water bottles.

Great Idea!

Fabulous! ❤

This was really interesting, thanks

Nice.l love this

Excellent

Awesome

Great presentation. 🌿🌻🍓🍅🍉🌿

FANTASTIC!!!

What if you was to put a very small hole at the bottom of the bottle so when you turn it up Sid down the air would make it easier for the water to flow out

Wow. Brilliant

well done

I used 300ml bottle and it is consumed in one day. Is this fine? Or is it too fast?

If the finished product takes 10 hours to drain and you want continuous drippage, then you refill the bottles with the hose at least once a day -- see 4:34. You're then back to using the hose on each plant once a day. A brief squirt with the hose on the soil will provide the same benefit as the 10-hour drip so the bottles are a wasted effort. And while droughts stress out plants, they otherwise do fine with intermittent watering like natural rainfall.

I have a butane solder iron and cutting tips

Thankyou for this video

My question is how many hours/days does it take for the water bottles to empty??

😁✌🖖👌👍😎 that was pretty neat , i wil be doing this today for sure !!!! ✌👍🤞😁

nice

Is that you Steve perry??

soil is blocking the holes of the bottle cap , what to do

ima try your design in the spring. all of mine failed :-(

Thank you for this I like Grobuckets For 26 day What are once cycles.

Where did you get that galvanize planter?

although you had hole in cay you needed hole in top of bottle because you created a vacume in the bottle the hole in the top releases the presure in the vacume

Love your videos!! So you fill the bottles everyday? What all are you growing in your grow bags? Thank you!!