Self-Watering System for Seedlings
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Here's a cheap and cheerful method of creating a self-watering system for your milkweed, or other plants, seedlings.
The beauty of this system is that -
The beauty of this system is that -
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You will need -
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Method -
Here I have used 1.5L empty plastic bottles that previously held water. Notice the nice flat sides and a good flat base.
I have used thin strips of 100% cotton knit fabric for the wicks. This is a 4L bottle that had previously held water. Notice the square flat base and the straight sides. These bottles are very stable.
I initially tried cotton string as the wick (many strands) but that didn't work so well so I went back to the knit fabric strips. The one I buy is called "Soft Cloth Garden Tie" and comes in a 5m roll. It's normally used as a plant tie. Works well. These were my first self-watering seedling bottles using 1.5L empty Coke Bottles. Unfortunately, because the base of each bottle was ripple shaped, it meant the bottles were not as stable as they could have been and sometimes they fell over at the slightest movement. In the end I placed them all into a plastic crate as support and that worked reasonably well. I used these bottles several times over, before moving to bottles with a flatter base.
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