Drip irrigation with plastic bottles

We have already written in detail how to organize drip irrigation in a greenhouse, create a do-it-yourself irrigation system on the site from a hose, adapters and dispensers. But what if there is no desire to spend money on tapes, a hose, and other details? Do you want “cheap and cheerful”? Then you can use for drip irrigation what exactly is in every home – ordinary plastic bottles.

What you need:

1. The plastic bottles themselves. It is impractical to take small ones, it is better from 1.5 to 5 liters in volume.
2. A nail, a thick needle, an awl – any tool that can punch holes in the bottom or cap of a bottle.
3. Pieces of fabric, best from old nylon tights. They will be required to protect the holes from ground ingress..
4. Knife or scissors to cut the bottle.

There are three options for drip irrigation from plastic bottles:

1. Bury the bottle upside down. In this case, the bottom will have to be cut off, but not completely, so that you can add water, but the container was covered. Otherwise, the water will evaporate too quickly, and debris may fall into the bottle. The holes are made in the container lid. Their size depends on the type of soil. For loose, sandy, fertile soil, you can make smaller holes with a thin needle. If the soil is dense, clayey – a little more, with a carnation or an awl. The number of holes – from 3 to 5. It is necessary to bury the bottle with the neck down so as not to damage the root system, for example, a tomato seedling, shallow.

2. Bury the bottle upside down. In this case, you will have to bury a little deeper, you will need a shovel. The holes are made with the same awl or nail, but at the bottom of the bottle, to the depth of instillation, there should be at least 10 of them over the entire surface, evenly. The cap on the bottle remains for the same reasons – to protect the container from debris and rapid evaporation of water.

Important! When burying the bottle upside down or with the neck down, in any case, do not forget to cover the holes made with a cloth so that they do not get clogged with earth and water flows freely to the roots of the plants.

3. Hang up the bottle. This is a little more difficult, because you need support and fasteners, ropes, wire. But on the other hand, the holes in the bottom or cap of the bottle will definitely not be clogged with earth. In the case of hanging, you can stretch the tubes from the bottle directly to the seedling to ensure accurate water flow to the roots.

The advantages of even such a simple drip irrigation from plastic bottles are obvious: time and effort of the garden owners are saved. One two-liter bottle provides watering of the seedling for about a week. That is, you can even go to rest, having worried in advance about irrigating the beds..

However, there are also downsides. Each plant needs its own plastic bottle as a source of moisture. As a result, the garden is literally filled with containers, which looks unaesthetic. At the same time, if the summer is dry, you still have to fill the beds abundantly from time to time, because the drops from the bottles simply maintain the humidity, but they cannot replace a real downpour. In addition, in the case of burying containers, despite the presence of tissue, the holes may become clogged with earth and will have to be periodically cleaned..