Upcycled Self Watering Planter

Hello everyone,

Today I'd like to share with you how I made this self watering (water wicking) planter from a used tin can and a 3D printed inner pot.

The entire planter is biodegradable when printed with PLA filament.

This is a fantastic quick and easy upcycling project to do with kids as it will be very rewarding for them to watch their new plant grow and it's super easy to care for.

Lets get going!

To make this Instructable you will need the following:

- Access to a 3D printer

- Approximately 7.5 meters of PLA filament if printed at the same scale

- A 100mm diameter tin can if printing the same scale (this is a hot chocolate tin)

- About 300mm of cotton wick

- Potting Soil

- A plant of your choice

How Does a Wick Watering System Work?

Simply put, a wick watering system wicks water to your plants so they don’t dry out when you aren’t able to keep them watered. This is great if you have to go out of town for a few days or if you are planning a vacation. You won’t have to worry about coming home to dried-out plants, and you won’t have to search for someone to come and water them while you are away.

Besides convenience, the benefit of having a wick system is that your plants won’t get soggy roots as they could if you just put each pot into a dish of water. Plants absorb just what they need, so even if you have plants that have different watering requirements, you can take care of all of them with the same system. While you can buy a plant wicking system, if you have many houseplants, the cost can add up. Making your own system is free using things you already have.

The pot inner was designed in Fusion 360 and I have included the .f3d file if you would like to change the sizes to fit your can.

The size of the design can be changed by editing the first sketch on Fusion 360 and adjusting the two circles as shown in the picture to your can dimensions.

I suggest not changing any other features to avoid printing problems.

The pot is designed to be printed as easily as possible with no wasted filament.

It is printed top down (upper rim touching build plate) with no supports needed.

Print settings:

Nozzle: 0.4mm recommended (I used a 0.5mm)

Temp: 220 Deg C with eSun PLA+

65 Deg C Bed

Speed: 40-50mm/s

Cooling: Fan speed 100% with PLA

Support: No support or brims needed

7.5 meters of filament used

Under 2 hours print time

TIP:

If you are having trouble printing the individual thin walls with the air slots I would first recommend calibrating your E-steps and if that doesn't help you will need to increase your cooling efficiency by printing a new more efficient cooling fan.

Now that your pot inner is printed we can start assembling our planter.

First we need to cut our wick to size, With the 20mm wide cotton wick i'm using I can comfortably fit 4 wicks through the bottom hole of the inner pot.

I took the 300mm of wick and cut it in half then folded the two pieces in half again and fed them through the hole.

I then spaced the wicks equally around the inside of the inner pot and filled it up with good quality potting soil.

TIP:

Potting soil with a high quantity of coco peat seems to work best, I have found that buying a "Seedling Mix" gives very good results as it has a finer texture and more coco peat.

Compact your soil gently and then plant your favourite plant.

I must admit that my favourite in the tin cans has to be succulents, it gives a modern edgy look!

And that's it, your all done!

Now you can just fill up your tin can with some fresh water so that the wicks are submerged and place your beautiful new creation in a sunny spot.

Your new planter will only require a water top-up every few weeks depending on your local temperature.

Hope you guys enjoyed this Instructable and please share your creations with us.

.....Happy making!