I am thrilled to share this guest review of the Auto-Water Nozzle
A budding container garden basks under the radiant Californian sun on my apartment balcony. Although I do enjoy watering and caring for my botanical oasis, the occasional runoff water from the containers would make a mess on the cramped floor. While rummaging the internet for solutions, I became enlightened reading articles on Drip Irrigation. Drip irrigation, or micro-irrigation, is a watering system that delivers water droplets into the soil through small holes in a plastic pipe. As a result, a wholesome portion of water gradually saturates thirsty roots. My interests were sparked as I was visualizing this method for my garden. Eventually, I stumbled upon and purchased a six pack of the “Auto-Water Nozzles
Instructions:
- Drill a center hole on a bottle cap. A drill is best, but if you don’t have one most bottle caps can be punctured with a knife or hammer and nail. Please, be careful! The hole must be centered on the cap.
- Insert the Auto-Water Nozzle through the hole from inside the cap. The opening must be large enough for the Auto-Water Nozzle.
- Fill the bottle with water and screw the cap with Auto-Water Nozzle on the bottle. Make certain all connections are secured and sealed.
- Flip the bottle and insert Auto-Water Nozzle into soil. As soil becomes dry, it releases oxygen into the bottle, which in turn releases the exact amount of water the plant needs. If water does not cascade out of the bottle when flipped over, inspect the connections of the bottle, nozzle, and cap to make sure they are fully sealed.
My balcony floor has been completely dry ever since I started using the Auto-Water Nozzles. So far, my bottle collection includes those that have housed sparkling mineral water and balsamic vinegar. My sun-drenched plants demand a lot of water, so I have been refilling the bottles every two days. Occasionally, the Auto-Water Nozzle gets clogged with soil and it slows or even stops the water flow. I take notice of the obstruction if water in a bottle stays at the same level for a long period of time. To prevent buildup from occurring, remove the nozzle from the soil and shake the bottle vigorously to clear the debris. I hope the nozzles do not get clogged if I am on a weekend getaway! Despite the soil traffic jams of the Auto-Water Nozzles, my plants have a healthier glow. I highly recommend this product to anyone with a container garden. Not only do they conserve water and ease watering duty stress, Auto-Water Nozzles keep a balcony floor nice and dry.
The Benefits of the Auto-Water Nozzle Are:
- Reuse your soft drink bottle or wine bottle and save our environment.
- High efficiency, low cost automatic water solution for indoor and outdoor plants. Provide exact amount of water every time without the risk of overwatering or dehydration.
- Great for watering plants that are far away from a garden hose.
- Directly deliver water or fertilizer into root zone of plants.
- Much easier to fill water.
- No spills to clean up and no more over-watering. Dispenses water as plants need it, every time.
- Fits in most soda or wine bottles with a cap.
You Might Also Like:
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Fern do you know where to get this? It sounds great.
Neat idea! Dumb question for you: how does the bottle know when the soil has enough & does it water all around the plant?
Kathy–I believe it works through osmosis.
Melanie–The links I provided are to the product page on Amazon. I’m responding from my phone, so it’s hard for me to see the links and type at the same time, but I think the very first link is an Amazon link.
This is similar to a product I use, Plant Nanny (http://www.greennationgardens.com/Plant-Nanny-Company-s/345.htm), but I think the Auto-Water Nozzle may give more direct water into the soil.
I’ve had really good luck with the Plant Nannies – same osmosis, but without the risk of clogging. Added bonus…everybody knows what kind of interesting beer or wine I’ve been indulging in!
Do you think that you could also accomplish the same thing by just punching 1 or 2 small holes in the top of the bottle cap, fill bottle with water, attach top, invert into soil?
Margaret–No, the water will all flow out of the bottle in a matter of minutes. I’ve tried it.
I do the same thing with plastic 1 liter and 2 liter pop/soda bottles. I drill about 3 holes and place a little wood mulch in the hole before I put in the bottle so the cap doesn’t clog with soil. However, I also cut the bottom off the bottle so that if it rains, it fills the bottle. I then found the stakes that you can screw the top of the bottle into and drip even deeper into the container. I suppose if I kept the bottom of the bottle on I could get a better osmosis thing going on, but it also makes for easy watering when all I have to do is pour water straight into the open bottle.
@ Margaret I’ve had no problems with just using the bottle cap method without the nozzle. It doesn’t flow out if your soil is moist enough. At least that’s been my experience. The holes have to be small enough to create a drip but not so big that the run out, and not so small that they clog (but I use the wood mulch on the bottom too).
Also, the plant nanny thing is similar to the stakes I bought. I got mine at Harbor Freight, 6 for $1.99. Work pretty well, although the connection with the pop/soda bottles depends on the bottle, it seems, with Diet Pepsi working best, lol. They are made in China, so maybe that’s why. For the money expended on it, I’m pretty happy with the watering system. I might try one with the bottle bottom intact, just to compare.
Wendy–If you didn’t cut the top off of the bottle (or at least make a hole) no water would flow out at all. Those must have been pretty small holes if the water didn’t all flow out at once. I’d be interested in knowing more details. Like how long did it take for your bottle to empty?
Wendy, I like the idea of catching the rain water
I cut the bottom of the bottle off and put holes in the cap, placing the bottle cap first into the soil. I didn’t measure the flow rate. I used a drill the first time to make holes and then perfected it by using an awl (I think) that my husband has. It kinda looks like a large nail. I put in about 3-4 holes in each cap. When I water, it doesn’t immediately drain in, but eventually does. What I like is that some of my containers are caged and I can just pour the water in the bottle from the top of the cage. I tried using the stakes I bought with a complete soda bottle (no bottom taken off) and the water immediately drained into the soil even though the soil was moist.
I don’t know if this would work for everyone or not, I just know that if my soil is already moist, the water doesn’t drip out. I got the idea from the You Grow Girl book.
I, too, was having major difficulty with using the bottle lid as the drip source. The water would just run out within a matter of minutes.
To offset this, what I did was trace an outline of the bottle cap onto a piece of newspaper that I had folded twice, and just cut out the shape (there will be four newspaper circles) and stuffed them into the inside of the bottle caps, making sure to keep them as flat as possible within the cap (very important), and screwed the caps onto the bottles to seal the newspaper cuttings in place.
These act as a regulator and prevent the water from free-flowing out of the bottle because the newspaper expands when they soakd up the water which forces the water to slow down.
After doing that, I didn’t have such an issue with free-flowing of water and they dripped as slow or fast I wanted them to by merely adding more or less newspaper cuttings.