Thingiverse
Self Watering Herb Planter by moga
by Thingiverse
Last crawled date: 4 years, 3 months ago
There are a few self watering planters on thingiverse, but they do not fit the herbs I buy in supermarkets! If I want them replanted I have to go and find soil and make a mess of the sink/table.
Also I find the water indicators lacking in functionality (if there are any).
I've tried to create a set (range, if you will) of self watering planters sized to fit herbs plants you buy in stores (in Denmark) with a water gauge to make it easy to water the herbs just right.
I mainly see two sizes; the 'small' ones typically contain chives (purløg) or parsley (persille), and the 'normal' ones containing basil (basilikum) or organic herbs in general.
February 2018: Experience/lessons learned (after about a year of use)
Glue sucks - sometimes it doesn't bind properly and the bottom of the pot will come loose (e.g. while trying to clean the bottom of the pot) - I will be trying a twist-on approach.
Emptying the bottom of the pot from soil is difficult - it requires a tool and may cause it to come of the pot - the bottom has be removable.
Tilted bottom - it is not tilted enough to have an effect anyways - make the inside of the pot flat.
Pot corners are difficult to clean - the sharp edges makes it easy for soil to stay behind - round the corners of the pot.
Frequency of refill - once a plant reaches a surtain size it drinks enough water that that the reservoir has to be refilled daily - make a version with a larger reservoir.
Refill requires funnel - the refill hole is too small to resonably be filled without help - make refill/water gage hole bigger
Takes up space - when not in use the pots take up a lot of space as they do not stack - make pots slightly conical to make them stack
STL file names are relatively long - my print app will only show about 20 characters so the significant part of the name has to be within that number of characters - use "SWHP" has a prefix in stead of "Self-watering"
Use with Växer - I made variations of the pot to be used with my Växer system from IKEA - make a screw on-bottom that works as an adapter for the Växer holes to avoid having two types of pots
Also I find the water indicators lacking in functionality (if there are any).
I've tried to create a set (range, if you will) of self watering planters sized to fit herbs plants you buy in stores (in Denmark) with a water gauge to make it easy to water the herbs just right.
I mainly see two sizes; the 'small' ones typically contain chives (purløg) or parsley (persille), and the 'normal' ones containing basil (basilikum) or organic herbs in general.
February 2018: Experience/lessons learned (after about a year of use)
Glue sucks - sometimes it doesn't bind properly and the bottom of the pot will come loose (e.g. while trying to clean the bottom of the pot) - I will be trying a twist-on approach.
Emptying the bottom of the pot from soil is difficult - it requires a tool and may cause it to come of the pot - the bottom has be removable.
Tilted bottom - it is not tilted enough to have an effect anyways - make the inside of the pot flat.
Pot corners are difficult to clean - the sharp edges makes it easy for soil to stay behind - round the corners of the pot.
Frequency of refill - once a plant reaches a surtain size it drinks enough water that that the reservoir has to be refilled daily - make a version with a larger reservoir.
Refill requires funnel - the refill hole is too small to resonably be filled without help - make refill/water gage hole bigger
Takes up space - when not in use the pots take up a lot of space as they do not stack - make pots slightly conical to make them stack
STL file names are relatively long - my print app will only show about 20 characters so the significant part of the name has to be within that number of characters - use "SWHP" has a prefix in stead of "Self-watering"
Use with Växer - I made variations of the pot to be used with my Växer system from IKEA - make a screw on-bottom that works as an adapter for the Växer holes to avoid having two types of pots