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Meet GroBucket: Inexpensive Self-Watering Planter

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The most expensive part of container gardening is usually the container itself, and if you want a self-irrigating design for big plants, they can get really pricey. Here’s a new product called GroBucket that will change everything. It allows you to turn any 4-6 gallon bucket into a self-watering planter in minutes. The simplicity is beautiful!

The coolest thing about this self-watering planter:

GroBucket was designed to solve the #1 reason for weak plants and crop failure; It guards against incorrect watering using gravity and wicking. And it does so sustainably without getting complicated or costly. No electricity needed. Grow anything, anywhere, anytime… without wasting water. No need for weeding, and just what you need for off-grid gardening.

This setup makes it easy for anyone to grow food at home. A 5-gallon bucket is big enough for growing about any vegetable and small fruiting shrubs and trees. It will work for greens and herbs too, and if keeping flowers alive is an issue, GroBucket solves that problem too. Since each one takes up just 1 square foot of space, even a small balcony has room for several.

It’s pretty easy to find used food safe buckets this size that cost nothing at all – restaurants and bakeries throw them away all the time. If you can’t locate free buckets to reclaim, all big box hardware stores sell them for under $5 (make sure it’s food grade plastic). They’re rugged and durable, stack nicely for storage, and are deep enough to house a 1-gallon reservoir without hogging root space.

Self-Watering Planter

Don’t worry about the bucket color, it’s easily customized with paint. You can even hide them inside a fancy pot 😉 However, in reaching out to Brian and Kelvin with some questions, I learned they have designed an add-on to adapt the reservoir insert to any pretty container. It will be coming out after the retail launch, but you can always do it yourself using their patio pot hack. So, the inexpensive self-watering planter isn’t really limited to utility buckets, it was just designed for them initially.

The GroBucket insert is made from recycled materials. It was designed to ship multiple kits in a small box to ensure shipping costs wouldn’t cause the price to spike beyond reach for people on a tight budget who want to grow food. Currently in a very successful Kickstarter campaign, after filling pledge orders anyone will be able to buy GroBucket kits on Amazon. They will retail for $8.99 each, but cost less in multi-packs of 3, 10, and 25. They hope to have them in brick and mortar stores in the future, so don’t be surprised if you come across GroBucket self-watering planter kits at Menards, Lowes, or your favorite garden center.

The 10 and 25 count packs come with an irrigation system that also needs no electricity but automatically replenishes the water supply in the bottom of each connected GroBucket. No plant loss while you’re out of town! It even makes having fresh food waiting upon arrival at your weekend place feasible. The video below shows how it works and how easy it is to set up.

Self watering planterThere’s still time to grab early bird specials on Kickstarter. The campaign ends on June 10th, and they’ve already passed their production tooling cost funding goal by almost 50%. You can always keep tabs on their progress on their website and Facebook page. No doubt when they launch retail, a link to purchase these self-watering planter kits will be featured on both.

Images courtesy of GroBucket.

 

 

Read this article for 20 different DIY plant hanger ideas.

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Author

Tammy Clayton

Contributing Writer at Garden Culture Magazine

Tammy has been immersed in the world of plants and growing since her first job as an assistant weeder at the tender age of 8. Heavily influenced by a former life as a landscape designer and nursery owner, she swears good looking plants follow her home.