Self-watering planter made from recycled bottles…clever clever.

Step 5: The cup

The cup is what the soil goes into and where the plants grow.

Roots do better in darkness than in light, so they need to be blocked from sunlight.

To do this, I’ve tried three different materials. I have used a piece of black plastic from a garbage bag, aluminum foil and newspaper. I have found that newspaper seems to work best since it is biodegradable and helps to retain moisture. It is also easy to remove from the cup for transplanting. Best of all, it’s the cheapest of the three since used newspaper can easily be obtained for no cost at all.

I put the light-blocking material all the way into the cup, trying to flatten it against the sides of the cup to increase the amount of soil that I can fit in later. Once it was in there nicely, I poked a hole in the bottom for the wick.